Exploring women’s development of Buberian and spatial relationships in crime and mystery novels
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Abstract
Critiques of crime and mystery fiction have indicated a diverse range of conflicts between female and other characters in various social and spatial contexts. Conflictual developments can reflect upon the representation of unequal or hierarchical relationships between the female and other characters and can denote the depiction of the female characters as either inferior or superior, especially during traumatic, dilemmatic, or hazardous situations. Therefore, the objectification of female characters by the Other as victims of crimes, or the female characters’ dominance of the Other in their investigation of crimes or mysterious situations has been widely critiqued in crime and mystery narratives. This study acknowledges extant literary critiques of the conflictual development between female and other characters, while also examining the establishment of worthwhile relationships that value the equality between the Self and the Other in reciprocally experiencing and constructing their meaningful existence in social and spatial contexts. It integrates Martin Buber’s concept of the I-It and I-Thou relationships and Edward Relph’s concept of inauthentic and authentic space in order to analyse female protagonists’ general development of Buberian and spatial relationships with others in crime and mystery novels. In doing so, this study accentuates the important factors that enhance or inhibit their overall relationship developments. Four award-winning American novels are analysed: Mindy McGinnis’ Heroine (2019); Kyrie McCauley’s If These Wings Could Fly (2020); Naomi Kritzer’s Catfishing on CatNet (2019); and Katie Alender’s The Companion (2020). The findings reveal the importance of individuals’ sense of agency, free will and spontaneity in developing or inhibiting their relationships in both social and spatial contexts. The implications of the examination suggest the promising possibility of establishing desirable relationships when individuals’ identities become flexible, especially during the suspension of laws, rigid social norms, traditional rules or social hierarchies.
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