Crime Culture: Figuring Criminality in Fiction and Film [Paperback]

By broadening the focus beyond classic English detective fiction, the American 'hard-boiled' crime novel and the gangster movie, Crime Culturebreathes new life into staple themes of crime fiction and cinema.

Leading international scholars from the fields of literary and cultural studies analyze a range of literature and film, from neglected examples of film noir and 'true crime', crime fiction by female African American writers, to reality TV, recent films such as Elephant, Collateral and The Departed, and contemporary fiction by J. G. Ballard, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Margaret Atwood. They offer groundbreaking interpretations of new elements such as the mythology of the hitman, technology and the image, and the cultural impact of 'senseless' murders and reveal why crime is a powerful way of making sense of the broader concerns shaping modern culture and society.

A collection of original essays drawing on crime fiction and film to explore the implications of how we choose to represent crime to ourselves.

Eugene McNultyis Lecturer in English at St Patrick's College (Dublin City University), Ireland. His publications include Ulster Literary Theatre and the Northern Revival (2008).

Patricia Pulhamis Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature at the University of Portsmouth, UK. She is author of Art and the Transitional Object in Vernon Lee's Supernatural Tales (2006), and co-editor of stories by Lee, Hauntings and Other Fantastic Tales (2006) and of Vernon Lee: Decadence, Ethics, Aesthetics (2006).

This exciting collection of essays discusses a wide variety of subjects-including film noir, violence and gender, crime fictions, the hit man, and true crime-under the heading of 'crime culture,' a concept that is both original and thought-provoking. This cutting-edge volume is essential reading for anyone interested in crime narratives. David F. Schmid, Associate Professor, Department of English, University at Buffalo, USA

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