French Literature Reviews - 2026
Vincent Platini, Demons of Crime: The Power of the Gangster in the Interwar Period
History, Politics and Society
Overview:
During the interwar period, ambiguous figures of criminals emerged in literature. This book examines the discourses at play in the construction of characters who transgress societal norms. The public reappropriates these figures, transforming them into vehicles for new cultural practices.
Keywords: Michel Foucault, 20th century, popular literature, crime fiction, film noir, gangster film, crime, criminal, violence, discipline
Table of Contents
Introduction
Gangsters: Marginal Figures Serving Norms? 7
PART ONE
THE ORIGINS OF THE GANGSTER: HIS EXECUTION
The Executed Gangster
Deterrence, Contestation, and Indecency 61
A Deterrent Punishment 62
Annihilating the Criminal 62
Displaying the Punishment 67
Death Behind the Scenes 71
The Erasure of Capital Punishment: A Historical Reminder 71
The Ambivalent Interpretation: Rewriting the Execution 77
The Evolution of Sensibilities and the “Civilization”
of Execution 88
How to Kill a Gangster? 99
A Justified Death: Populist Discourses and Tragic Ends 100
The Criminal Executioner: Execution as a Settling
of Scores 113
From Deterrence to Indecent Spectacle 126
Figures and Consumptions of Violence 129
An Anachronistic Violence? 131
War and the Gangster 131
Violence and Civilization 139
Mass Death: The Spectacle of Execution
in the Era of Cultural Industry 155
Pleasure, Punishment, and Justification of the Indecent Spectacle 155
De-dramatization of Death: Repetition and Lightness 164
Satisfaction and Disappointment of Spectator Expectations
in Die Dreigroschenoper and Angels with Dirty Faces 175
The Vanity of Execution? 183
PART TWO
IDENTIFICATIONS AND CONTROLS OF GANGSTERS
Being a Gangster, in Theories 189
The Voluntary Gangster 190
Crime as Evaluation and Decision 191
The Debacle of Will 198
Medical Theses: The Pathological Gangster 202
Biological Theses: The Deviant Body 203
Psychiatric Theses and the Gangster's Childhood 219
Environmental Theses: From Dangerous Classes
to Criminal Sociology 233
A Deleterious Environment 233
Limits of Determinism: Individuality
and Stepping Outside the Framework 246
The Accumulation of Theses and the Absolute Criminal 253
The Gangster and the Society of Control
A Collaboration 263
Corrupt Institutions, Renewed Powers 265
Extrajudicial Institutions 266
Failure of Correctional Detention 271
Justice and Police 279
The Emergence of a New Power? 287
Tightened Controls for Omnipresent Gangsters 295
Scientific Identification and Invisibility 296
Homogeneous Network and Delinquency Circumscription 309
Towards Other Escapes 318
The Eclipse of the Gangster 325
Police Crackdowns 326
The Disappearance of the Gangster? 336
Limits of Discipline 346
PART THREE
RENEWALS AND REUSES
Between the Lines of Control
Other Expressions of Gangsterism 351
Disorganized Criminality and Unreasonable Investigations 352
Critiques of Reason 353
Irrational Investigations 361
Lying Press or Authentic Literatures? 373
Journalistic Lies 374
Fictional Truths?
Subjective Visions of the Underworld 382
Gangster Expressions 389
The Silences of the Underworld 390
Invention(s) of Popular Language 405
Writing Initiatives and Biased Confessions 427
Conclusion: Uses on the Margins of Discourses? 434
Living with Gangsterism 437
Ways of Reading, Ways of Seeing 438
Gangsters in Society: Upheavals of Values
and Hierarchies 449
The Overturning of Social Hierarchies 450
Be Somebody: Conspicuous Consumption
and Leisure Society 460
Men for Women: Sexual Consumption,
Repression, and Emancipation 479
Preservation of Traditional Female Roles 481
Emancipated Women, Criminal Women:
Masculine Repression and Affirmation 487
A Controlled Emancipation 496
The Gangster Community:
Xenophobia and National Identities 500
The Other, the Enemy 501
The Underworld, a Community Tool 518
The Demons of Freedom? 531
Bibliography 541
Author Index 573
Index of Cited Works 577
During the interwar period, popular literature and media frequently engaged with figures of transgression and criminality. Studies in cultural history often examine how societies represent marginal individuals and how audiences interact with these portrayals. Vincent Platini examines the discourses at play in the construction of characters who transgress societal norms during this era. The volume addresses how the public reappropriates these figures, transforming them into vehicles for new cultural practices, while exploring themes related to crime fiction, discipline, and violence within twentieth-century culture.
Readers interested in the cultural history of popular literature, crime fiction, and the representation of criminality in the interwar period may find this book relevant. The discussion touches upon broader intellectual frameworks associated with Michel Foucault, looking at how disciplinary power, societal norms, and institutional controls intersect with the imagery of the gangster in modern media.