Postcolonial Crime Fiction

Crime fiction has often been read as formulaic and conventional, a genre that confirms dominant ideology and re-establishes the belief in a coherent, knowable self and society. Contemporary crime novels often challenge such claims by destabilising notions of law and justice and by focusing on the complexities and contradictions of contemporary societies. Postcolonial crime fiction, in particular, engages with traditional conceptions of the role of narratives about crime and the nation in various ways. We will begin this course by examining the connections between 19th-century crime fiction, such as Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, and empire. To what extent is Doyle’s detective fiction an attempt at reinforcing ideas of a ‘pure’ Englishness at the imperial centre, as opposed to the ‘degenerate’ colonial periphery? Does it question or empower British imperialism? From these questions we will move on to discuss an Indian counterpart of Sherlock Holmes, Byomkesh Bakshi, before engaging with three contemporary postcolonial crime novels: Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans (2000), Mukoma wa Ngugi’s Nairobi Heat (2009) and Lauren Beukes’s Zoo City (2010). All three novels can be read as postcolonial takes on popular subgenres of crime fiction, the classical detective story, the African-American police procedural as well as the hard-boiled detective novel. At the same time, all three of them resist clear categorisation and open up questions about the appropriateness of genre distinctions in contemporary literature. Required Reading : Arthur Conan Doyle: -The Speckled Band” Saradindu Bandyopadhyay: -The Menagerie” Kazuo Ishiguro: When We Were Orphans Mukoma Wa Ngugi: Nairobi Heat Lauren Beukes: Zoo City Any edition of the three novels will do. -The Speckled Band” and -The Menagerie” will be made available to you. Gasthörendenstudium Assessment Tasks – will be specified in class Registration – Stud.IP StudIP 1.3.2015 - 31.3.2015 Size restriction – 30 Prerequisites – AmerBritF1 obligatory, BritF3 desirable (for FüBA and MEd students), none for others Further Information – verena.jain-warden@engsem.~ BritF4 Universität Hannover SoSe 2015 Englisch, Master LA Gymnasium (M. A.) Jain Warden Verena M A