French Crime Fiction, 1945û2005: Investigating World War II

In the first major study of representations of World War II in French crime fiction, Margaret-Anne Hutton draws on a corpus of over a hundred texts spanning more than sixty years (1940-2005). Included are both well-known writers (male and female) such as Simenon, Siniac, Jonquet, Daeninckx, Aubert and Manotti, as well as a broad range of lesser-known authors. Hutton's introduction situates her study within the larger framework of literary representations of World War II, setting the stage for her discussions of genre theories; the problem of defining crime, criminal, and victim in the context of the war; and the epistemological issues that arise in the relationship between World War II historiography and the crime novel. Filling a gap in the fields of crime fiction and fictional representations of the War, Hutton's book calls into question the way both crime fiction and the French theater of World War II have been codified. In doing so, she offers alternatives to the dominant narratives of the war.