Virginie Despentes’ queer crime fiction

French Cultural Studies ◽

10.1177/09571558211012987 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095715582110129

Author(s):

Lucas Hollister

Keyword(s):

Sustained Attention ◽

Crime Fiction ◽

Genre Studies ◽

Scholarly Discussion

Virginie Despentes has become one of France’s most commercially successful and celebrated novelists. However, while the French press has often labelled Despentes’ novels as crime fiction (‘polars’), there has been little in-depth scholarly discussion of how her work engages and transforms the conventions of the genre. Studies of Despentes’ queer/feminist themes and rhetoric would benefit from a more sustained attention to her ambivalent appropriations of the masculinist tropes of brutal crime fiction, and studies of French crime fiction would benefit from considering Despentes as key figure in the development of French queer/feminist crime fiction. Examining novels ranging from Baise-moi to Apocalypse bébé, this article argues for the interest in reading them as crime fiction, and notably as works that underline the risks that accompany efforts to rewire masculinist genres from within and orient them towards feminist and queer concerns.

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(POETIC) LICENCE TO KILL: APOLLO, THE PYTHON, AND NICANDER'S THERIACA IN OVID, METAMORPHOSES 1

Greece and Rome ◽

10.1017/s0017383518000128 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 65 (2) ◽

pp. 155-174

Author(s):

Celia Campbell

Keyword(s):

Epic Poetry ◽

Genre Studies ◽

Complex Interplay ◽

Literary Source ◽

Starting Point ◽

Scholarly Discussion ◽

The Difference

The identification of the quarrel between Cupid and Apollo at Met. 1. 452–73 as a Callimachean recusatio has become a noted feature of scholarly discussion on this passage. Cupid and Apollo's encounter stands as a favoured starting point for the ongoing analysis of generic interplay within Ovid's sprawling work; this is hardly surprising, given its consideration as a programmatic, exemplary triumph of elegy over epic. Although genre studies on the Metamorphoses have represented an enduring presence in Ovidian discourse since Heinze's pioneering work, genre's evolution into what some deem a pet scholarly obsession within studies of the poet has garnered both admiration and revilement. Given the multiplicity of discussions prominently featuring this very episode, it would not seem unfair to deem any addition superfluous. However, adding to the surfeit of analyses is exactly my intention here, with the view that there are yet a few elements that have gone unremarked or underexplored, and that such elements can illuminate further the complex interplay between epic and elegy here on display. Namely, I will suggest that the dynamic created by the difference in accounts of the Python's slaying (Ov. Met. 1.441–4 versus 1.456–60) has not been appreciated fully for its role in the debasement of epic poetry that leads into and consequently informs the programmatic myth sequence of Apollo and Daphne, and that this dynamic finds an overarching explanation by supplying reference to a passage from Nicander's Theriaca. Using Nicander as a literary source, coupled with recognition of both the fictive touches and the weighted literary critical language that Apollo retrospectively applies to his deed, allows us to reinterpret this passage and provides a further example of Ovid's careful strategies of narrative and tone.

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The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction

10.1017/ccol9780521199377 ◽

2010 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Keyword(s):

Crime Fiction

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Speeded Paper-Pencil Sustained Attention and Mental Speed Tests

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001.29.4.205 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 205-216 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Stefan Krumm ◽

Lothar Schmidt-Atzert ◽

Kurt Michalczyk ◽

Vanessa Danthiir

Keyword(s):

Sustained Attention ◽

Time Pressure ◽

Factor Model ◽

Higher Order ◽

Future Research ◽

Perceptual Speed ◽

Speed Factor ◽

Close Relationship ◽

Task Processing ◽

Order Factor

Mental speed (MS) and sustained attention (SA) are theoretically distinct constructs. However, tests of MS are very similar to SA tests that use time pressure as an impeding condition. The performance in such tasks largely relies on the participants’ speed of task processing (i.e., how quickly and correctly one can perform the simple cognitive tasks). The present study examined whether SA and MS are empirically the same or different constructs. To this end, 24 paper-pencil and computerized tests were administered to 199 students. SA turned out to be highly related to MS task classes: substitution and perceptual speed. Furthermore, SA showed a very close relationship with the paper-pencil MS factor. The correlation between SA and computerized speed was considerably lower but still high. In a higher-order general speed factor model, SA had the highest loading on the higher-order factor; the higher-order factor explained 88% of SA variance. It is argued that SA (as operationalized with tests using time pressure as an impeding condition) and MS cannot be differentiated, at the level of broad constructs. Implications for neuropsychological assessment and future research are discussed.

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