Vagrancy in the Victorian Age
Representing the Wandering Poor in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture

An interdisciplinary study of the rich Victorian taxonomy of vagrancy, and the concepts of poverty, mobility and homelessness it expressed.

Alistair Robinson (Author)

9781316519851, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 October 2021

228 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.55 kg

'… a first-rate account of the causes of poverty in the nineteenth century, the reasons for the rapid growth of London street life during this time, the blundering attempts to alleviate the misfortunes of the 'worthy' poor and the misguided urge to punish and reject those who were deemed unworthy … groundbreaking …' Ana Alicia Garza, The Times Literary Supplement

Vagrants were everywhere in Victorian culture. They wandered through novels and newspapers, photographs, poems and periodicals, oil paintings and illustrations. They appeared in a variety of forms in a variety of places: Gypsies and hawkers tramped the country, casual paupers and loafers lingered in the city, and vagabonds and beachcombers roved the colonial frontiers. Uncovering the rich Victorian taxonomy of nineteenth-century vagrancy for the first time, this interdisciplinary study examines how assumptions about class, gender, race and environment shaped a series of distinct vagrant types. At the same time it broaches new ground by demonstrating that rural and urban conceptions of vagrancy were repurposed in colonial contexts. Representational strategies circulated globally as well as locally, and were used to articulate shifting fantasies and anxieties about mobility, poverty and homelessness. These are traced through an extensive corpus of canonical, ephemeral and popular texts as well as a variety of visual forms.

Introduction
Part I. The Country
1. Gypsies, Hawkers and Handicraft Tramps
2. Poachers
Part II. The City
3. Casual Paupers
4. Loafers
Part III. The Frontier
5. Paupers, Vagabonds and American Indians
6. Beachcombers
Afterword: London 1902.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Literature & literary studies [D]