Social observation in early commercial print media. Towards a genealogy of the social sketch (ca. 1820–1860)

Bibliographic Data

ID20162758
AuthorsChristiane Schwab (0000-0002-6459-2071, Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume29
Issue2
Pages204-232
Publication date2018-03-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistory and Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0275-7206 • E-ISSN: 1477-2612
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02757206.2017.1375488
OpenAlexW2756071906
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited33

Nineteenth-century journalism has rarely been an object of attention in the humanities and social sciences – despite its political and cultural significance and its documental value. This article explores the verbal-visual social sketch, as it has evolved as a journalistic genre on the expanding market of periodicals in early nineteenth-century Europe. The social sketches (often referred to as ‘panoramic literature’) provide rich ethnographic micro-analysis and often relate to debates held by statisticians, moralists, folklorists, and ethnologists. This article, rather than providing a close reading analysis of selected texts, attempts to trace a genealogy of the sketch of society from a history of knowledge perspective. After placing the consolidation of the social sketch within its socio-medial contexts, the article considers various literary and epistemic ‘regimes’ that have preconditioned and influenced the evolution of this verbal-visual genre of social observation and formulates cross-genre and interdisciplinary perspectives on the refinement and institutionalization of social inquiry throughout the nineteenth century

Aesthetics · Art · Institutionalisation · Journalism · Linguistics · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sketch · Sociology · Visual arts · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy

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