Cultures of darkness : night travels in the histories of transgression

Peasants, religious heretics, witches, pirates, runaway slaves, prostitutes and pornographers, frequenters of taverns and fraternal society lodge rooms, revolutionaries, blues and jazz musicians, beats, and contemporary youth gangs--those who defied authority, choosing to live outside the defining cultural dominions of early insurgent and, later, dominant capitalism are what Bryan D. Palmer calls people of the night. These lives of opposition, or otherness, were seen by the powerful as deviant, rejecting authority, and consequently threatening to the established order. Constructing a rich historical tapestry of example and experience spanning eight centuries, Palmer details lives of exclusion and challenge, as the "night travels" of the transgressors clash repeatedly with the powerful conventions of their times. Nights of liberation and exhilarating desire--sexual and social--are at the heart of this study. But so too are the dangers of darkness, as marginality is coerced into corners of pressured confinement, or the night is used as a cover for brutalizing terror, as was the case in Nazi Germany or the lynching of African Americans. Making extensive use of the interdisciplinary literature of marginality found in scholarly work in history, sociology, cultural studies, literature, anthropology, and politics, Palmer takes an unflinching look at the rise and transformation of capitalism as it was lived by the dispossessed and those stamped with the mark of otherness. Constructing A Rich Tapestry Of Example And Experience Spanning Eight Centuries, Palmer's Fascinating Account Details Lives Of Exclusion And Challenge, As The Night Travels Of The Transgressors Clash Repeatedly With The Powerful Conventions Of Their Times. Nights Of Liberation And Exhilarating Desire Are At The Heart Of This Study But So, Too, Are The Dangers Cloaked In Darkness. Palmer Reveals Those Hidden Spaces Where Darkness Concealed Acts Of Brutalizing Terror Or Alternately Provided Refuge, Solace, Or Freedom. Using The Night As Metaphor And Unifying Theme Palmer Takes An Unflinching Look At Those Dissident Or Oppositional Cultures And Movements And Shows How They Were Fueled And Shaped By The Rise And Transformation Of Capitalism. --publisher. A Walk On The Dark Side: The Metaphorical Night -- Class And Gender In The Dissolution: Of The Ancien Regime -- Blood, Bread, And Blasphemy: Peasant Nights -- Witches: Europe And America -- Marginality And The Age Of Revolution -- Libertines, Licentiousness, And Liberty: The Underworld Of Pornography's Political Beginnings -- Conspiracies Of The Night: Anglo-french Radicalism, Jacobinism, And The Age Of Revolution -- Monsters Of The Night: Historicizing Fantasy -- Exchange Relations, Empire's Underside, And Early Capitalism -- Productions Of The Night: Dark And Dangerous Labors -- Dark Continents: Empire And Race -- In The Shadow Of Empire: Pirates And Maroons -- The Transforming Power Of Capital -- Sociabilities Of The Night: Fraternalism And The Tavern -- Nights Of The Bomb Throwers: The Dangerous Classes Become Dangerous -- Working For The Devil: Dark Dimensions Of Exploitation -- Eroticism And Revolutions: The Pleasures And Dangers Of Difference -- Nights Of Leather And Lace: Transgressive Sexualities -- Festivals Of Revolution: Light Out Of Dark -- Decade Of Darkness: The Fascist Night -- Making Cultures In The Heart Of Capitalist Commodification -- Blues, Jazz, And Jookin': Nights Of Soul And Swing -- A Walk On The Wild Side: Bohemia And The Beats -- Noir: The Cultural Politics Of Darkness -- Race And Capitalist Crisis -- Nights Of Accumulation: Banditry, Mafias, And The Contemporary Spirit Of Capitalism -- The Implosion Of The City: Nights Of Race Rage And Riot -- Dark Cultures And The Politics Of Transgression/transformation. Bryan D. Palmer. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Peasants, religious heretics, witches, pirates, runaway slaves, prostitutes and pornographers, frequenters of taverns and fraternal society lodge rooms, revolutionaries, blues and jazz musicians, beats, and contemporary youth gangs -- those who defied authority, choosing to live outside the defining cultural dominions of early insurgent and, later, dominant capitalism are what Bryan D. Palmer calls people of the night. These lives of opposition, or otherness, were seen by the powerful as deviant, rejecting authority, and consequently threatening to the established order.Constructing a rich historical tapestry of example and experience spanning eight centuries, Palmer details lives of exclusion and challenge, as the "night travels" of the transgressors clash repeatedly with the powerful conventions of their times. Nights of liberation and exhilarating desire -- sexual and social -- are at the heart of this study. But so too are the dangers of darkness, as marginality is coerced into corners of pressured confinement, or the night is used as a cover for brutalizing terror, as was the case in Nazi Germany or the lynching of African Americans.Making extensive use of the interdisciplinary literature of marginality found in scholarly work in history, sociology, cultural studies, literature, anthropology, and politics, Palmer takes an unflinching look at the rise and transformation of capitalism as it was lived by the dispossessed and those stamped with the mark of otherness.