Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Advanced seminar in literary works in English, mainly from regions other than Canada, Britain and the United States. The course may focus on one or several literatures or individual authors, and will be organized according to specific critical methodologies. This course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Aotearoa/New Zealand Crime Fiction

When we think of Aotearoa/New Zealand literature, we tend to think of names such as the early 20^th century short story writer Katherine Mansfield or the mid-century novelist Janet Frame or the contemporary author Witi Ihimaera who was the first Māori writer to publish both a book of short stories and a novel. The works of these writers, and others, attest to the fact that there is a robust and multifaceted literary scene in this island nation.

In this course, we will shift our attention away from canonical literature and onto the genre of crime fiction. Aotearoa/New Zealand boasts some of the 20^th and 21st centuries'  most interesting and accomplished crime fiction writers. We’ll start with Christchurch’s Ngaio Marsh who was considered one of the early 20^th century’s “Queens of Crime.” We then move on to contemporary writers Paul Thomas, Vanda Symon, Paul Cleave, and Jonathan Cullinane, all of whom have written award winning and/or best-selling crime novels. We will end the course with a "collaboration" between Ngaio Marsh and contemporary author Stella Duffy.

We will start by establishing the genre’s conventions: the British country house tradition, the American hardboiled PI, and the police procedural. We will then look at how the genre travels – how do crime fiction conventions hold up when the crimes they detail are committed, and investigated, in a nation far from the genre’s English and American birthplaces?  And how do the national, cultural, political, and ethnic realities of contemporary Aotearoa/New Zealand reshape the genre? These are some of the questions this course will explore.

Please be aware that some of these texts deal with explicit and violent material that some students may find troubling.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: