Crime Fiction as World Literature

by Louise Nilsson (Editor), David Damrosch (Editor), Theo D'haen (Editor)

Overview

While crime fiction is one of the most widespread of all literary genres, this is the first book to treat it in its full global is the first book to treat crime fiction in its full global and plurilingual dimensions, taking the genre seriously as a participant in the international sphere of world literature. In a wide-ranging panorama of the genre, twenty critics discuss crime fiction from Bulgaria, China, Israel, Mexico, Scandinavia, Kenya, Catalonia, and Tibet, among other locales. By bringing crime fiction into the sphere of world literature, Crime Fiction as World Literature gives new insights not only into the genre itself but also into the transnational flow of literature in the globalized mediascape of contemporary popular culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501319341
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/23/2017
Series:	Literatures as World Literature
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Louise Nilsson is a researcher in the English Department at Stockholm University, Sweden.

David Damrosch is Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University, USA, where he is also Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature. Professor Damrosch is one of the world's foremost authorities on World Literature, past President of the American Comparative Literature Association, and author or editor of 17 books, including the ground-breaking What Is World Literature? (2003; translated into seven languages). Among his other publications are How to Read World Literature (2009), The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh ( 2007), and World Literature in Theory (edited; 2014).

Theo D'haen is Professor of English and American Literatures at K.U. Leuven, Belgium. He is the author or editor of 53 books, including American Literature: A History (2014), The Routledge Concise History of World Literature (2012), World Literature: A Reader (edited with César Domínguez and Mads Rosendahl, 2013), A World History of Literature (2012), and The Routledge Companion to World Literature (edited with David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir, 2012).
David Damrosch is Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature at Harvard University, USA, where
he is also Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature. Professor Damrosch is one of the world's foremost authorities on World Literature, past President of the American Comparative Literature Association, and author or editor of 17 books, including the ground-breaking What Is World Literature? (Princeton University Press, 2003; translated into seven languages). Among his other publications are How to Read World Literature (Blackwell, 2009), The Buried Book: The Loss and Rediscovery of the Great Epic of Gilgamesh (Henry Holt, 2007), World Literature in Theory (edited; Wiley Blackwell, 2014), The Routledge Companion to World Literature (edited with Theo D'haen and Djelal Kadir, Routledge, 2012), The Longman Anthology of World Literature (Longman, 2004. Six vols., General editor, with twelve co-editors), and The Longman Anthology of British Literature (Longman, 1998, General editor, with eleven co-editors).
Theo D'haen is Professor of English and American Literatures, KU Leuven, Belgium. He is the author or editor of 53 books, including American Literature: A History (Routledge, 2014), The Routledge Concise History of World Literature (Routledge, 2012), World Literature: A Reader (edited with César Domínguez and Mads Rosendahl, Routledge, 2013), A World History of Literature (Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium, 2012), and The Routledge Companion to World Literature (edited with David Damrosch and Djelal Kadir, Routledge, 2012).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Crime Fiction as World Literature
Louise Nilsson (Stockholm University, Sweden), David Damrosch (Harvard University, USA), and Theo D'haen (K.U. Leuven, Belgium)

I. Global and Local

1. The Knife in the Lemon: Nordic Noir and the Glocalization of Crime Fiction
Andreas Hedberg (Uppsala University, Sweden)

2. After Such Knowledge: The Politics of Detection in the Narconovelas of Elmer Mendoza
Michael Wood (Princeton University, USA)

3. Red Herrings and Read Alerts: Crime and Trans-Cultural Clues in Almost Blue and Nairobi Heat
Tilottama Tharoor (New York University, USA)

4. The Detective Is Suspended: Nordic Noir and the Welfare State
Bruce Robbins (Columbia University, USA)

5. Four Generations, One Crime
Michaela Bronstein (Stanford University, USA)

II. Market Mechanisms

6. With a Global Market in Mind: Agents, Authors and the Dissemination of Contemporary Swedish Crime Fiction
Karl Berglund (Uppsala University, Sweden)

7. So You Think You Can Write… Handbooks for Mystery Fiction
Anneleen Masschelein (K.U. Leuven, Belgium) and Dirk de Geest (K.U. Leuven, Belgium)

8. Covering Crime Fiction: Merging the Local into Cosmopolitan Mediascapes
Louise Nilsson (Stockholm University, Sweden)

9. Surrealist Noir: Aragon's Le Cahier Noir and Pamuk's The Black Book
Delia Ungureanu (Harvard University, USA, and University of Bucharest, Romania)

III. Translating Crime

10. Detective Fiction in Translation: Shifting Patterns of Reception
Susan Bassnett (University of Warwick, UK, and University of Glasgow, UK)

11. Making It Ours: Translation and the Circulation of Crime Fiction in Catalan
Stewart King (Monash University, Australia)

12. In Agatha's Footsteps: The Cursed Goblet and Contemporary Bulgarian Crime Fiction
Mihaela Harper (Bilkent University, Turkey)

13. A Missing Literature: Dror Mishani and the Case of Israeli Crime Fiction
Maayan Eitan (University of Michigan, USA)

14. World Detective Form and Thai Crime Fiction
Suradech Chotiudompant (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand)

IV. Holmes away from Home

15. Holmes Away from Home: The Great Detective in the Transnational Literary Network
Michael B. Harris-Peyton (University of Delaware, USA)

16. Sherlock's Queen Bee
Theo D'haen (K.U. Leuven, Belgium)

17. Sherlock Holmes Came to China: Detective Fiction, Cultural Meditations, and Chinese Modernity
Wei Yan (Lingnan University, Hong Kong)

18. A Sinister Chuckle: Sherlock in Tibet
David Damrosch (Harvard University, USA)

19. Detecting Conspiracy: Boris Akunin's Dandiacal Detective, or a Century in Queer Profiles from London to Moscow
Elizabeth Richmond-Garza (University of Texas at Austin, USA)

Notes on Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

An insightful comparative study ... Crime Fiction as World Literature carefully deconstructs the 'glocal' nature of a genre defined by a combination of rather fixed tropes reflecting local themes, which provide both unique and comfortingly recognizable atmospheres.” —Recherche Littéraire

“Crime Fiction as World Literature is a perfect introduction and a necessary text for students and scholars of crime fiction, as well as an important work for students and scholars of comparative and world literature.” —Clues: A Jourbanal of Detection

“There is much to like in this volume ... The authors of the different chapters make their topics easily understandable to an audience not necessarily versed in the intricacies of the genre and at the same time offer genuine contributions that sometimes cut across several disciplinary lines.” —Jourbanal of European Studies

“Here we have a study of crime fiction that, for once, is not satisfied with rounding up the usual suspects, but is fully aware that, like crime itself, crime fiction is a worldwide phenomenon. What is more, true to its 'world literature' perspective, this collection of essays has a close and rewarding look at the market mechanisms and the vicissitudes of translation without which crime novels (and novels in general) would be doomed to stay within their national orbits.” —Hans Bertens, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and former President of the International Comparative Literature Association

“Crime fiction is read around the world in many different languages, and now we have an excellent and comprehensive collection of critical essays on world crime literature for those with a taste for murder and mayhem.” —Clive Bloom, Emeritus Professor of English and American Studies, Middlesex University, UK

From the Publisher