The Shadow of the Ripper: The Evolution of the Ripper Mythology

The Shadow of the Ripper: The Evolution of the Ripper Mythology

Author Alan Moore, in his graphic novel From Hell, claimed that the Ripper “mirrors our hysterias. Faceless, he is the receptacle for each new social panic”.1 It is this flexibility that has seen the figure of the Ripper elevated to something of a mythical status in the public eye, with his notoriety arguably outgrowing the very context from which he was born.

However, while the Ripper figure has been acknowledged as an evolving and transformative figure in Neo-Victorian fiction, like Moore’s, little has been made of the connection between fictional portrayals of the Ripper and the community of non-fiction writers who speculate about the identity of the Ripper. Scholarship has distanced this community, better known by the label ‘Ripperology’, from fictional representations of the Ripper and Neo-Victorianism in general. The problem with this distancing is that it does not acknowledge the fact that Ripperology texts reimagine and reconstruct the Victorian age through the figure of their prospective Rippers. As a result, Ripperology can be classified under the umbrella of NeoVictorian literature. By bringing together analysis of fictional and Ripperologist texts, the thesis examines how the community of Ripperology responds to and reflects contemporary anxieties,as do fictional representations of the Ripper. It also explores the symbiotic relationship between the fictional portrayals of the Ripper on one hand, and the community of Ripperologists who seek to bring him to some semblance of justice.

This thesis therefore examines a range of Ripper texts as forms of neo-Victorian fiction, demonstrating how they have contributed to the evolution of the Ripper figure, from the earliest reports of the crimes of 1888, to more recent texts in newer mediums and methodologies. By using this approach, the thesis will be able to show how the narratives surrounding the Ripper figure, which have been conjured in both Ripperology and fictional portrayals of the Ripper, have also shaped our understanding of the Victorian era.

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