Lesbian crime fiction

Lesbian crime fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction that centers lesbian characters and themes.

History

Lesbian crime fiction became increasingly prominent in the United States the 1980s.[1] The genre was influenced by detective fiction, lesbian fiction, and feminist literature. In 1984, Katherine V. Forrest's Amateur City, Sarah Schulman's The Sophie Horowitz Story, and Barbara Wilson's Murder in the Collective were published.[2] Naiad Press published many of the most successful lesbian detective stories in this era, including Forrest's Kate Delafield novels, and works by Nikki Baker, Lauren Wright Douglas, Vicki P. McConnell, and Claire McNab.[1] In Spain, lesbian crime fiction emerged in the 1990s with stories like La soledad del monstruo (1992) and Plumas de doble filo (1999).[3]

Analysis

Lesbian crime fiction generally follows the basic conventions of crime fiction, involving a crime, an impetus to solve it, and red herrings to mislead the detective and reader. In addition to these elements, it also portrays aspects of the lesbian experience.[4] Lesbian crime stories tend to subvert the tropes of crime fiction.[5] JoAnn Pavletich identified "a sense of genre parody, the recognition of a sexist society, an acknowledgment of a friendly community, and contempt for the white-collar business world" as major elements of the lesbian crime novel.[6]

In many lesbian crime novels, the protagonist's search for the criminal is paralleled by her investigation of her own sexuality and nature.[7] Many novels include aspects of both romance and crime fiction.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b Priestman, Martin (2003-11-06). The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-49450-3.
  2. ^ Wilson, Anna (1996). "Death and the Mainstream: Lesbian Detective Fiction and the Killing of the Coming-Out Story". Feminist Studies. 22 (2): 251–278. doi:10.2307/3178413. ISSN 0046-3663.
  3. ^ Pertusa-Seva, Inmaculada; Stewart, Melissa A. (2020-09-23). Spanish Women Authors of Serial Crime Fiction: Repeat Offenders in the 21st Century. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 153–154. ISBN 978-1-5275-5996-7.
  4. ^ Markowitz, Judith A. (2015-02-16). The Gay Detective Novel: Lesbian and Gay Main Characters and Themes in Mystery Fiction. McFarland. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-7864-8277-1.
  5. ^ Posman, Sarah (2006-09-01). "A Bakhtinian Perspective on Feminist Lesbian Crime Writing". CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture. 8 (3). doi:10.7771/1481-4374.1315. ISSN 1481-4374.
  6. ^ Pavletich, JoAnn (1992). "Muscling the Mainstream: Lesbian Murder Mysteries and Fantasies of Justice". Discourse. 15 (1): 94–111. ISSN 1522-5321.
  7. ^ Betz, Phyllis M. (2006-07-24). Lesbian Detective Fiction: Woman as Author, Subject and Reader. McFarland. p. 13. ISBN 978-0-7864-2548-8.
  8. ^ Simpson, Inga (2009-12-01). "Torn between Two Genres: Sex and Romance in Lesbian Detective Fiction". Clues: A Journal of Detection. 27 (2): 9–20. doi:10.3172/CLU.27.2.9. ISSN 0742-4248.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.