The Victorian Criminal Underworld and the Musical Carnivalesque

Abstract

This article sets out to explore how a neo-Victorian fascination for re-imagining the grotesque ‘Other’ of a Victorian criminal underworld is framed by the dual nature of the carnivalesque. I argue that, as utopian and dystopian musical screen adaptations of Victorian urban gothic realism, Lionel Bart’s Oliver! and Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd demonstrate a shift in the cultural evaluation of a carnival aesthetic that is inter-dependent on conflicting ideas of communal integration and social inequality. I explore why post-war celebrations of Dickensian carnival joy and communal harmony are challenged by dark parodies that amplify a horrific excess symbolising the return of the repressed, as well as a hybrid excess, signalling the gluttony of neo-Victorian indulgence.