In her new book, What Alice Knew, Drexel University English professor Paula Marantz Cohen sics another historic figure on the trail of the notorious serial killer: novelist Henry James, joined by his psychologist brother William and invalid sister Alice.
The Ripper lore "is such a fascinating and enduring story," Cohen said. "It will never be solved, so it opens up so many areas for speculation and exploration."
Cohen and fellow Drexel professor Fred Abbate decided to delve into some of those areas by hosting an interdisciplinary conference, examining the Ripper from a wide array of perspectives. Just in time for Halloween, "Jack the Ripper Through a Wider Lens" invites a host of academics, criminologists, writers, artists and psychoanalysts to expound upon the legacy of "Saucy Jack" (to borrow the title of another homage, Spinal Tap's never-realized rock musical).
Speakers will include renowned Ripper experts such as Martin Fido, Drew D. Gray and Christopher T. George (co-writer of the real-life "Saucy Jack" equivalent, "Jack the Musical: The Ripper Pursued"); and psychoanalysts Jean Hantman, who will talk about the emotional, as opposed to physical, murder that happens in abusive families; and Mikita Brottman, who will discuss the graphic novel and film "From Hell."
Asked for the Ripper case's resonance with modern-day thinkers, Cohen rattled off a host of provocative themes. "There's the sexual aspect. There's the sense of Victorian England, a period when the whole notion of psychology was just taking off, when Freud was writing, so you can overlay it with all kinds of interesting psychological elements. The victims were prostitutes living in a very poor area, so you can think about social class and issues of class warfare.
