CRITICAL CRIMINOLOGY AND LITERARY CRITICISM

Rafe McGregor

ABSTRACT: This book aims to establish a new methodology for critical criminology and, in

so doing, to provide a model for collaboration between critical criminologists and literary

critics that can be extended to other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The

case is made for this methodology, which I refer to as criminological criticism, by deploying

and developing two concepts. First, fourfold allegories as a particularly complex type of

narrative that has aetiological value in holding up both a mirror and a microscope to late

modern life. Second, the fictional mode of presentation as a form of testimony that shares

many of the features of non-fictional testimony, in consequence of which they are always in

and of the world and have the capacity to represent reality in detail and with accuracy. The

value of criminological criticism is demonstrated by means of the interpretation and

appreciation of three popular allegories, which provide insight into the causes of sexism,

racism, and class-based prejudice respectively: George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015),

Prime Video’s Carnival Row (2019), and J.K. Rowling’s (2013) The Cuckoo’s Calling. As a

methodology, criminological criticism not only maximises the synergy between critical

criminology and literary criticism, but produces research that constitutes an actual

intervention in social reality and has the potential to change people’s lives for the better.

KEY WORDS: allegory, critical criminology, fiction, literary criticism, social justice,

zemiology

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Chapter 1: Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is threefold, to provide: a brief rationale, a brief literature review,

and an extended abstract of the remainder of the book. The rationale focuses on the extent to

which most literary criticism and much critical criminology has little impact on social reality

and the need to change this. The literature review presents a summary of the only three

sustained criminological engagements with fiction to date: Vincenzo Ruggiero’s (2003)

Crime in Literature: Sociology of Deviance and Fiction, Jon Frauley’s (2010) Criminology,

Deviance, and the Silver Screen: The Fictional Reality and the Criminological Imagination,

and my own (McGregor 2021a) A Criminology of Narrative Fiction. I conclude by setting out

the structure of the book, which first introduces criminological criticism, then provides three

examples of criminological criticism in practice, and finally explains how critical

criminology and literary studies can collaborate to produce genuine interventions in social

reality.

Chapter 2: Criminological Criticism

The purpose of this chapter is to propose a new method for critical criminology, which is

called criminological criticism. I begin by defining a complex narrative as the product of an

agent that is high in narrativity in virtue of representing one or more agents and two or more

events that are causally connected, thematically unified, and conclude. I then summarise

Fredric Jameson’s (2019) model of fourfold allegory in which the literal, symbolic,

existential, and anthropic meanings interact such that the meaning of the work is more than

the sum of the meanings of its representational levels. I explain how the standard practices of

interpretation and appreciation, which approach the work as an object, are mutually

complementary. The determination of the meanings and realisation of the values of the

representational capacity of allegories does not exhaust their cognitive, ethical, and political

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dimensions, however, and the works must also be approached as acts in order to interpret and

appreciate their extra-representational capacity. I draw attention to the complexity of this

capacity and suggest that it must be explored and articulated on a case-by-case basis.

Chapter 3: The Critical Sociology of Mad Max: Fury Road

The purpose of this chapter is to practice criminological criticism on George Miller’s Mad

Max: Fury Road (2015) in order to disclose the feature film’s insight into the causes of the

harms associated with sexism. The film is an action thriller set in a dystopian future where

the Earth’s ecosystem and human civilisation have collapsed. Interpreted and appreciated as

an object, Mad Max resists hegemonic masculinity, provides a model of gender cooperation,

and imagines the possibility of feminist statehood at its symbolic, existential, and anthropic

levels of meaning respectively. Interpreted and appreciated as an act, the film is a demand

for the urgency and desirability of radical feminist governance as proposed by Angela Davis

(1981, 1989), who argued that social transformation should be led by the most marginalised

in society. As such, Mad Max demonstrates the relationships among feminist resistance,

gender cooperation, feminist statehood, and radical feminist revolution, making a substantial

contribution to critical sociology.

Chapter 4: The Urban Zemiology of Carnival Row

The purpose of this chapter is to practice criminological criticism on Prime Video’s Carnival

Row (2019) in order to disclose the television series’ insight into the causes of the harms

associated with racism. The series is an urban fantasy in which human beings and mythical

creatures coexist and combines elements of both the postcolonial epic and murder mystery

genres. Interpreted and appreciated as an object, Carnival Row discloses the relationships

among the harms of racism, alienation, and decivilisation at its symbolic, existential, and

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anthropic levels of meaning. Interpreted and appreciated as an act, the series exemplifies the

instability of democracy and its vulnerability to what Gareth Millington (2011) refers to as

urban revanchism, a process in which the urban centre is reclaimed by the wealthy, White

population. As such, Carnival Row demonstrates the causal effects of racism, alienation, and

decivilisation on urban revanchism, making a substantial contribution to urban zemiology.

Chapter 5: The Cultural Criminology of The Cuckoo’s Calling

The purpose of this chapter is to practice criminological criticism on J.K Rowling’s The

Cuckoo’s Calling (2013) in order to disclose the novel’s insight into the causes of the harms

associated with elitism (class-based prejudice). The novel is a murder mystery set in

contemporary London written in the style of a hardboiled detective story. Interpreted and

appreciated as an object, The Cuckoo’s Calling provides convincing explanations of the

constituents of class condition, the psychological impact of celebrity culture, and the harm of

elitism at its symbolic, existential, and anthropic levels respectively. Interpreted and

appreciated as an act, the novel rejects the conception of celebrity culture as a social

equaliser, deploying a similar model of mass media critique to Stuart Hall and his colleagues’

critique of the mass media’s complicity in racism in 1978. As such, The Cuckoo’s Calling

illuminates the connections among media capital, mediated culture, prejudice, and the

celebration of elitism, making a substantial contribution to cultural criminology.

Chapter 6: Critical Criminological Methodology

The purpose of this chapter is to expand the method of criminological criticism into a fully-

fledged methodology. The main challenge to meet with respect to deploying criminological

criticism as a method for critical criminology is the distance between the causes of harm as

represented in fiction and those same causes as they exist in reality. I use Iris Vidmar

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Jovanović’s (2019) theory of literary philosophy to identify two criteria for the validity of

allegorical criminology: first, the knowledge provided must be knowledge of reality, not just

knowledge of the fiction (epistemic criterion); and second, the knowledge must be extracted

from the fiction not imposed upon it (aesthetic criterion). Vidmar Jovanović’s theory is

underpinned by her principles of fictional testimony: the fictional mode of presentation is a

form of testimony that shares many of the features of non-fictional testimony, in consequence

of which fictions are always in and of the world and have the capacity to represent reality in

detail and with accuracy. If allegories are conceived as fictional testimony, they have the

potential to provide insight into, arguments for, hypotheses about, and theories of, harm

causation.

Chapter 7: Interdisciplinary Interventions

The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how the criminological critical methodology

established in the previous chapter can be used to produce actual interventions in social

reality. I propose a model of collaboration between critical criminologists and literary critics

that sets out three distinct roles for each, for the purpose of maximising the synergy between

the two disciplines. The criminological critic must first abstract the insights of the allegory,

then assess the extent of their scope, and finally articulate the abstractions in critical

criminological terminology. The critical criminologist must first determine the originality of

the insights, then assess whether the insights can be tested, and finally conduct the test or set

of tests necessary to falsify or confirm the insights. If the argument, hypothesis, or theory

abstracted from the allegory is confirmed, then it becomes indistinguishable from other

criminological arguments, hypotheses, and theories and enters the public arena, where it has

the potential to inform government initiatives, be translated into policy, or implemented in

criminal justice or social activist practice. I conclude with the suggestion that this model can

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be extended beyond criminology and literary studies to other disciplines in the social sciences

and humanities.

Chapter 8: Conclusion

The purpose of this chapter is to reflect on the development of the argument for a new critical

criminological methodology in the previous seven chapters. The chapter opens with a

summary of criminological criticism, defined as the employment of allegories for the purpose

of explaining the causes of harm and social injustice with the intention that the critical

practice will constitute an intervention in that harm and injustice. Next, I revisit the insights

into the causes of sexism, racism, and elitism (class-based prejudice) provided by practicing

criminological criticism on George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Prime Video’s

Carnival Row (2019), and J.K. Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling (2013) respectively. The

chapter then summarises the expansion of criminological criticism from a critical

criminological method to a critical criminological methodology to a model for collaboration

between the humanities and social sciences. I conclude by reaffirming the value of

criminological criticism in contributing to the actual reduction of harm and social injustice.