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Malady (X-Troper)
2018-05-24 18:19:25

I'd say start with Sci-Fi Ghetto...

As Gary K Wolfe says, it's been used "Since at least the late 1940s".

Disambig Needed: Help with those issues! tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13324299140A37493800&page=24#comment-576
satchelk Since: Mar, 2016
2018-05-24 20:00:56

Ah, thank you so much! This is definitely the sort of lead I've been looking for.

Now I'm curious to see if the term as referring to "literary ghettoes" coincided with the rise of use of the word "ghetto" to specifically describe a slum. It seems the use as such predates the 40s by quite a bit, but I wonder what prompted authors to start using it specifically as a metaphor to bemoan the status of literary genres?

It would be of particular interest if it were Jewish authors using the term specifically, but I can't seem to find any specific names referenced, or confirmations either way to that end. It looks like I'll have to look into things more to see who exactly was putting out the lamentations.

Anyhow, for the sake of sharing what I've found:

I was mistaken about the rise of negative connotations to the term! Looks as though it had always had some root in anti-semitism, as "ghetto" originally referred to a literally walled-off segment of a city meant to segregate Jewish citizens from the remainder of the populace—these existed from roughly 1500-1600 or so, until most ghettoes had been dismantled by 1900. World War II saw the deliberate resurgence of ghettoes as a means of oppression of Jewish citizenry by the Nazis, and the word saw a significant re-entry into the vernacular following this.

It seems that the "slum" connotation began to see use around 1900 as a metaphor for physical areas that were downtrodden by a means other than direct oppression by law. Looks like the word evolved into its more modern definition as minority communities were sandwiched into each other over the 20th century.

First with people of color being pushed into the same low-income physical spaces as Jewish citizens, then the term jumping to impoverished black communities remaining in the same places as white flight from urban areas took hold during the growth of the middle class. It began to be reclaimed by (primarily) black artists as hip-hop music and culture came into prominence, around the 80s-90s, as a mark of pride in one's origins.

With such a sensitive origin, I'm a little surprised that "ghetto" as a term has survived so far into common parlance! At least as a means of describing fiction.

That's actually why I've been looking into this word in the first place. But perhaps this only appears exacerbated by the prolific branch of articles on this very site, haha. I guess it's up to the consensus of TV Tropes users if they feel the need to find a less racially charged euphemism to use for the term on all those trope pages or not.

Again, thanks greatly for the help!

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
2018-05-24 22:08:34

Being honest, I think of posts are going to be this long you might have more success in a forum thread, maybe Western Animation or TropeTalk, given your question, than you would in ATT

satchelk Since: Mar, 2016
2018-05-24 23:06:28

Yeah, sorry! I wanted to post this in the forum, but kept getting an error when attempting to do so.

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