In this hermeneutic analysis of seven literary texts, Stephanie Barbe Hammer studies the roles of criminal protagonists in the dramas of George Lillo "(The London Merchant) "and Friedrich Schiller "(The Robbers) "and in the narratives of Abbe de Prevost "(Manon Lescaut), "Henry Fielding "(Jonathan Wild), "Marquis de Sade "(Justine), "William Godwin "(Caleb Williams), "and Heinrich von Kleist "(Michael Kohlhaas)."

Hammer reflects the current interest in cultural critique by utilizing the social theories of Michel Foucault and the feminist approaches of Helene Cixous and Eve Sedgwick to...