Return to the scene of the crime: The returnee detective and postcolonial crime fiction

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dc.contributor.advisorSamuelson, Megen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorYoung, Sandraen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorNaicker, Kamilen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2017-09-26T14:53:16Z
dc.date.available2017-09-26T14:53:16Z
dc.date.issued2017en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis thesis investigates the ways in which the crime novel genre has been taken up and adapted in order to depict and grapple with ideas of justice in selected postcolonial contexts. It approaches this investigation through the figure of the 'returnee detective' in these texts and determines how this recurring figure is used to mediate the reader's understanding of civil conflict in the postcolonial world. What makes this trope so noteworthy, and merits investigation, is the way in which guilt and innocence (and their attendant associations of self and other) are forced into realignment by the end of colonial rule and the rise of civil conflict. In the context of civil war, crime becomes more insidious and intimate than the traditional mystery motif will allow. The returnee detective furthers this breakdown by performing the role of hybrid mediator within the text. The returnee figure is at once strange and familiar, lacking both the staunch sense of identity that is necessary in order to maintain the mystery of the 'other' and the objectivity to comfortably apportion blame to one side. Postcolonial fictions of crime set in the context of civil conflict thus emerge as belonging to a distinct category requiring a distinct critical approach. The primary texts are When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje, The Long Night of White Chickens by Francisco Goldman, Red Dust by Gillian Slovo and Crossbones by Nuruddin Farah. My theoretical framework combines genre theory and postcolonial theory. By combining two critical strands I demonstrate that the intimacy of civil war and the returnees' ambivalent attitudes to home and away unsettle crime genre conventions, producing a new form that challenges notions of morality, legitimacy and culpability.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationNaicker, K. (2017). <i>Return to the scene of the crime: The returnee detective and postcolonial crime fiction</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25397en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationNaicker, Kamil. <i>"Return to the scene of the crime: The returnee detective and postcolonial crime fiction."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25397en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationNaicker, K. 2017. Return to the scene of the crime: The returnee detective and postcolonial crime fiction. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Naicker, Kamil AB - This thesis investigates the ways in which the crime novel genre has been taken up and adapted in order to depict and grapple with ideas of justice in selected postcolonial contexts. It approaches this investigation through the figure of the 'returnee detective' in these texts and determines how this recurring figure is used to mediate the reader's understanding of civil conflict in the postcolonial world. What makes this trope so noteworthy, and merits investigation, is the way in which guilt and innocence (and their attendant associations of self and other) are forced into realignment by the end of colonial rule and the rise of civil conflict. In the context of civil war, crime becomes more insidious and intimate than the traditional mystery motif will allow. The returnee detective furthers this breakdown by performing the role of hybrid mediator within the text. The returnee figure is at once strange and familiar, lacking both the staunch sense of identity that is necessary in order to maintain the mystery of the 'other' and the objectivity to comfortably apportion blame to one side. Postcolonial fictions of crime set in the context of civil conflict thus emerge as belonging to a distinct category requiring a distinct critical approach. The primary texts are When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro, Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje, The Long Night of White Chickens by Francisco Goldman, Red Dust by Gillian Slovo and Crossbones by Nuruddin Farah. My theoretical framework combines genre theory and postcolonial theory. By combining two critical strands I demonstrate that the intimacy of civil war and the returnees' ambivalent attitudes to home and away unsettle crime genre conventions, producing a new form that challenges notions of morality, legitimacy and culpability. DA - 2017 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2017 T1 - Return to the scene of the crime: The returnee detective and postcolonial crime fiction TI - Return to the scene of the crime: The returnee detective and postcolonial crime fiction UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25397 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/25397
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationNaicker K. Return to the scene of the crime: The returnee detective and postcolonial crime fiction. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2017 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25397en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherEnglish Literatureen_ZA
dc.subject.otherDetective Fictionen_ZA
dc.titleReturn to the scene of the crime: The returnee detective and postcolonial crime fictionen_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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