Suki Kim’s The Interpreter

Genre ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-182
Author(s):  
Suk Koo Rhee
Keyword(s):  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Early American ◽  
Female Immigrant ◽  
Pile Up ◽  
Racial Context ◽  
Rugged Individualism ◽  
Masculine Hegemony ◽  
Detective Genre

This article argues that Suki Kim’s The Interpreter (2003) is influenced by and, at the same time, critically revises early American hard-boiled crime fiction, the genre with which it is least likely to be associated. Although dead bodies do not pile up in the novel, the urban world in which Kim’s protagonist operates, attempting to solve the case of her parents’ murder, is as treacherous as the world portrayed in early hard-boiled detective fiction. Kim has inherited from early hard-boiled crime fiction such elements as its rugged individualism, a cynical-but-sentimental worldview, and not least, its social concerns about economic inequality and corruption among the powerful. At the same time, Kim’s novel subtly reconfigures her hard-boiled sleuth as well as adapts the genre to a contemporary racial context. In this revision, both the institutional and personal practices of racism are placed on trial. Female solidarity is also celebrated as a means to counter the violence and corruption of a racialized society. In so doing, Kim’s novel subverts both the sexism and racism of the traditional detective genre. The conclusion of this article is that the novel legitimates a female immigrant and person of color’s right to belong and challenges the white masculine hegemony that the traditional hard-boiled genre maintains.

Asian American Detective Fiction

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvin McMillin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Asian Descent ◽  
Asian American Identity ◽  
American Authors ◽  
Detective Genre

Asian American detective fiction is an eclectic body of literature that encompasses works from a variety of 20th- and 21st-century Asian American authors. Prior to the emergence of these writers in the late 1990s and early 2000s, depictions of Asians and Asian Americans in the mystery genre were primarily the domain of white authors like Earl Derr Biggers and John P. Marquand. During the pre-World War II era, “Oriental detectives” like Charlie Chan and Mr. Moto enjoyed varying degrees of popularity in literature and film before gradually fading into obscurity. Meanwhile, the few U.S. writers of Asian descent working in the detective genre often refrained from portraying Asian American characters in their works, focusing instead on stories involving white protagonists. However, a sea change occurred when a wave of Asian American authors arrived on the crime fiction scene: Henry Chang, Leonard Chang, Dale Furutani, Naomi Hirahara, and Ed Lin are representative examples. Differentiating themselves from their Asian American predecessors, these writers focused their mysteries not only on detectives of Asian descent but on the specific ethnic communities in which they were born. Using the detective genre’s focus on “Whodunit” as a literary imperative, these works explore contemporary anxieties about Asian American identity in relation to issues of race, gender, sexuality, and national belonging. As a result, many Asian American writers of detective fiction have chosen to reframe Asian American identity through the use of the detective genre, a vehicle through which the racist stereotypes of the past are addressed, combatted, and symbolically defeated. Whether a genre, subgenre, or school of literature, Asian American detective fiction is a rich and ever-evolving form of literary expression that continues to both expand upon and complicate earlier discourses on race, gender, and sexuality within the realms of U.S. crime fiction and contemporary Asian American literature.

scholarly journals Parodia, intertextualidad y sátira en la narrativa policial de Lorenzo Lunar Cardedo

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-17
Author(s):  
Jesús Gómez-de-Tejada
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Story Line ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Tradition ◽  
Detective Genre ◽  
Popular Speech

Detective fiction as parodic reformulation of genre’s defining patterns has a long history in the Latin American tradition: Borges, Bioy Casares, Soriano, Levrero, Ibargüengoitia, etc. Besides, the evolution of Latin American detective genre has always been characterized by a progressive focalization in the social aspects over the detective story line which has served as a mask to depict in a critical way the flaws of the region’s societies and governments. In nowadays Cuba it could be highlighted the crime narrative of parodic slant by Lorenzo Lunar Cardedo. Among the major features of Lunar Cardedo’s style there are the marginal atmospheres, the stylization of popular speech, the intertextuality, the humor, the parody, and the social criticism. This article focuses on the parodic, intertextual and satiric aspects of his work, particularly discernible in the novel Proyecto en negro (2013), in which the author emphasizes – in opposition to the official discourse – the perpetuation of corrupt, chauvinist, racist, and homophobic behaviors in contemporary Cuba, while relaxing the genre formula limits in order to follow a much more irreverent path within the new Latin American detective fiction.

Police Records

2019 ◽  
pp. 797-819
Author(s):  
Cristina Vatulescu
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Media History ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Police Records ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Nineteenth ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter approaches police records as a genre that gains from being considered in its relationships with other genres of writing. In particular, we will follow its long-standing relationship to detective fiction, the novel, and biography. Going further, the chapter emphasizes the intermedia character of police records not just in our time but also throughout their existence, indeed from their very origins. This approach opens to a more inclusive media history of police files. We will start with an analysis of the seminal late nineteenth-century French manuals prescribing the writing of a police file, the famous Bertillon-method manuals. We will then track their influence following their adoption nationally and internationally, with particular attention to the politics of their adoption in the colonies. We will also touch briefly on the relationship of early policing to other disciplines, such as anthropology and statistics, before moving to a closer look at its intersections with photography and literature.

scholarly journals Place matters: geographical context, place belonging and the production of locality in Mediterranean Noirs

GeoJournal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Gabellieri
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Geographical Discourse ◽  
Detective Stories ◽  
Narrative Medium ◽  
Geographical Context

AbstractScholars have been investigating detective stories and crime fiction mostly as literary works reflecting the societies that produced them and the movement from modernism to postmodernism. However, these genres have generally been neglected by literary geographers. In the attempt to fill such an epistemological vacuum, this paper examines and compare the function and importance of geography in both classic and late 20th century detective stories. Arthur Conan Doyle’s and Agatha Christie’s detective stories are compared to Mediterranean noir books by Manuel Montalbán, Andrea Camilleri and Jean Claude Izzo. While space is shown to be at the center of the investigations in the former two authors, the latter rather focus on place, that is space invested by the authors with meaning and feelings of identity and belonging. From this perspective, the article argues that detective investigations have become a narrative medium allowing the readership to explore the writer’s representation/construction of his own territorial context, or place-setting, which functions as a co-protagonist of the novel. In conclusion, the paper suggests that the emerging role of place in some of the later popular crime fiction can be interpreted as the result of writer’s sentiment of belonging and, according to Appadurai’s theory, as a literary and geographical discourse aimed at the production of locality.

scholarly journals Immigrants in Finland as a Problem Discussed in Leena Lehtolainen’s Minne Tytöt Kadonneet

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
Martyna Kokotkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Subject ◽  
Racial Hatred ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Different Cultures

Abstract Leena Lehtolainen belongs to the most appreciated Finnish authors of crime fiction. One of the significant features of her works is that she discusses some most alarming social issues in them. The problem concerning immigration and its different aspects can definitely be considered as an example of such an issue. Since the problem of cultural antagonisms, racial hatred and xenophobia has been widely discussed by many other Scandinavian authors of crime fiction as well, it is worth analyzing how Lehtolainen herself approaches the problem. The aim of this article is to discuss some aspects concerning the problems of immigrant societies in Finland, basing on one of Leena Lehtolainen’s novels, Minne tytöt kadonneet, which main subject could be described as a collision of two completely different cultures and attitudes to the reality. Its aim is not, however, to discuss any formal aspects of the text, since such a kind of detailed analysis cannot be the subject of one article only. That is why the article concentrates on the plot of the novel and its possible relations to some actual problems the Finnish society faces. Taking it all into consideration it may be seen as an introduction to a wider analysis of Leena Lehtolainen’s works.

scholarly journals Literatura policial y policía: reflexiones a partir de dos intervenciones críticas (José Pablo Feinmann y Carlos Gamerro)

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
pp. 197-225
Author(s):  
Hernán Maltz
Keyword(s):  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Specific Interest ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Novela Negra ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

I propose a close reading on two critical interventions about crime fiction in Argentina: “Estado policial y novela negra argentina” (1991) by José Pablo Feinmann and “Para una reformulación del género policial argentino” (2006) by Carlos Gamerro. Beyond the time difference between the two, I observe aspects in common. Both texts elaborate a corpus of writers and fictions; propose an interpretative guide between the literary and the political-social series; maintain a specific interest in the relationship between crime fiction and police; and elaborate figures of enunciators who serve both as theorists of the genre and as writers of fiction. Among these four dimensions, the one that particularly interests me here is the third, since it allows me to investigate the link that is assumed between “detective fiction” and “police institution”. My conclusion is twofold: on the one hand, in both essays predominates a reductionist vision of the genre, since a kind of necessity is emphasized in the representation of the social order; on the other, its main objective seems to lie in intervening directly on the definitions of the detective fiction in Argentina (and, on this point, both texts acquire an undoubtedly prescriptive nuance).

scholarly journals The Logical Basis of a Literary Text, or What Does Porfiry Petrovich Hide in F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”?

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-259
Author(s):  
Valentina E. Vetlovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Literary Text ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Logical Basis ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Individual

<p>The article explores the role of logical connections in an epic text. It is these connections, according to the author of the article, that connect the individual components of the narrative (motifs, complexes of motifs) and make up in the reader&rsquo;s perception for the missing elements. The reticence and failures to mention, common in fiction, appear in the narrative for various reasons. Sometimes due to the aesthetic principles of the writer who prefers ambiguity to a completed statement depriving readers of the opportunity to finish thinking over a vague idea. And sometimes, due to the author&rsquo;s conviction that there is no need to explain the idea implied by what has been earlier said. But it also happens that the omissions in the narrative are engendered by the requirements for the presentation of a chosen topic, for example in crime fiction. But these reasons may go together as it occurs in Crime and Punishment. These ideas are illustrated by the analysis of one of the themes of the novel Crime and Punishment.</p>

scholarly journals TRACING THE ARMENIAN DESCENDANTS AND SELF-IDENTITY: AN ANALYSIS OF CAN THESE BONES LIVE?

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 01-10
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nasir
Keyword(s):  
Crime Fiction ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
New Historicism ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Critic ◽  
Self Identity

Purpose of the study: The purpose of this study demonstrated how Armenian Massacres as crime fiction developed in response to finding their identity by tracing the ethnic criminal or heritage against their descendants. Besides, by looking at this genocide against the Armenian racial, I found it increasingly difficult to ignore the link between self-identity and the race criminalization conducted by the authority Methodology: In this study, the writer implemented New Historicism theory by looking at the historical background, and combined with Horney Psychoanalysis of Personality, through the activities conducted by the characters. Then, through analyzing the plot and the whole story, the writer found that self-awareness of those characters could be seen in different forms and cultures. Based on those theories that people who know themselves will know what they think, feel, and believe; they will be able to take responsibility for themselves and be able to determine their values by reflecting their personality Main Findings: Self-identity and Armenian descendants could be portrayed significantly, and they were very appropriate with the identity of the characters shown in the texts. Here, the writer also found that a novelist like Tom Frist (2015) used the backdrop of massacres to write about the inner lives of Turkish criminals. He focused directly on the narrative dilemmas posed by American Armenian. His work attempted to uncouple race from crime, and this writer showed us how massacres fiction became a necessary identity form for American Armenian who lived as migration and diaspora. Applications of this study: So, the study of Armenian descendants was not only useful for a literary critic but also presented the history and ethnic cleansing in Turkey. And through this analysis, we learned more about the bitter experiences faced by deportees as shown in the setting places and the author’s perspective. Novelty/Originality of this study: Finally, I believed that tracing the Armenian descendants and self-identity was fascinating by identifying the characters shown in the novel.

Beyond Law and Order: Detecting State Violence and the Search for Justice in Roberto Bolaño's Distant Star

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-47
Author(s):  
Andrew Yallop
Keyword(s):  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
State Violence ◽  
Social Stability ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Distant Star ◽  
Political Unrest ◽  
Work Functions ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Dominant Narratives

Violent political unrest and militarised regime change was endemic to Latin America in the 1960s and 70s. As a result, writers working within the genre of detective fiction produced work influenced by the socially critical and cynical attitude of American hardboiled fiction. Known as neopoliciaco fiction, this work responded to circumstances where violence was perpetrated and authorised by governments against their own citizens in the name of political and social stability. Bolaño's unique adaption of crime fiction in Distant Star combines neopoliciaco crime writing with the testimonio, a genre which resists dominant narratives of history that downplay and even actively deny the criminality of state actors. In Distant Star, Bolaño explores how detective work functions within a paradigm beyond that of law and order, and the implications this has for the pursuit of reconciliation and justice in post-regime Chile.

scholarly journals Food and Crime Fiction: Two Complementary Approaches to the Vietnamese Past in Tran-Nhut's Les travers du docteur Porc

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tess Do
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Food Habits ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Crime Fiction ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Detective Novels

With a series of detective novels set in 17th century Dai-Viet that showcase the traditions, beliefs and customs of an exotic culture, in which the food and food habits of the Vietnamese people play a prominent role, Thanh-Van Tran-Nhut, an engineer-turned-novelist of Vietnamese origins, has carved a niche for herself in the popular crime fiction market in France. This paper focuses on the novel Les Travers du Docteur Porc, in which Doctor Porc, forensic investigator and gourmand extraordinaire, adopts the mantle of chief detective from Tran-Nhut’s usual protagonist, the loyal mandarin Tan. In this movement, we argue, the author has shaped two different but complementary approaches to her birth-country’s turbulent past that coalesce in the gargantuan figure of the (politically unencumbered) doctor and connoisseur of Vietnamese cuisine. Whereas the process of ‘solving the crime’ can be read as an attempt to seek answers and restore order in the wake of senseless bloodshed, it is food, we contend, that emerges, not only as a source of pleasure, succour and stability, but as a cultural heritage that war and upheaval failed to destroy.

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