Crime fiction, South Africa : a critical introduction
Crime 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 identi...
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| Language: | English |
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Southern African Literature and Culture Centre
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10962/53743 http://0-dx.doi.org.wam.seals.ac.za/10.1080/1013929X.2013.833416 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9456-8657 |
| Summary: | Crime 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 |
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