The Cambridge Companion to World Crime Fiction

The first systematic account of crime fiction as a global genre, offering unprecedented coverage of distinct traditions across the world.

Jesper Gulddal (Edited by), Stewart King (Edited by), Alistair Rolls (Edited by)

9781108723350, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 April 2022

320 pages
22.9 x 15.1 x 1.7 cm, 0.49 kg

Accessible yet comprehensive, this first systematic account of crime fiction across the globe offers a deep and thoroughly nuanced understanding of the genre's transnational history. Offering a lucid account of the major theoretical issues and comparative perspectives that constitute world crime fiction, this book introduces readers to the international crime fiction publishing industry, the translation and circulation of crime fiction, international crime fiction collections, the role of women in world crime fiction, and regional forms of crime fiction. It also illuminates the past and present of crime fiction in various supranational regions across the world, including East and South Asia, the Arab World, Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Scandinavia, as well as three spheres defined by a shared language, namely the Francophone, Lusophone, and Hispanic worlds. Thoroughly-researched and broad in scope, this book is as valuable for general readers as for undergraduate and postgraduate students of popular fiction and world literature.

1. What is world crime fiction? Jesper Gulddal and Stewart King
2. Crime fiction and the international publishing industry Karl Berglund
3. The translation and circulation of crime fiction Susan Bassnett and Brigid Maher
4. The international crime fiction collection Barbara Pezzotti
5. Regional crime fiction Andrew Pepper
6. Women in world crime fiction Nicole Kenley
7. East Asian crime fiction Satoru Saito
8. Crime fiction in South Asia Laura Brueck and Francesca Orsini
9. Arab crime fiction Jonathan Smolin
10. The crime fiction of sub-saharan Africa Désiré Nyela
11. European crime fiction Jesper Gulddal and Stewart King
12. Scandinavian crime fiction Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen
13. Iberian and Latin American crime fiction Glen S. Close and Elena Losada Soler
14. World crime fiction in French Jarrod Hayes and Alistair Rolls
Further Reading.

Subject Areas: Crime & criminology [JKV], Classic crime [FFC], Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers [DSK]