Abstract
The fictionalisation of crime has not only become a much-loved pursuit, but also a means of analysing society, even an excuse to do so. This chapter’s contributors are drawn to popular crime fiction, through the analysis of which they also scrutinise culture. Michelle Iwen’s analysis of the Shutter Island novel and its filmic incarnation explores the subjects of insanity, violence and murder, and their relation to medical, philosophical and authority-related discourses. Richard Brown’s work investigates the concept of the ‘millennial’ in relation to Peace and Larsson’s popular crime fiction, to talk about politics, moral crises and terminality. Dave Ireland is also interested in criminal construction in fiction, and in the use of music to portray the cinematic criminal in particular. Through this insight from the area of music psychology, we notice the phenomenon of incongruent music soundtracking violent action, making such moments not only memorable and iconic, but also interpretable in particular ways that relate to identity and space construction, not to mention viewer identification. Staying with the theme of fictionality in crime narratives, Malcah Effron explains how particular novelists set their work apart from reality, justifying its existence and demanding that readers suspend their disbeliefs, while maintaining a firm grasp on legal, readerly reality also.
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© 2012 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Gregoriou, C. (2012). Introduction and Rationale. In: Gregoriou, C. (eds) Constructing Crime. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392083_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392083_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33540-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-39208-3
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