Some outline fill-in

I think the crucial sentence in my dissertation proposal is this one: "This exchange, I would argue, was both progressive and destructive – not only did the relationships derived from slumming help usher in a modernity that could accommodate a polyglot, flexible, and inclusive vision of American society, they also helped reinforce codes that categorized the ethnic poor as intrinsically savage, morally suspect, sexually available, and at the same time charmingly authentic." It highlights, as Seth Koven does in his book, Slumming: Sexual and Social Politics in Victorian London, the ways in which the slummer erotocizes the ethnic poor, but it also shows how the desire for encounters with difference can also be productive. As in most processes, there is always ambivalence involved in the exchange.

So, if I were to come up with a chapter breakdown, or just a topic breakdown, how might I address this provisional thesis? Here's what I'm thinking of so far:

I. Introduction -- what is slumming and how am I using the term? What's the history of the word and practice and how was it been shaped discursively over time?

II. Sexual Geography of the LES -- prostitution and "deviant" sexual behaviors; the eroticization and criminalization of residents of the neighborhood

III. Slumming Tours -- the search for new sensations; encounters of ethnic characters; perceived dangers

IV. Bohemian Encounters -- the desire on the part of bohemians to merge with and learn from the ethnic poor; Hapgood's Spirit of the Ghetto; the Ferrer Center?

V. Something about Gentrification -- I really want to write about this, but can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. I do think that gentrification of the LES is predicated on the histories I'll be writing about in the earlier chapters though. So I need to figure out how to draw it into the larger argument without jumping too far into the 20th century.