Chapter 1 - Reading Crime Fiction through Fourth-Wave Feminism and #MeToo

Summary

Crime fiction is changing in the age of #MeToo. Traditionally, crime fiction has focused on a detective—typically a white cisgender male—solving crime by discovering the truth and restoring the status quo. This generic formula has frequently led to the crime genre being accused of conservatism and perpetuating white patriarchy. However, my book is concerned with how crime fiction in the age of #MeToo radically interrogates and shifts this conventional approach. I examine the profound thematic and stylistic changes in crime fiction inspired by the powerful movements of fourth-wave feminism and #MeToo and their resistance to patriarchal violence and white male supremacy. My investigation triangulates contemporary crime fiction, fourth-wave feminism, and #MeToo, to investigate the genre's crucial role in advocating for change.

This book is situated in the cultural and intellectual space created by the #MeToo movement and fourth-wave feminism. #MeToo has brought crime fiction to a critical point of reflection on the genre and the need for innovation and change. Similarly, fourth-wave feminism has highlighted the importance of communication and using popular culture as a means of generating solidarity and creating feminist communities. It is important to note that fourth-wave feminism and #MeToo are more than merely context for this book; they inform and shape my methodology based on theories, concepts, and terminology from these two movements. My study thus identifies and employs five major fourth-wave feminist themes and their representation in crime fiction, namely #MeToo, rape culture, toxic masculinity, LGBTQ+ perspectives, and transgender. Each of this book's chapters employs specific critical vocabulary and concepts from fourth-wave feminist debates and #MeToo discourses to analyze these specific topics in crime fiction. While some crime fiction continues to reproduce white heteropatriarchy despite fourth-wave feminism and #MeToo, investigating those books would be the subject of another study. The purpose of my present book is to analyze contemporary crime fiction which engages progressively, constructively, and creatively with fourth-wave feminism and the #MeToo movement. Although the subjects of gender and feminism have been researched extensively in relation to crime fiction, a specific focus on #MeToo and fourth-wave feminist concepts has been lacking thus far. Through actively re-reading and evaluating examples of earlier twentieth-century canonical crime fiction compared with contemporary crime literature, my book offers an in-depth and extensive examination of crime fiction and its engagement with fourth-wave feminism and the #MeToo movement.