Elective 2: Crime Writing
Extend, re-imagine and challenge conventions on the traditional detective story
How changing contexts and values have brought about changes in traditional crime stories and brought new conventions
New understandings of what constitutes a crime/who plays detective
Account for increasing popularity different forms of crime, and how the traditional retain their appeal
Genre Criticism Quotes:
General Genre:
“For readers, genres are sets of conventions and expectations: knowing whether we are reading a detective story, or a romance…we are on the lookout for different things and make assumptions about what will be significant.” – Jonathon Culler
“We cannot speak or write without selecting a genre, without adopting a kind of communication which has certain rules and expectations” – Stephen Knight
“A text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be without…a genre. Every text participates in one or several genres, there is no genreless text” – Derrida 1981
“Any theme may appear in any genre” – David Bordwell
“Particular features which are characteristic of a genre are not normally unique to it; it is their relative prominence, combination and functions which are distinctive” – Neale
“Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre; mere repetition would not attract an audience” – Neale
Reader Expectations:
“A set of expectations” – Neal 1980
Evolution of the Genre/ Role of Context:
“A genre develops according to social conditions; transformations in genre and texts can influence and reinforce social conditions” – Thwaites
“Genres are like clichés – they might seem hackneyed, but that is because they have recurrent value of many people over time” – SK
“Texts within genres embody the moral values of a culture” – Konigsberg
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“Genre is not simply given by the culture: rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change”- David Buckingham
“Generic conventions embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular” – John Fiske
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Crime Writing:
General:
“The genre’s flexibility is perhaps one reason for its wide and enduring appeal and means different things to different people at different times” – W.S
Subgenres:
“Much originality in crime fiction is basically a tweaking of previous patterns” – SK
Conventions:
Setting:
“A defining feature of the crime story is the place where it occurs” – SK
“Setting can reinforce central themes, character constructions, plot and action. Or it can contrast with them” – NK
Crime:
“Crimes can vary as much as the rest of elements in the thriller” – SK
Detective/Investigative Technique:
“There is also the highly emphasized question of investigative technique – indeed, this is what essentially distinguishes one subgenre from the other” – SK
Clues, twists and red-herrings
“Such scattering of clues…may be manipulated to create a kind of anxiety in the reader” – RW
Suspense:
“Suspense is titillation and torture, promises and threats, the ecstasy and the agony” – NK
Set Text:
TEXT ANALYSIS 1
Anil’s Ghost (2000, Michael Ondaatje)
Conventions: (crime, detective, setting)
The Crime:
The crime is unconventional and broad – it is a crime against humanity and war crimes o “What we’ve got here is unknown extrajudicial executions mostly. Perhaps by the insurgents, or by the government or the guerrilla separatists. Murders committed by all sides” (17-18)
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HSC STUDY BUDDY o “Street bomb, usually containing nails or ball bearings, could cut open an abdomen fifty yards from the explosion” (126) o “There are innocent Tamils in the south being killed too” (133) o “He was still there an hour later when the bodies started coming in from a bombing somewhere in the city” (290) – always happening
The motive for the crime