Race And Religion In The Postcolonial British Detective Story

Author : Julie H. Kim
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786421754
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Race and Religion in the Postcolonial British Detective Story written by Julie H. Kim and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2005-07-15 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1929, Ronald Knox, a prominent member of the English Detection Club, included in his tongue-in-cheek Ten Commandments for Detective Novelists the rule that "No Chinaman must figure in the story." In 1983, Ruth Rendell published Speaker of Mandarin, reflecting not only a change in British detective fiction but also a dramatic change in the British cultural landscape. Like much of the rest of British popular culture, the detective novel became more and more ethnically diverse and populated by characters with increasingly varied religious backgrounds. Ten essays examine the changing nature of British detective fiction, focusing on the shifting view of "otherness" of such authors as Ruth Rendell, Elizabeth George, Peter Ackroyd, Caroline Graham, Christopher Brookmyer, Denise Mina and John Mortimer. Unlike their American counterparts, British detective writers have been until recently, overwhelmingly white, and the essays here explore how these authors delve into ethnic diversity within a historically homogeneous culture. Religion has also played an important role in the genre, ranging from the moral certainty of the early part of the 20th century to the skepticism and hostility that is part of contemporary fiction. How this transition was made and how it reflects the changing nature of British culture are detailed here.

Author : Nick Turner
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1441120947
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.46/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Post-War British Women Novelists and the Canon written by Nick Turner and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2011-11-03 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the increasing number of books on contemporary fiction, there is a need for a work that examines whom we value, and why. These questions lie at the heart of this book which, by focusing on four novelists, literary and popular, interrogates the canon over the last fifty years. The argument unfolds to demonstrate that academic trends increasingly control canonicity, as do the demands of genre, the increasing commercialisation of literature, and the power of the literary prize. Turner argues that literary excellence, demonstrated by style and imaginative power, is often missing in many works that have become modern classics and makes a case for the value of the 'universal' in literature. Written in a jargon-free style, with reference to many supporting writers, the book raises a number of significant cultural questions about the arts, fashions and literary reputations, of interest to readers in contemporary literary studies.

Author : Elizabeth Haynes
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1591589193
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Crime Writers written by Elizabeth Haynes and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-01-19 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This invaluable resource provides information about and sources for researching 50 of the top crime genre writers, including websites and other online resources. Crime Writers: A Research Guide is an easy-to-use launch pad for learning more about crime fiction authors, including those who write traditional mystery novels, suspense novels, and thrillers with crime elements. Emphasizing the best and most popular writers, the book covers approximately 50 contemporary authors, plus a few classics like Agatha Christie. Each entry provides a brief quotation that gives some indication of writing style; a biographical sketch; lists of major works and awards; and research sources, including websites, biographies, criticism, and research guides. There are also read-alikes for selected authors. Of special note is the inclusion of websites and other online resources, such as blogs and social networking sites, which are often overlooked in author-reference sources. The book also provides an overview of the genre and subgenres, a timeline, and a comprehensive bibliography. An ideal resource for genre studies and literature classes, this guide will also be invaluable to readers' advisors, book club leaders, students, and genre fans.

Author : Julie H. Kim
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476615381
Total Pages : 239 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Class and Culture in Crime Fiction written by Julie H. Kim and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-04-04 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The crime fiction world of the late 1970s, with its increasingly diverse landscape, is a natural beginning for this collection of critical studies focusing on the intersections of class, culture and crime--each nuanced with shades of gender, ethnicity, race and politics. The ten new essays herein raise broad and complicated questions about the role of class and culture in transatlantic crime fiction beyond the Golden Age: How is "class" understood in detective fiction, other than as a socioeconomic marker? Can we distinguish between major British and American class concerns as they relate to crime? How politically informed is popular detective fiction in responding to economic crises in Scotland, Ireland, England and the United States? When issues of race and gender intersect with concerns of class and culture, does the crime writer privilege one or another factor? Do values and preoccupations of a primarily middle-class readership get reflected in popular detective fiction?

Author : Anne Grydehøj
Publisher : University of Wales Press
ISBN 13 : 1786837196
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Contemporary French and Scandinavian Crime Fiction written by Anne Grydehøj and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2021-07-05 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a study of Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and French crime fictions covering a fifty-year period. From 1965 to the present, both Scandinavian and French societies have undergone significant transformations. Twelve literary case studies examine how crime fictions in the respective contexts have responded to shifting social realities, which have in turn played a part in transforming the generic codes and conventions of the crime novel. At the centre of the book’s analysis is crime fiction’s negotiation of the French model of Republican universalism and the Scandinavian welfare state, both of which were routinely characterised as being in a state of crisis at the end of the twentieth century. Adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the book investigates the interplay between contemporary Scandinavian and French crime narratives, considering their engagement with the relationship of the state and the citizen, and notably with identity issues (class, gender, sexuality and ethnicity in particular).

Author : Pinaki Roy
Publisher : Sarup & Sons
ISBN 13 : 9788176258494
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.90/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Manichean Investigators written by Pinaki Roy and published by Sarup & Sons. This book was released on 2008 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Anindita Dey
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498512119
Total Pages : 209 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sherlock Holmes, Byomkesh Bakshi, and Feluda written by Anindita Dey and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-12-27 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sherlock Holmes, Byomkesh Bakshi, and Feluda: Negotiating the Center and the Periphery presents a postcolonial reading of Conan Doyle’s canonical detective texts—Sherlock Holmes adventures, and some lesser known detective texts written by two Bengali (Indian) writers—Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay (1899-1970), and Satyajit Ray (1921-1992). The book proposes that in a postcolonial reading situation, the representation of Holmes problematizes the act of reading and also the act and discourse of inquiry. The fact that the Holmes adventures contribute to the hegemonic culture of “Anglo/Eurocentrism” is seen as a reinforcement of racial superiority among the “colonized.” This book studies how literary texts function as a signifier of a particular national identity, and can indicate the cultural construct of a state. It contends that only those texts which cater to the standards of global hierarchy are considered canonical, and indigenous texts, however significant, remain as "Other" literature. The book highlights colonial and postcolonial discourse in the Bengali detective texts and examines, how far Holmes has been able to reinforce racial dominance over the Indian detectives Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda.

Author : Julie H. Kim
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786490039
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.35/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Murdering Miss Marple written by Julie H. Kim and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the interwar "golden age" of British detective fiction, women writers like Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie reigned, but their work remains tame compared to today's crime novels. Elements of sexuality and gender, including soft porn and sexual psychopathy, pervade contemporary detective fiction. The 10 essays in this collection explore issues of gender and sexuality in crime writing by women from 1985 to 2011, surveying works about girl sleuths, parodies, hard-boiled detective fiction, police procedurals, and recent serial killer series. They examine the relationship between genre and gender and explore how later works enter into a field of "post-feminism." Most importantly, this volume demonstrates how popular women writers of the last three decades have reconceptualized what it means to be a female detective.

Author : Julie H. Kim
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476640424
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Crime Fiction and National Identities in the Global Age written by Julie H. Kim and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To read a crime novel today largely simulates the exercise of reading newspapers or watching the news. The speed and frequency with which today's bestselling works of crime fiction are produced allow them to mirror and dissect nearly contemporaneous socio-political events and conflicts. This collection examines this phenomenon and offers original, critical, essays on how national identity appears in international crime fiction in the age of populism and globalization. These essays address topics such as the array of competing nationalisms in Europe; Indian secularism versus Hindu communalism; the populist rhetoric tinged with misogyny or homophobia in the United States; racial, religious or ethnic others who are sidelined in political appeals to dominant native voices; and the increasing economic chasm between a rich and poor. More broadly, these essays inquire into themes such as how national identity and various conceptions of masculinity are woven together, how dominant native cultures interact with migrant and colonized cultures to explore insider/outsider paradigms and identity politics, and how generic and cultural boundaries are repeatedly crossed in postcolonial detective fiction.

Author : Stephen Knight
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786493984
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Secrets of Crime Fiction Classics written by Stephen Knight and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-11-14 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting with William Godwin's Caleb Williams and Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly, this book covers in detail the great works of detective fiction--Poe's Dupin stories, Conan Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Sayers' Strong Poison, Chandler's The Big Sleep, and Simenon's The Yellow Dog. Lesser-known but important early works are also discussed, including Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White, Emile Gaboriau's M. Lecoq, Anna Katharine Green's The Leavenworth Case and Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. More recent titles show increasing variety in the mystery genre, with Patricia Highsmith's criminal-focused The Talented Mr. Ripley and Chester Himes' African-American detectives in Cotton Comes to Harlem. Diversity develops further in Sara Paretsky's tough woman detective V.I. Warshawski in Indemnity Only, Umberto Eco's medievalist and postmodern The Name of the Rose and the forensic feminism of Patricia Cornwell's Postmortem. Notably, the best modern crime fiction has been primarily international--Manuel Vasquez Montalban's Catalan Summer Seas, Ian Rankin's Edinburgh-set The Naming of the Dead, Sweden's Stieg Larsson's The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo and Vikram Chanda's Mumbai-based Sacred Games. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.