Vagrancy, Vice, and Victimhood: The Evolution of Homeless Persecution

Abstract

Through the examination of how urban space is constructed, one can see how the city testifies to the ways that history and memory come to shape human experience and the vocabularies with which it is understood and remembered. This paper will diverge from contemporary discussions of history and memory through an investigation of the roles of affect and social location have in shaping how the city is thought of and remembered differently. It will compare historical constructions of city folk in an attempt to understand the role of hegemonic social, economic, and political conditions in the construction of “history.” This paper draws on the work of affective communication theory, and analyzes how memory is impacted by homeless erasure through the lenses of discourse, spatiality, and performance. This paper will conclude by using Jacques Derrida’s conception of hauntology to prove that affect comes to inform all parts of the memory-making process, and argue that remaining attune to the keenly-felt absences of historical memories often bequeaths entirely new counter-histories of their own.