Contemporary European Crime Fiction: Representing History and Politics

Description

This book represents the first extended consideration of contemporary crime fiction as a European phenomenon. Understanding crime fiction in its broadest sense, as a transmedia practice, and offering unique insights into this practice in specific European countries and as a genuinely transcontinental endeavour, this book argues that the distinctiveness of the form can be found in its related historical and political inquiries. It asks how the genre’s excavation of Europe’s history of violence and protest in the twentieth century is informed by contemporary political questions. It also considers how the genre’s progressive reimagining of new identities forged at the crossroads of ethnicity, gender, and sexuality is offset by its bleaker assessment of the corrosive effects of entrenched social inequalities, political corruption, and state violence. The result is a rich, vibrant collection that shows how crime fiction can help us better understand the complex relationship between Europe’s past, present, and future.  Seven chapters are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.  Contents Notes on Contributors Chapter 1: Introduction The Internationalization of European Crime Fiction European Crime Fiction as Political Critique History and Trauma Europe: Past, Present, Future Contemporary European Crime Fiction: Representing History and Politics Works Cited Part I: Contemporary European Crime Narratives about World War I and World War II Chapter 2: Where’s the Empire? Loss, Geopolitical Agency and Imperial Longing in Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs Series The War “Is Not Over When It Ends”: Mobilizing the Dead and the Wounded Maisie and the Imagined Community: “After All, Your Country Needs You” Conclusion: The Absent and Present Empire Works Cited Chapter 3: The Fingerprints of Fascism: Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther Novels, Nazi Noir, and the Continuing Presence of the Past Nazism: A Collective Cultural Legacy Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther Novels Crime Writing as Didactic/Memorial Fiction Crime Fiction and the Nazi Past Conclusion: A European Stain Works Cited Chapter 4: Noir Bearing Gifts: The Greek Shoah and Its Memory in Philip Kerr’s Greeks Bearing Gifts The Historical Context: The Jewish Community of Thessaloniki and the Memory of the Greek Shoah Greeks Bearing Gifts Conclusion Works Cited Chapter 5: Confronting Memories: The Case of Babylon Berlin Berlin as a Production Site and Narrative Cityscape Detecting Babylon’s Locations Like a Weimar Film Babylon and Its Narrative Complexity Gereon Rath and the Serialization of the Traumatic Experience Charlotte Ritter: A Police Flapper of the Weimar Urban Modernity Conclusion: Remediating European Memories Works Cited Part II: Contemporary European Crime Narratives about the Post-World War II Era Chapter 6: Crime for a Higher Cause: The Baader Meinhof Complex and The Left Wing Gang Terrorism and Media RAF and the Dark Heritage Internationalization of German Heritage Hollywood Genres The Left Wing Gang: “It is all about politics” “We Are Not Rote Armee Fraktion” Rehearsal and Performance Conclusion Works Cited Chapter 7: No Future and Spectrality in David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet From 1974 to Year Zero UK Decay Future Is Written Works Cited Chapter 8: The Trails of a Counter-Narrative: The Representation of the Years of Lead in Loriano Macchiavelli’s Sarti Antonio Series Historical Perspectives: Anni di Piombo, Italian Narrative and Loriano Macchiavelli Living in an Age of Terrorism: The Fictionalization of Facts in the Sarti Series Unconventional Characters: The Importance of Irony Towards the Years of Noir Works Cited Chapter 9: Didier Daeninckx, Le roman noir de l’Histoire (2019): Dismantling the Tale of French History through Disseminated Micro-Histories Noir Novel, Crime Fiction and Journalistic Counter-Inquiry (Re)montage, millefeuille and Rejects: A New Form of Fragmented History A “political memory” to Undermine the National Tale Conclusion Works Cited Chapter 10: Revisioning the Past to Build the Democratic Future: The Cases of Italian and Spanish Crime Fiction Works Cited Part III: Contemporary European Crime Narratives about the Post-1989 Era Chapter 11: How Does Crime Fiction ‘talk politics’? Figures of Political Action in Contemporary French Crime Writing Politics in Crime Fiction: From Militants to Situations Political Militancy as a Background Element Internationalizing Political Action Political Subjectivities and Engagements Involuntary and Tragic Commitments A Place of Disarray Conclusion: Towards a Typology of Contemporary Political Figures and Actions Works Cited Chapter 12: Shadow Economies: The Financial Crisis and European TV Crime Series The Financial Crisis and the Crisis of Representation Follow the Money Bad Banks Conclusion Works Cited Chapter 13: A ‘Bottom-Up’ Approach to Transcultural Identities: Petra and Women Detectives in Italian TV Crime Drama Theoretical Framework and Key Concepts Polyphonic Adaptation as Mediated Transcultural Encounter: Petra’s Journey from Barcelona to Genoa Petra as Feminist Palimpsest Conclusion Works Cited Chapter 14: The Excavation of History and the Quest for Identity in Contemporary Polish Crime Fiction Works Cited Chapter 15: Euroscapes: Space, Place, and Multi-Level Governance in European Television Crime Series The Multi-Level Governance Model Crime Narratives as European Storyworlds or Conceptual Maps The Poetics of Space and Place in European Crime Series Examples of European Television Crime Series Conclusion: Cohesion Through Doubt? Works Cited Index