Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterley's Lover as Social Problems: The "Natural History" of Immoral Novels

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Abstract
The “careers” of the charges of obscenity formulated against Madame Bovary and Lady Chatterley are compared, in order to identify the dual aspect of the concept of natural history as it applies to the study of social problems. At a microlevel, natural history refers to the variable outcome of the negotiations which take place between the initial claimants, the relevant public agencies and the individuals accused of wrongdoing. At a macrolevel, natural history refers to the variability of the generic concepts on which the case made against a specific statement or “condition” is based. Correspondingly, the natural history of social problems requires an examination of the dialetic interaction between the generic aspects of their “careers” and the variable development of each specific instance where the reprehensible condition is evoked.

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