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Dangerous Spaces: Investigating Multimodal Performances in British and Irish Detective Fiction

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Dangerous Spaces: Investigating Multimodal Performances in British and Irish Detective Fiction DANGEROUS SPACES: INVESTIGATING MULTIMODAL PERFORMANCES IN BRITISH AND IRISH DETECTIVE FICTION By KELLY BECK A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2019 © 2019 Kelly Beck For Mom, Dad, Scott, and Julie–my foundation and guiding stars ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would not have been possible without the unfailing support of many people in my professional and personal life. I am especially indebted to my committee chair, Dr. Phillip Wegner, whose positivity, intelligent feedback, and inexhaustible support motivated me throughout every step of this process. Additionally, this project would not have developed as it has without the help and guidance of the other members of my committee. I would like to thank Dr. Marsha Bryant for her indefatigable strength and willingness to think outside the box, Dr. Judith Page for her inspiring joy and selfless nature, Dr. Roger Maioli for his unceasing good humor and ability to see the big picture, and Dr. Charles Mitchell for his continuous kindness and openness to new ideas. Working with this compelling group of people has taught me that passion should always drive my work and influence the choices I make. I must also thank every student I’ve taught over the past twelve years. They have been some of the greatest teachers in my life and always inspire me to give my very best for other people. Specifically, I have to thank the members of my ‘Dissecting a Crime’ and my ‘Forms of Crime Narrative’ classes at the University of Florida. Their enthusiasm and intelligence inspired so much of this project, and I am eternally grateful for their hard work and insightful conversations. Nobody has been more important to me during this process than my amazing group of friends and family. I cannot thank Jill, Heather, Neil, Stacey, and Caitie enough for their nonjudgmental emotional support and love, without which I would not have evolved into the person I am today. 4 Finally, my family has been the most driving force in my life and deserve more thanks than I can give them here. The Barch and Beck families have taught me the importance of community and love no matter how far apart we are. I must thank them for providing strength and laughter when I needed it most, and more importantly, for never letting me forget who I am. Among this group, there are a few who I need to thank by name: Linda, Mackenzie, Chris, Steve, Cathy, Carol, Mary, Grandma, Emma, Ben, Madison, Nicole, Scott, DJ, Julie, Mom, and Dad. They knew I could do this before I did and have been my most ardent cheerleaders. Their love and support inspire me every day to try to be the woman they already think I am. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ 8 LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................................. 9 ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ 10 1 INTRODUCTION: THE FACTS OF THE CASE ........................................................ 12 Historicizing Detective Fiction’s Genre and Form Issues .......................................... 14 Terminology and Framework ...................................................................................... 21 The Plan of This Work ................................................................................................ 28 2 THE TEXT AS AUTHOR-CONSTRUCTED PERFORMANCE SPACE.................... 33 The Dramaturgical Semiotics of a Novelistic Text ..................................................... 35 Spatial Mapping and Crime Scenes ........................................................................... 45 The Temporal Art of Crime Storytelling ...................................................................... 54 Framed! ....................................................................................................................... 60 Mixed Point of View Casts .......................................................................................... 62 The Evolution of First-Person Point of View .............................................................. 70 3 MOVING INSIDE: DOMESTIC SPACES AND THEIR PERFORMANCE POSSIBILITIES ........................................................................................................... 75 The House as Theater ................................................................................................ 77 The Butler Did It! ......................................................................................................... 79 Sensational Women in Dangerous Spaces ............................................................... 81 Hybrid People and Places: Marian Halcombe’s Case for Lead Detective ................ 83 What’s in a Name?: Du Maurier’s Developing Detective ........................................... 89 4 UNDERESTIMATED INVESTIGATORS IN PUBLIC SPACES ................................ 96 It’s Only a Number ...................................................................................................... 97 The Miss Marple Effect and Her Rural Realm ........................................................... 98 Urban Peculiarities and Politically Charged Spaces ................................................104 The Power of Silence When Sleuthing Across Spaces ...........................................110 The Courtroom Scene ..............................................................................................116 The Dock Scene .......................................................................................................119 5 TANA FRENCH’S LIMINAL SPACES AND VOCAL VENTRILOQUISM ................123 6 Worldbuilding and Performative Borderlands ..........................................................126 Fairytale Forests, Secret Gardens, and the Borderlands Between .........................128 Their Secret Garden .................................................................................................132 Showdown with a Psychopath ..................................................................................138 Empty Estates and Dangerous Domestic Liminality ................................................146 Empty Boxes: Interrogation Rooms and Their Theatrical Potential ........................152 A Scene Reading of Connor Brennan’s Interrogation .............................................156 6 CODA ........................................................................................................................165 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................................167 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ..............................................................................................186 7 LIST OF TABLES Table page Table 5-1. Interrogation scenes’ segment breakdown ..................................................157 8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page Figure 2-1. My continuum of Bloch's temporal concepts ................................................ 55 9 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy DANGEROUS SPACES: INVESTIGATING MULTIMODAL PERFORMANCES IN BRITISH AND IRISH DETECTIVE FICTION By Kelly Beck May 2019 Chair: Phillip Wegner Major: English Dangerous Spaces investigates the polyvalent storytelling modalities interwoven in British detective fiction and the ways those modalities rely on human bodies in a variety of spaces. Most critics who explore detective fiction acknowledge the genre’s deep roots in the world of theater, yet they do not delve into the intricacies such assumptions warrant. My dissertation draws upon performance theory to drive its analytical methodology and explores detective fiction’s phenomenological dynamism in new ways. My work participates in Maurizio Ascari’s call to reexamine the genre through a critical lens that illuminates its cross-fertilization with other modes and genres. In this project, I address a missing narrative in the genre’s critical history and explore one of the foundational elements of both detective fiction and theatrical performance: space and its performative possibilities. I argue that detective fiction authors, who also have a background in theater, transcode signification systems from performance and literary creation processes into a new hybrid writing style that relies on spatial awareness and place-making practices in more dynamic ways than critics have previously noted. Reading detective fiction through a performance and spatial lens allows texts in its canon to share the stage with other novels not traditionally included under the detective 10 fiction label. Putting these texts in conversation, Dangerous Spaces maps a variety of literary places and examines the ways authors and fictional detectives with an acute performance consciousness engage space during crime scene investigations, witness interviews, and suspect interrogations. Questions about liminality, perception, mythic space, power struggles, and mimetic imagination converge throughout Dangerous Spaces’ foray into the world
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