{"title":"\"A Jury ye young fools is nothing. What's to be done with Public Opinion!\": True Crime, Individual Responsibility, and Two Averys on Trial","authors":"Kassie Jo Baron","doi":"10.1353/mml.2022.a924152","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Abstract:</p><p>Articles from <i>BBC, Times</i>, and <i>Rolling Stone</i> have commented on the recent rise of the true crime genre in the United States; however, interest in crime and criminality is anything but new. Nineteenth-century public interest in crime drove the press, leading to an explosion of printed material. Textile operative Sarah Maria Cornell's 1832 murder by Methodist minister Ephraim K. Avery was a media sensation that brought together readers in industrial New England and led to journalistic investigations, broadsides, lithographs, a touring show of wax figures, and a threat on P. T. Barnum's life. Those following the case became invested in understanding the lives and motivations of both victim and perpetrator, as the genre's subjective interpretation of objective facts was used to influence consumers' responses. Today, the fascination with the murder of young white women is reproduced in the United States by binge consumption of both serialized and episodic investigations in podcasts and mini-series. The investigation and trial of Steven Avery for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach drew international interest after the release of Netflix's <i>Making a Murderer</i> in 2015. The popularity of true crime relies on a perennial fascination with violence, a desire to avoid a similar fate, and the sense of community created between fellow consumers. Connecting coverage of the nineteenth-century Ephraim K. Avery with that of today's Steven Avery reveals that true crime media's obsessive focus on white female victims perpetuates an emphasis on personal responsibility that hides systemic violence.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/mml.2022.a924152","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:
Articles from BBC, Times, and Rolling Stone have commented on the recent rise of the true crime genre in the United States; however, interest in crime and criminality is anything but new. Nineteenth-century public interest in crime drove the press, leading to an explosion of printed material. Textile operative Sarah Maria Cornell's 1832 murder by Methodist minister Ephraim K. Avery was a media sensation that brought together readers in industrial New England and led to journalistic investigations, broadsides, lithographs, a touring show of wax figures, and a threat on P. T. Barnum's life. Those following the case became invested in understanding the lives and motivations of both victim and perpetrator, as the genre's subjective interpretation of objective facts was used to influence consumers' responses. Today, the fascination with the murder of young white women is reproduced in the United States by binge consumption of both serialized and episodic investigations in podcasts and mini-series. The investigation and trial of Steven Avery for the 2005 murder of Teresa Halbach drew international interest after the release of Netflix's Making a Murderer in 2015. The popularity of true crime relies on a perennial fascination with violence, a desire to avoid a similar fate, and the sense of community created between fellow consumers. Connecting coverage of the nineteenth-century Ephraim K. Avery with that of today's Steven Avery reveals that true crime media's obsessive focus on white female victims perpetuates an emphasis on personal responsibility that hides systemic violence.
摘要:英国广播公司(BBC)、《泰晤士报》和《滚石》杂志的文章评论了最近真实犯罪类型在美国的兴起;然而,人们对犯罪和刑事犯罪的兴趣并不新鲜。十九世纪公众对犯罪的兴趣推动了新闻界的发展,导致了印刷材料的爆炸式增长。1832 年,纺织女工莎拉-玛丽亚-康奈尔(Sarah Maria Cornell)被卫理公会牧师埃弗拉伊姆-K-艾弗里(Ephraim K. Avery)谋杀的事件在媒体上引起轰动,聚集了新英格兰工业区的读者,并引发了新闻调查、大字报、版画、蜡像巡回展览以及对 P. T. 巴纳姆的生命威胁。关注此案的人们开始投入到对受害者和犯罪者的生活和动机的了解中,因为这种体裁对客观事实的主观解读被用来影响消费者的反应。如今,在美国,人们通过播客和迷你剧集狂热消费连续剧和插曲式调查,再现了对年轻白人女性谋杀案的痴迷。2015年,Netflix的《制造杀人犯》(Making a Murderer)上映后,史蒂文-艾弗里(Steven Avery)在2005年谋杀特蕾莎-哈尔巴赫(Teresa Halbach)一案的调查和审判引起了国际关注。真实犯罪的流行依赖于人们对暴力的长期迷恋、对避免类似命运的渴望以及同类消费者之间产生的群体感。将十九世纪的埃弗拉姆-K-艾弗里(Ephraim K. Avery)和今天的史蒂文-艾弗里(Steven Avery)的报道联系起来,可以发现真实犯罪媒体对白人女性受害者的痴迷关注,延续了对个人责任的强调,掩盖了系统性的暴力。
期刊介绍:
The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association publishes articles on literature, literary theory, pedagogy, and the state of the profession written by M/MLA members. One issue each year is devoted to the informal theme of the recent convention and is guest-edited by the year"s M/MLA president. This issue presents a cluster of essays on a topic of broad interest to scholars of modern literatures and languages. The other issue invites the contributions of members on topics of their choosing and demonstrates the wide range of interests represented in the association. Each issue also includes book reviews written by members on recent scholarship.