Making of the Other Half : Jacob A Riis & the New Image of Tenement Poverty

Dag Petersson

ISBN 10: 8771241647 / ISBN 13: 9788771241648

Editore: Aarhus University Press Jul 2015, 2015

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Neuware - The Making of The Other Half introduces a new theoretical approach to the study of Jacob A. Riis, the Danish-born photographer and reporter, who revolutionized the American tenement reform movement on the eve of the 19th century. Dag Petersson proposes a tailored mode of analysis, Discourse Mutation Theory, capable of probing into the shifting perceptions of immigration and tenement poverty that thanks to Riis's work gained a foothold across America. This sweeping change was an epistemic event sparked by the publication of How the Other Half Lives in 1890. In this seminal book, and in countless reform publications and illustrated lectures, Riis presented the Other Half as a destitute population to be otherwise perceived, understood and helped toward prosperity. Riis's primary contributions to the reform movement was the establishment of a new charity object: the truth about the Other Half. Petersson raises original questions about its unveiling and proposes an alternative mode of inquiry as well a reorientation of empirical research. The Making of The Other Half pays particular attention to the surge of reform movements in Copenhagen during Riis's residence in the city prior to his emigration to America. The discursive migration that took place along with Riss's journey from Copenhagen to New York is crucial for understanding the subsequent mutation event. By recognizing this parallel migration, a new history of Riis's work is revealed, and a new dimension of the Other Half opens up.

Codice articolo 9788771241648

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Making of the Other Half : Jacob A Riis & the New Image of Tenement Poverty
• Editore: Aarhus University Press Jul 2015
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 8771241647
• ISBN 13: 9788771241648
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 246 L x 181 A x 26 P (millimetri) 246 millimetri di larghezza per 181 millimetri di altezza per 26 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 968 grammi

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Jacob A. Riis, a young ambitious police reporter for the New York Tribune, closely documented the poverty stricken world of crime and misfortune that infiltrated New York City at the end of the 19th Century. At the time, Riis was known for his prolific writing; now however, he is considered one of the fathers of photography, with an increasing rise of interest in his work. Riis identified with the socially immobilised day workers, the unemployed, the homeless, the prostitutes and the criminal gangs, all conditioned through his concept of The Other Half--an ideological system based on individual, domestic and social conditions. Dag Petersson has a twofold aim and focus; on the one hand, he presents a thorough and well-researched monograph on the work of Jacob A. Riis, giving a detailed account of his writings, his photographic oeuvre and his ideas. On the other hand, the book is an ambitious attempt at mapping a series of discursive transformations that pave the way for a subsequently dominant mode of thinking about urban pauperization in the twentieth century.