feminist crime fiction-gavin Flashcards
Has Crime fiction flourished in both male and female fiction?
Yes
Has female crime writers and investigators expressing issues of female concern been an integral part from the start?
Yes
name some female writers
agatha chrisite, dorothy L. sayers, P.D James, Sue Crafton, Patrica Cornwell
what are these female detectives?
independent, confident, clever
What do the lady detectives use for method?
The power of observation of domestic environments and human behavior and knowledge
Why do lady detectives become detectives?
Because fate has made it nescerray or to clear the name of a male relative.
when do the young attractive cease to sleuth?
when they marry.
who have longer sleuth careers?
The old spinsters, widows, female investigators created by women.
who is the first female detective?
Andrew Forrester’s, Mrs G (Gladden) in 1864 in the casebook “The female detective” and william Haywards “Mrs. Paschal.
Are Mrs Paschal and Mrs G first person narrators?
Yes, who work for the British Police
What influeencd the rise of female crime fiction?
Sensation novels of the 1860s were also infl uential in the rise of female crime fi ction.
were sensation novels renderd innappropriate and dangerous for women to read?
yes
who is the most significant writer of fictional female detection?
Anna Kaharine Green “The leavenworth case” (1878)
What is 19th century detective fiction seen as?
conservative and conventional, with cases neatly solved and moral order restored.
What must the detectives choose between?
the detectives must decide between love and detection, and both choose career (
What do female women sleuths tend to be?
Fictional women sleuths up until 1940, as Kungl notes, tend to be middle class,
to confi rm class boundaries, and often use their knowledge of class differences to solve
crimes
name a teenager sleuth?
Nancy Drew (Carolyn Keene)
what did the inter war years see a rise of ?
The inter - war years saw the development of daring and active girl sleuths and the
rise of male hard - boiled detective fi ction in which the primary female role was femme
fatale
What characterise the intewar years in terms of fictional detectives?
Women fi ctional detectives, by contrast, became older, less physically active,
and more concerned with crimes in their immediate locale.
How are the spinsters visible to readers?
By portraying older women as skilled,
successful, and central to their narratives, their creators insist that these mature
women are made visible to readers.
what can be found traces of in Jane Marple?
Traces of Green ’ s prototypical Amelia Butterworth can be found in these golden
age female sleuths, the most famous of whom is Agatha Christie ’ s Miss Jane Marple
what characterises Jane Marple?
Distinguished by her village
geography (St Mary Mead) and pastimes – knitting, gardening, and bird - watching
– Miss Marple has moral force, intelligence, an inquisitive nature, excellent knowledge
of human behavior, and pays attention to details.
What are golden age female detectives concerned about?
Golden age female detective fi ction is often concerned with human relationships,
social and cultural concerns, and women ’ s position.
what difficulties did women face ?
balancing professional and private life. Fearing it may
damage her independence, V
Why was intution rejected as a way to solve cases?
in part because of the
fair play rule of golden age detective fi ction that required providing the reader with
the same clues the detective has, and in part because it marginalizes female logic and
intellect
What is the female hard boiled in response to?
The female hard - boiled tradition is in part a feminist response to male hard - boiled
writing, but also owes much to previous female detection.
what were christie and saysers struggling against?
a woman struggling against “ Victorian ideals of womanhood
What is the feminst desire according to Gavin?
Millhone enacts the feminist desire to “ blow away ” male violence towards women
What is central to female hard-boiled?
Violence is also central to several female hard - boiled variants that appeared in the
late 1980s and 1990s
Name, the first fi ctional feminist lesbian sleuth
Chicana detective Kat Guerrera who
appeared in M. F. Beal ’ s Angel Dance (1977).
What is central in Kathy Reich’s novels about Temperance Brennan
Forensic detection
What is the job of Temperance Brennan?
Forensic anthropolosgist
where are the novels of kathy Reichs manily set?
Montreal and north carolina
What is humanistic crime fiction=
This tradition moves away from hard - boiled, streetwise toughness and places the
detective ’ s psychology and human and social issues at its core.
How do writers handle detecion and motherhood?
Detection and motherhood in fi ction still rarely
mesh, although proportionally more black female detectives than white seem to
be mothers. Nevertheless, “ [c]hildren do not come fi rst, ” are old enough “ to look
after themselves if need be ” and other people help with them when the detective
is on the case
Is hard-boild female detectives motherhood marginalised?
Yes, hard - boiled female detectives motherhood is marginalized, for contemporary female
detectives it is, if not always central, at least mentioned.
What is the central concern in detective fiction?
The central concern of feminist crime fi ction remains violence against women
