Deconstructing True Crime Literature

By Charlotte Barnes

This book provides a critical discussion of True Crime literature, arguing for the deconstruction of the genre into subgenres that better reflect a work's contents. In analysing seminal and lesser-known works, the areas of authenticity, accuracy, and author proximity are considered to form a framework on which an individual publication's subgenre (re)categorisation can be assessed. The book considers the likes of Ann Rule, Truman Capote, and Maggie Nelson, among other notable authors. Their works - those that fit into True Crime and those that defy categorisation within the genre as it exists - are reviewed, and their defining features critiqued. Topics such as narrative methodologies, figurative language, and utilisation of research are considered in support of this. These strands combine to a larger discussion regarding a deconstruction of True Crime, and the ways in which this will improve the social responsibility of the genre, and encourage a more conscientious consumerism of it.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3031410440
• ISBN13: 9783031410444
• Release Date: September 2023
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.3"