Detective Fiction in a Postcolonial and Transnational World

Taking up a neglected area in the study of the crime novel, this collection investigates the growing number of writers who adapt conventions of detective fiction to expose problems of law, ethics, and truth that arise in postcolonial and transnational communities. While detective fiction has been linked to imperialism and constructions of race from its earliest origins, recent developments signal the evolution of the genre into a potent framework for narrating the complexities of identity, citizenship, and justice in a postcolonial world. Among the authors considered are Vikram Chandra, Gabriel García Márquez, Michael Ondaatje, Patrick Chamoiseau, Mario Vargas Llosa, Suki Kim, and Walter Mosley. The essays explore detective stories set in Latin America, the Caribbean, India, and North America, including novels that view the American metropolis from the point of view of Asian American, African American, or Latino characters. Offering ten new and original essays by scholars in the field, this volume highlights the diverse employment of detective fictions internationally, and uncovers important political and historical subtexts of popular crime novels. Contents 6 Notes on Contributors 8 Introduction: Open Cases: Detection, (Post)Modernity, and the State • Nels Pearson and Marc Singer 12 1 Investigating Truth, History, and Human Rights in Michael Ondaatje’s Anil’s Ghost • Emily S. Davis 26 2 Postcolonial Noir: Vikram Chandra’s “Kama” • Claire Chambers 42 3 Postcolonial Epistemologies: Transcending Boundaries and Re-inscribing Difference in The Calcutta Chromosome • Maureen Lauder 58 4 Detective Narrative Typology: Going Undercover in the French Caribbean • Jason Herbeck 74 5 Out on Parole: Suspending Oral Culture’s Death Sentence in Patrick Chamoiseau’s Solibo magnifique • Greg Wright 92 6 A Journey Lost in Mystery: Mario Vargas Llosa’s Death in the Andes • Haiqing Sun 108 7 The Hunt for the World’s Greatest Outlaw: Imperialist Policing, the Journalistic Novel, and the “War on Terror” in Colombia • Robin Truth Goodman 126 8 “Sympathetic Traveling”: Horizontal Ethics and Aesthetics in Paco Ignacio Taibo’s Belascoarán Shayne Novels • Jennifer Lewis 146 9 Hot on the Heels of Transnational America: The Case of the atina Detective • Wendy Knepper 168 10 Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress: The Reforming Spirit of Neo-Noir • Raphaël Lambert 192 11 Lost in Translation: The Multicultural Interpreter as Metaphysical Detective in Suki Kim’s The Interpreter • Soo Yeon Kim 206 Index 220 "Taking up a neglected area in the study of the crime novel, this collection investigates the growing number of writers who adapt conventions of detective fiction to expose problems of law, ethics, and truth that arise in postcolonial and transnational communities. While detective fiction has been linked to imperialism and constructions of race from its earliest origins, recent developments signal the evolution of the genre into a potent framework for narrating the complexities of identity, citizenship, and justice in a postcolonial world." --Book Jacket

Taking up a neglected area in the study of the crime novel, this collection investigates the growing number of writers who adapt conventions of detective fiction to expose problems of law, ethics, and truth that arise in postcolonial and transnational communities. While detective fiction has been linked to imperialism and constructions of race from its earliest origins, recent developments signal the evolution of the genre into a potent framework for narrating the complexities of identity, citizenship, and justice in a postcolonial world.

Taking up a neglected area in the study of the crime novel, this collection investigates the growing number of writers who adapt conventions of detective fiction to expose problems of law, ethics, and identity that arise in postcolonial and transnational settings. Essays explore novels set in Latin America, the Caribbean, India, and North America, including novels that view the American metropolis through the eyes of minority detectives