Drawing on traditional archival research, reception theory, cultural histories of slumming, and recent work in critical theory on literary representations of poverty, Westgate argues that the productions of slum plays served as enactments of the emergent definitions of the slum and the corresponding ethical obligations involved therein.

J. Chris Westgate is Associate Professor in the Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics at California State University, Fullerton, USA.

Introduction: Darnton's Lament PART I: MODES OF STAGING THE SLUMS 1. "Strange Things" from the Bowery: The Tourism Narrative in Slum Plays 2. "What the Poor of this Great City Must Endure": The Sociological Narrative in Slum Plays PART III: SLUMMING DESTINATIONS ON STAGE 3. The Courage to See the Sights of the Tenement 4. The Spectacle of Immigrant Neighborhoods 5. Touring the Red Lights District PART III: CASE STUDIES IN SLUM PLAYS 6. "Nothing More Infernal": Verisimilitude and Voyeurism in Salvation Nell 7. "Avoiding the Grotesque and Offensive": The Zangwill Plays