Psychoanalysis and crime fiction

• Type: Chapter or Part of a Book
• Date: 2023

Authors

Valente, Simão (Author) FLUP

Book

Title: The Bloomsbury handbook to literature and psychoanalysis

Pages: 161-172

ISBN: 978-1-3501-8415-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-3501-8416-9; 978-1-3501-8417-6

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Other information

Resumo (PT): The purpose of this chapter is to explore links between psychoanalysis and crime fi ction, in literature and in fi lm. In order to do this, I will look at a case study: Dennis Potter’s TV serial The Singing Detective (1986), directed by Jon Amiel. My main argument is that Potter’s work is nearly encyclopedic in the way it engages with different traditions of crime fi ction and psychoanalytic thought. The relative lack of recent studies on Potter, especially from a comparative approach, motivate to an extent the need to revisit his work, but his complex interweaving of psychoanalytic concepts and crime fi ction tropes also allows for a reconsideration of the fruitful criticism that has been pursued in this interdisciplinary fi eld during the twentieth century and up to the present day. In this respect, my fi rst purpose is to reassess on how different critics engaged with Potter’s exploration of psychoanalytic themes as a way to refl ect on wider debates on the relationship between psychoanalysis and crime fi ction. This will take the form of laying the groundwork for future readings that may be pursued regarding The Singing Detective. (...)

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific