Gillian Flynn’s Small Town Crime Fiction

This paper addresses the profound sense of place in Gillian Flynn's crime fiction, which transpires through the locale of the small town. Distinguishing between setting and landscape, the analyses of Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl reveal a tendency in the genre towards more realistic...

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Main Author: Antoine Dechêne
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Dalhousie University 2023-12-01
Series:Belphégor
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/belphegor/5573
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author Antoine Dechêne
author_facet Antoine Dechêne
author_sort Antoine Dechêne
collection DOAJ
description This paper addresses the profound sense of place in Gillian Flynn's crime fiction, which transpires through the locale of the small town. Distinguishing between setting and landscape, the analyses of Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl reveal a tendency in the genre towards more realistic and social narratives which blend melancholic atmospheres and characters into complex storyworlds highlighted with metaphysical overtones. The article's overall claim is that Flynn's crime fiction has an important social dimension reminiscent of the hard-boiled. Her novels indeed explore new avenues of a form of rural hard-boiled in which there are no tough guys or super villains, but rather ordinary men and women who struggle with their own epistemological and ontological limitations.
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publishDate 2023-12-01
publisher Dalhousie University
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spelling doaj-art-8f445f11ecf64e1e9b7d156f18ebd5d82025-08-20T02:20:12ZdeuDalhousie UniversityBelphégor1499-71852023-12-0121210.4000/belphegor.5573Gillian Flynn’s Small Town Crime FictionAntoine DechêneThis paper addresses the profound sense of place in Gillian Flynn's crime fiction, which transpires through the locale of the small town. Distinguishing between setting and landscape, the analyses of Sharp Objects, Dark Places, and Gone Girl reveal a tendency in the genre towards more realistic and social narratives which blend melancholic atmospheres and characters into complex storyworlds highlighted with metaphysical overtones. The article's overall claim is that Flynn's crime fiction has an important social dimension reminiscent of the hard-boiled. Her novels indeed explore new avenues of a form of rural hard-boiled in which there are no tough guys or super villains, but rather ordinary men and women who struggle with their own epistemological and ontological limitations.https://journals.openedition.org/belphegor/5573crime fictionrural noirUnited-StatesworldbuildingNordic Noir
spellingShingle Antoine Dechêne
Gillian Flynn’s Small Town Crime Fiction
Belphégor
crime fiction
rural noir
United-States
worldbuilding
Nordic Noir
title Gillian Flynn’s Small Town Crime Fiction
title_full Gillian Flynn’s Small Town Crime Fiction
title_fullStr Gillian Flynn’s Small Town Crime Fiction
title_full_unstemmed Gillian Flynn’s Small Town Crime Fiction
title_short Gillian Flynn’s Small Town Crime Fiction
title_sort gillian flynn s small town crime fiction
topic crime fiction
rural noir
United-States
worldbuilding
Nordic Noir
url https://journals.openedition.org/belphegor/5573
work_keys_str_mv AT antoinedechene gillianflynnssmalltowncrimefiction