Graduate Studies

MPhil in European Literature & Culture | Course content | Modules | SP Wrongdoing - Realities, concepts and representations of Wrongdoing in Spain, 13c to 20c

MPhil in European Literature & Culture

Spanish | SP Wrongdoing

Realities, concepts and representations of Wrongdoing in Spain, 13c to 20c
(Convenor: Professor Alison Sinclair)

The term wrongdoing is used to encompass a broad range. It is more than what is found to be criminal by legislation, and covers what is 'morally unjust, unfair, amiss or improper; the opposite or right or justice; the negation of equity, goodness or rectitude'. Wrongdoing suggests actions, perpetrators, and a spectrum of intention or awareness. It denotes deviation from equity, justice or goodness, and from integrity, rectitude or probity. It is thus a profoundly moral concept, the arbiters of which may come from a variety of disciplines or communities, as well as referring to wrongs covered by the law. Modern English 'malfeasance' covers evildoing and illegal acts, particularly misconduct by officials and public servants.

Wrongdoing does not refer only to single acts of wronging, but rather the activity of committing a wrong. This renders its translation into modern Spanish problematic: between the options of 'mal', 'maldad' or 'mala acción' none is a precise fit. The terms 'malfecho' (bad or evil deed, misdeed), 'malfechor' (evildoer, criminal), 'malfetría' (evildoer, bandit) were in usage in the Middle Ages to describe a range of actions, including those contrary to legislation and customary practice. In later periods specific distinctions would develop to encompass ideas of insanity and delinquency.

There are two main strands to the module: the conceptual and the representational:
Conceptual. Within the conceptual the intention is to allow for the tracking of concepts of wrongdoing through a number of discourses, both elite and popular. These may include: philosophy, sociology, medicine (including psychiatry), the law, criminology, education, morality, religion. It embraces the changing boundaries between the actors of wrongdoing (perpetrators, victims, judges, witnesses) and pays particular attention to areas of contestation such as domestic wrongdoing and violence, sexual wrongdoing, juvenile criminality and delinquency.
Representational. Within the representational the critical assumption is that the relationship between social phenomena and their cultural representations is more telling in the gaps and discrepancies than in the level of representational veracity. There are a number of possible points of departure including the eccentricities, partialities and vagaries of human perception and judgement in the memory and reporting of crime and in the representation of acts prohibited by law or custom.

Areas of enquiry
The following are examples of questions that could be explored within the module

• How far is fictional writing used to promote distinctive imaginaries of transgression?
• How far is fiction the medium for examining or questioning imaginaries of transgression?
• What are the boundaries of identity, agency and responsibility that change over time in relation to transgression?
• Which aspects of wrongdoing are subject to legislation, social convention, religious dogma or other structures, and which are possibly at odds with one another?

Bibliography
Foucault, Moi, Pierre Rivière(1973)
Bernaldo de Quirós, C. and J. Llanas Aguilaniedo (1901). La mala vida en Madrid. Madrid, Rodríguez Serra.
Navarro Fernández, A. (1909). La prostituci�n en la Villa de Madrid: La mujer, defendida por la Sociología, el Derecho y la Moral. Madrid, Imp. de Ricardo Rojas.
Wilson, Edward M. and Kathleen Kish, 'Some Spanish Dick Turpins, or Bad Men in Bad Ballads', Hispanic Review, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Spring, 1984), pp. 141-162
Ríos-Font, Wadda (2005). 'El crimen de la calle de San Vicente: Crime Writing and Bourgeois Liberalism in Restoration Spain', MLN 120.2 (2005) 335-354
Álvarez-Uria, F. (1983). Miserables y locos: medicina mental y orden social en la España del siglo XIX. Barcelona, Tusquets.

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