Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-180) and index.
Contents:
A case of arrested development : Kazuo Ishiguro's when we were orphans -- Investigating the pathologist: Michael Ondaatje's Anil's ghost -- Death of an idea : Francisco Goldman's the long night of white chickens -- A foreign country: Gillian Slovo's red dust -- Hijacked narrative: Nuruddin Farah's crossbones
Summary:
"At once disturbing and perversely comforting, the crime novel has historically been used to curtail social anxieties through the 'open and shut case' of its narrative form. But what happens to that form in a world where guilt and innocence cannot be so easily assigned? Return to the Scene of the Crime takes on the trope of the investigator who returns to the postcolony on a quest for knowledge. In tandem with solving the case, they must also grapple with the complexities of their own origins. Kamil Naicker shows how five authors defy generic expectation in order to illustrate the complexity of personal identity, transitional justice and civil violence in the postcolonial world. Bringing together novels set in South Africa, China, Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Somalia, this book makes a marked intervention in the field of literary studies, by both bringing to light the trend of the returnee figure and exploring the possibilities of world-making through the explosion of a familiar form."-- Cover p. 4.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.