From 'The Purest Literature We Have' to 'A Spirit Grown Corrupt': Embracing Contamination in Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction

Plain, Gill

doi:10.3167/cs.2008.200102

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 1 publication

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“…On the one hand, this newly emerging fiction established the figure of the criminal, often the murderer, the Victorian evil other who with his/her unnatural and pathological acts threatens the society by causing disorder and panic. Such a guilty character functions as a site of horror and disgust onto which cultural anxieties and apprehensions can be projected (Plain, 2008, p. 14, Romero Ruiz, 2017. On the other hand, it also offered a means of remedy and stabilization in the figure of the detective, confronting and eventually defeating the violation of societal and moral norms.…”

Section: Neo-victorian Crime Fictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neo-Victorian felony – Crime narratives in Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project and Ian McGuire’s The North Water

Chalupský

2021

Ars Aeterna

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The neo-Victorian novel has been one of the most significant branches of contemporary British historical fiction for the past three decades. Thanks to works like A. S. Byatt’s Possession, Sarah Waters’ trilogy Tipping the Velvet, Affinity and Fingersmith and Michel Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White, the genre has gained not only considerable popularity among readers, but also almost a canonical literary status. Although recent neo-Victorian fiction has been trying to find some new ways in which the genre could avoid stereotypical narratives, it still retains its most determining idiosyncrasies. One of them is an interest in the undersides of Victorian society, including the themes of violence and criminality, which is why these novels often resort to the genre of crime and detective fiction. This is also the case of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project (2015) and Ian McGuire’s The North Water (2016), both historical novels set in Victorian Britain which were, respectively, shortlisted and longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize. This paper attempts to show the different manners in which these two novels employ various forms of crime narratives so as to achieve their goal of presenting convincing and seemingly authentic insights into the more obscure aspects of the Victorian era.

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Section: Neo-victorian Crime Fictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neo-Victorian felony – Crime narratives in Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project and Ian McGuire’s The North Water

Chalupský

2021

Ars Aeterna

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Forensic Crime Fiction

Varvogli

2024

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This study of forensic crime fiction from the US and the UK examines the prominent roles that women play in many of these novels, arguing that there are historical continuities with earlier forms of contact with the dead body. Refuting claims that the female forensic examiner exhibits traits of typically masculine behaviour, it suggests that the female gaze humanises the victims of crime and alters their representations. Utilising the views of a world-famous forensic scientist interviewed for this Element, this study also explores the role and treatment of science in forensic crime fiction, shedding light on an area of the genre. Finally, there is a consideration of killers in forensic crime novels, proposing that the relationship between killer and investigator is different from that of the classic crime novel. There are also two Appendices containing interviews with Professor Niamh Nic Daeid and with Val McDermid.

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Popular Genres and Lesbian (Sub)Cultures: From Pulp to Crime, and Beyond

Mitchell

2015

The Cambridge Companion to Lesbian Literature

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From 'The Purest Literature We Have' to 'A Spirit Grown Corrupt': Embracing Contamination in Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction

Cited by 6 publications

References 1 publication

Neo-Victorian felony – Crime narratives in Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project and Ian McGuire’s The North Water

Neo-Victorian felony – Crime narratives in Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project and Ian McGuire’s The North Water

Forensic Crime Fiction

Popular Genres and Lesbian (Sub)Cultures: From Pulp to Crime, and Beyond

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