Scandal and Infamy

Caitlin Sturrock; Agnes Fanning

Scandal and Infamy

Edited by Caitlin Sturrock and Agnes Fanning

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MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities 20

Modern Humanities Research Association

11 December 2025

Open Access with doi: 10.59860/wph.i380156

On 2nd December 1814, Donatien Alphonse François, the Marquis de Sade, died in the insane asylum, Charenton, on the outskirts of Paris. Imprisoned for just under thirty years, burned in effigy, and immortalised by the term ‘sadism’, he was as infamous for his personal life as he was for the libertine novels he wrote. Taking inspiration from this author, this issue of Working Papers in the Humanities aims to examine the traces of infamy and scandal on and in literary works.

Scandal brings the private into public view; infamy commits it to memory. These interrelated markers of notoriety taint both the public life and the literary works of an individual, calling into question the boundaries of morality and acceptability. Their role in literature can be interpreted in many ways: how scandal and infamy are narrated and represented as well as their influence on the constructions and legacies of literary works.

See news item: Call for Papers - Working Papers 20, Scandal and Infamy (18 November 2024)

Contents:

1-61	Scandal and Infamy Caitlin Sturrock, Agnes Fanning Complete volume as single PDF	Read

1-4	Introduction: Scandal and Infamy Caitlin Sturrock, Agnes Fanning doi:10.59860/wph.a48f59d	Read Cite
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5-13	The Scandal of Queerness in À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27): ‘Une élégante infraction’ Adam Husain doi:10.59860/wph.a59e9da	Read Cite
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14-24	Nice Characters Finish Last: BoJack Horseman, Tyler Durden, and the Poetics of Negative Empathy Francesca De Agnoi doi:10.59860/wph.a695781	Read Cite
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25-33	Scratching Beneath the Surface of the boom economico: Censorship and Scandal in Giovanni Testori and Luchino Visconti John Colin Marston doi:10.59860/wph.a6b0988	Read Cite
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34-41	Of Scandal and Perdition: Seductresses and Fallen Women in Annie Vivanti’s Marion artista di caffè-concerto (1891) Bianca Rita Cataldi doi:10.59860/wph.a7bfd6b	Read Cite
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42-51	‘What have we come to that the wife of an English clergyman has to [...] explain things to our Cabinet Ministers!’: Sonia E. Howe’s Private Diplomacy (1906–17) Anna Maslenova doi:10.59860/wph.a8cf1b2	Read Cite
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52-61	‘Human Stain at Heinrich Heine University, Germany’: Patterns of Gossip and the Negotiation of Identity in Mithu Sanyal’s Identitti (2021) Clara Busch doi:10.59860/wph.a054b91	Read Cite
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Cite this volume in standard MHRA style

Bibliography entry:

Sturrock, Caitlin, and Agnes Fanning (eds), Scandal and Infamy (= MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, 20 (2025)) <https://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/wph-20> [accessed 15 January 2026]

First footnote reference: ³⁵ Scandal and Infamy, ed. by Caitlin Sturrock and Agnes Fanning (= MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, 20 (2025)) <https://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/wph-20> [accessed 15 January 2026], p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: ³⁷ Sturrock and Fanning, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Cite this volume in MHRA author-date style

Bibliography entry:

Sturrock, Caitlin, and Agnes Fanning (eds). 2025. Scandal and Infamy (= MHRA Working Papers in the Humanities, 20) <https://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/wph-20> [accessed 15 January 2026]

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Sturrock and Fanning 2025: 21).

Example footnote reference: ³⁵ Sturrock and Fanning 2025: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Permanent link to this title:

www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Scandal-Infamy
www.mhra.org.uk/publications/wph-20