British and American Crime Fiction from the Perspective of Non-Places
Provider: Grantová agentura ČR
Programme: Standardní projekty
Implementation period: 01.01.25 - 31.12.27
Workplace:
Fakulta filozofická - Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky
Investigator: Bubíková ŠárkaTeam member: Roebuck Olga
Description:
The project proposes a novel approach to analyzing crime fiction from the perspective of non-place. Rather than a spatiality study, it utilizes the concept of non-places to investigate how the narrative use of such transitory, unstable, liminal places underscores themes of social dislocation, alienation, isolation, migration, globalization, or even environmental crisis. We assume that in crime narratives, non-places operate as spatial entities as well as metaphors for the human condition; what other narrative functions they can perform is to be investigated. The project expands on the applicant’s research on recent British and American crime fiction, which focused on how the sense of place is achieved in clearly defined places of the city, the countryside, and the wilderness where the characters were rooted and felt at home. This project proposes to analyze the narrative role of non-places in which characters feel alienated, dislocated, or treated as the other. It adds a diachronic perspective by not limiting the corpus to contemporary works.
The project proposes a novel approach to analyzing crime fiction from the perspective of non-place. Rather than a spatiality study, it utilizes the concept of non-places to investigate how the narrative use of such transitory, unstable, liminal places underscores themes of social dislocation, alienation, isolation, migration, globalization, or even environmental crisis. We assume that in crime narratives, non-places operate as spatial entities as well as metaphors for the human condition; what other narrative functions they can perform is to be investigated. The project expands on the applicant’s research on recent British and American crime fiction, which focused on how the sense of place is achieved in clearly defined places of the city, the countryside, and the wilderness where the characters were rooted and felt at home. This project proposes to analyze the narrative role of non-places in which characters feel alienated, dislocated, or treated as the other. It adds a diachronic perspective by not limiting the corpus to contemporary works.
