Overview

New essays by leading scholars examining today's vibrant and innovative German crime fiction, along with its historical background. Although George Bernard Shaw quipped that ""the Germans lack talent for two things: revolution and crime novels,"" there is a long tradition of German crime fiction; it simply hasn't aligned itself with international trends. Duringthe 1920s, German-language writers dispensed with the detective and focused instead on criminals, a trend that did not take hold in other countries until after 1945, by which time Germany had gone on to produce antidetective novels that were similarly ahead of their time. German crime fiction has thus always been a curious case; rather than follow the established rules of the genre, it has always been interested in examining, breaking, and ultimately rewriting those rules. This book assembles leading international scholars to examine today's German crime fiction. It features innovative scholarly work that matches the innovativeness of the genre, taking up the Regionalkrimi;crime fiction's reimagining and transforming of traditional identities; historical crime fiction that examines Germany's and Austria's conflicted twentieth-century past; and how the newly vibrant Austrian crime fiction ties in with and differentiates itself from its German counterpart. Contributors: Angelika Baier, Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, Kyle Frackman, Sascha Gerhards, Heike Henderson, Susanne C. Knittel, Anita McChesney, Traci S. O'Brien,Jon Sherman, Faye Stewart, Magdalena Waligorska. Lynn M. Kutch is Professor of German at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. Todd Herzog is Professor and Head of the Department of German Studies at the University of Cincinnati.

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9781571135711

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This volume offers a rich insight into contemporary German-language crime fiction and its emerging trends. . . . (T)he extensive analysis of currently untranslated texts--with quotations in English--performs an important function, too, especially as it serves to encourage more translations of German-language crime novels in future. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (Katharina Hall)

This volume offers a rich insight into contemporary German-language crime fiction and its emerging trends. . . . (T)he extensive analysis of currently untranslated texts--with quotations in English--performs an important function, too, especially as it serves to encourage more translations of German-language crime novels in future. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (Katharina Hall) The volume's focus on contemporary trends in German-language crime ?ction o?ers a welcome corrective to (the widespread lack of knowledge of German-language crime ?ction in the English-speaking world), as does its exploration of the peculiarly German twists of the genre in its three sections on place, history, and identity. . . . (R)ich and diverse . . . highly recommended for researchers of genre ?ction, whether working in German Studies or beyond: quotations are provided in German and English, and an extensive bibliography(y) direct(s) readers to resources in both languages. . . . Tatort Germany/ o?ers a rich insight into contemporary German-language crime ?ction and the genre's emerging trends. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW (Katharina Hall)

Author Information

KYLE FRACKMAN is Associate Professor of German & Scandinavian Studies at the University of British Columbia. Sascha Andreas Gerhards is a Visiting Assistant Professor of German at Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH

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