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‘Nous, au village, aussi …’;1 The Recent and Rapid Rise of the polar à racines

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09639480701802633

1469-9869

Sara Poole,

Cultural Identity and Heritage

Abstract This article charts the increasing popularity in France of the regional crime novel. The polar's spread from Paris to major provincial cities is initially discussed, and the function of place within crime fiction is examined with specific reference to two writers using Lyon as the scene of crime(s). The current success of provincial publishers of the polar régional is then highlighted, and an attempt is made to assess what the reader is looking for in series (such as those offered by small Breton or Burgundian publishing houses) which concentrate on crime ‘in one's own backyard’, be it urban, rurbain or rural. Finally a promising field for further exploration is posited, given both the healthy sales of polars à racines which can establish the smallest hamlet on the polar map, and the theories of place image currently being explored by a tourist industry eager to exploit the boom in postmodern literary/heritage tourism. Notes [1] ‘Nous, au village, aussi, l'on a / De beaux assassinats’. From Georges Brassens' L'Assassinat (1962). [2] See my 2001 article ‘Rompols not of the Bailey: Fred Vargas and the polar as mini-proto-mythe’, French Cultural Studies, vol. 12, part 1, no. 34, pp. 95–108. [3] See Marion François' article ‘L'Enfer de René Belletto, le secret policier cache un autre’, Echo, no. 3, June 2005. Online journal at www.echopolyglot.com. [4] The inventions of, respectively, Didier Daeninckx, Robert Deleuse, and Georges Chaulet (author of the Fantômette series). [5] Which obtained a ‘Mention spéciale’ from the jury of the 2004 Prix Polar dans la ville. [6] This article has benefited from the attentions of two anonymous readers, to both of whom I am extremely grateful for encouraging and pertinent observations. Thus for example Reader 1 notes, with reference to this character's name, that ‘this could be read as an intertextual reference to Edgar Allan Poe's the Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin, widely credited as establishing the model of detection and deduction for modern crime fiction’. [7] Lyonnais for ‘Lyonnais’. [8] Better known to readers of crime fiction as S. S. Van Dine. [9] In 2001 Fay Weldon published The Bulgari Connection, having been contracted by the Italian jewellery firm of the same name to write a novel mentioning their name at least 12 times. [10] Each of the novels/novellas cited belongs to the Editions Nykta ‘Petite Nuit’ collection and was published between 2000 and 2002. [11] Reader 1 helpfully observes that ‘this inventive use of language could be traced back not only to Léo Malet but also to then early editorial policy of iconic post-war series, such as Série noire, in which editor and former surrealist Marcel Duhamel freely interpreted titles of translated Anglo-American novels with aplomb and black humour’. Reader 2 cites the further example of San Antonio's (often colourful) titles. [12] It is of interest to note that many of the Nykta authors, for example, are teachers or ex-teachers, as also is Françoise Le Mer. [13] Reader 2 notes that Balzac's Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes is often considered an early polar, which may indeed have influenced the choice of location.