Crime Fiction, South Africa: A Critical Introduction
2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 25; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/1013929x.2013.833416
ISSN2159-9130
Autores Tópico(s)South African History and Culture
ResumoAbstractCrime fiction is an emergent category in South African literary studies. This introduction positions South African crime fiction and its scholarship in a global lineage of crime and detective fiction. The survey addresses the question of its literary status as ‘highbrow’ or ‘lowbrow’. It also identifies and describes two distinct sub-genres of South African crime fiction: the crime thriller novel; and the literary detective novel. The argument is that South African crime fiction exhibits a unique capacity for social analysis, a capacity which is being optimised by authors and interrogated by scholars.Keywords: Crime fictionSouth Africansurveyhistory and theorycrime thrillerliterary detective novel AcknowledgementA review of these two sub-genres and of the exemplars used here (Devil's Peak and Lost Ground) is also to be found in my article, “Fears and Desires in South African Crime Fiction.” Journal of Southern African Studies 39 (3), 2013.Notes1. See Stephen Knight's seminal work, Form and Ideology (Citation1980).2. Primorac has also published articles and book chapters on Southern African crime fiction.3. “Crime Beat: A Final Column for FMR,” Crime Beat @ Books Live, (January 2013), available at http://crimebeat.bookslive.co.za/blog/ retrieved on 16 January 2013.4. Haycraft's anthology includes contributions by Chesterton, Sayers, Freeman, Ogden Nash and covers topics still being contested today.5. See SlipNet (Stellenbosch Literary Project). This website, maintained by the Department of English, Stellenbosch University, has been the site of the most in-depth and cutting-edge debates about South African crime fiction in the past three years. Available at http://SlipNet.co.za/?s = genre + snob + debate.6. cf. Mace Bishop and Pylon Buso in Mike Nicol's 'Revenge' Trilogy.7. The chronology of the novel is complex: set in the present, the main action occurs over an eleven- day period in January 2010, but through analepsis the narrative covers the 1980s when Peter and Bennie were boys, and the 1990s when Peter was absent and the events leading to the murder transpired. As always national history forms a backdrop.8. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841); “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1842); and “The Purloined Letter” (1844).9. Though Peter Jacobs does resemble Dupin and Holmes in that he is socially isolated and emotionally detached, which seems to be his tragic flaw.10. See Drawe's article, which examines the specifically urban setting of South Africa's crime thriller novels.
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