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The Language of Suspense in Crime Fiction

A Linguistic Stylistic Approach

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Reshmi Dutta-Flanders

    1. School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent School of European Culture and Languages, Canterbury, United Kingdom

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  • Offers an interdisciplinary perspective on how criminality is presented in a criminal narrative
  • Addresses recent advances and interest in crime studies in literature, forensic linguistics and social sciences
  • Bridges the literary/linguistic divide through macro and microstructure analysis of popular texts

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Introduction

    • Reshmi Dutta-Flanders
    Pages 1-4

  3. Manipulated Context

    • Reshmi Dutta-Flanders
    Pages 5-136

  4. Double Function

    • Reshmi Dutta-Flanders
    Pages 137-186

  5. Disposition

    • Reshmi Dutta-Flanders
    Pages 187-407

  6. Orientation

    • Reshmi Dutta-Flanders
    Pages 409-456

  7. Contrasting Mind-styles

    • Reshmi Dutta-Flanders
    Pages 457-473

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 475-500
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Keywords

About this book

This book introduces readers to linguistic stylistic analysis and combines both literary and linguistic analysis to explore suspense in crime fiction. Employing critical linguistics, discourse analysis and functional grammar, it demonstrates that suspense in plot-based stories is created through non-linear, causative presentation of the narrative. The author investigates how plot sequence is manipulated to ensure the reader cannot resolve the order of events until the end of the tale. From two-dimensional circumstantial detection in mystery stories to three-dimensional re-evaluation of offender orientation, she uses a linguistic-based stylistic framework to analyse offender motive. She also employs a 'discourse-based' frame analysis to examine the plot structure of crime stories for micro context and set-up scenarios, demonstrating that it is the unravelling of these devices that creates the suspense in murder mysteries and thrillers alike. Finally, she shows how grammaticization of the offending-self reveals an embedded diegetic space in the offender engagement discourse, provoking an intellectual and affective response and reshaping our overall outlook of the crime in the story. This book will appeal to researchers and students from literary and non-literary backgrounds looking for theoretical and practical advice on the linguistic stylistic approach to reading texts.

Reviews

“The Language of Suspense is certainly characterised by vastness and richness in terms of analytical tools, bibliographical references and primary texts. … the theories and considerations systematically presented, employed and proposed by Dutta-Flanders constitute a valuable aid to tackle crime discourse, and gain insights into the effects generated by specific rhetorical devices and textual patterns.” (Esterino Adami, Altre Modernità, Issue 21, May, 2019)

“This book makes an extremely valuable contribution to the stylistic and narratological analysis of crime fiction, and serves as a valuable companion work for fans of the genre.” (Jia Xiaoqing, Style, Vol. 52 (4), 2018)



“A contemporary and unique analysis delving into the mind of the fictional killer. By providing this linguistic analysis of the killer’s speech and thoughts, and by connecting this to evidence from real-life perpetrators, we are given insight into the psychological self-justification for their fictional crimes - something noticeably absent from stylistic analyses.” (Sam D'Elia, University of Kent, UK)

“Reshmi Dutta-Flanders offers a challenging stylistic account of crime fiction drawing on a number of theoretical approaches. Her book is to be welcomed as one of the very few stylistic studies of a genre rather than an individual author. I would recommend this for final year stylistic students or those starting post-graduate studies.” (Tony Bex, University of Kent, ex-Chair, Poetics and Linguistics Association)

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent School of European Culture and Languages, Canterbury, United Kingdom

    Reshmi Dutta-Flanders

About the author

Reshmi Dutta-Flanders is Honorary Research Fellow at the English Language and Linguistics Department of the University of Kent, UK, where she teaches on a range of topics, including World Englishes, Language in the Media, Semiotics and Stylistics. Her research interests lie in functional nativeness in English language, signs in crime, and in the structure and grammar of crime discourse in criminal narratives, especially offender engagement discourse in crime fiction and in true crime narratives.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Language of Suspense in Crime Fiction

  • Book Subtitle: A Linguistic Stylistic Approach

  • Authors: Reshmi Dutta-Flanders

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47028-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-47027-0Published: 04 May 2017

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-47028-7Published: 26 April 2017

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 500

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Stylistics, Fiction, Literature, general, Semantics, Discourse Analysis

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