Val McDermid's Lindsay Gordon: A Revolutionary Portrait in Tartan- Noir

Year 2024, , 104 - 117, 21.03.2024

Yıldırım Özsevgeç

https://doi.org/10.30767/diledeara.1400397

Abstract

Considered as one of the most influential crime fiction writers of our time, Val McDermid combines her works with Scotland’s city and town culture. Having the opportunity to closely observe the problems faced by the working class in the town of Fife where she spent her childhood, McDermid enriches her fiction with these narratives. These experiences led her to be the voice of the forgotten, oppressed, and marginalised segments of society in her later writing life. Also challenging the male-dominated structure of traditional crime fiction, McDermid brings a new atmosphere to crime fiction by creating fictional characters such as Lindsay Gordon. Classic crime fiction, which spent its golden age under the hegemony of British writers in the 1930s, presents the reader with stories in which typical male detectives are the protagonists. By the 1970s, Scottish crime fiction, or Tartan-Noir writers, produced essential works in this field. McDermid, who took the title of the Queen of crime fiction, puts women at the centre of her narrative, and in this way, she differs from male Tartan-Noir writers. In this study, McDermid, who deconstructed the male-dominated structure in traditional detective fiction and placed strong female detectives such as Lindsay Gordon into fiction, will be examined. Additionally, McDermid’s criticisms of the Margaret Thatcher period will be explained to readers with examples from her novels.

Keywords

Val McDermid, Crime Fiction, Lindsay Gordon, Oppressed Women, Tartan-Noir

Val McDermid’in Lindsay Gordon’ı: İskoç Suç Kurgusunda Devrimci Bir Portre

Abstract

Günümüzün en etkili polisiye yazarlarından biri olarak kabul edilen Val McDermid, eserlerini İskoçya'nın şehir ve kasaba kültürüyle birleştirir. Çocukluğunun geçtiği Fife kasabasında işçi sınıfının yaşadığı sorunları yakından gözlemleme fırsatı bulan McDermid, kurgusunu bu anlatılarla zenginleştirir. Bu deneyimler onu daha sonraki yazarlık hayatında, toplumun unutulmuş, ezilmiş, ötekileştirilmiş kesimlerinin sesi olmaya yöneltmiştir. Geleneksel polisiyenin erkek egemen yapısına da meydan okuyan McDermid, Lindsay Gordon gibi kurgusal karakterler yaratarak polisiyeye yeni bir hava getirir. 1930'larda İngiliz yazarların hegemonyası altında altın çağını yaşayan klasik polisiye, okuyucuya tipik erkek dedektiflerin başrolde olduğu hikâyeler sunar. 1970'lere gelindiğinde ise İskoç polisiye ya da Tartan-Noir yazarları bu alanda önemli eserler vermiştir. Polisiyenin kraliçesi unvanını alan McDermid, anlatısının merkezine kadınları koyar ve bu yönüyle erkek Tartan-Noir yazarlarından ayrılır. Bu çalışmada, geleneksel polisiye kurgudaki erkek egemen yapıyı yapı-söküme uğratan ve Lindsay Gordon gibi güçlü kadın dedektifleri kurguya yerleştiren McDermid incelenecektir. Ayrıca, McDermid'in Margaret Thatcher dönemine yönelik eleştirileri de romanlarından örneklerle okura açıklanmaya çalışılacaktır.

Keywords

Val McDermid, Suç Kurgusu, Lindsay Gordon, Baskılanan Kadınlar, Tartan-Noir

References

• Avery, C. (2017). Talking back to Chandler and Spillane: gender and agency in women’s hard-boiled detective fiction. [Thesis] (Unpublished), Birkbeck University of London
• Bell, E. (2008). Ian Rankin and the ethics of crime fiction, Clues: A Journal of Detection. (pp. 53-63)
• Butler, J. (2007). Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge
• Chandler, R. (1972). The simple art of Murder. New York: Ballentine Books
• González, C. R. (2019). Resilience and Urban Capabilities in Denise Mina’s Garnethill Trilogy1. Universidad de Oviedo Contemporary Women’s Writing, 13(2), (pp. 169–185)
• Hill, L. (2017). Bloody Women: How female authors have transformed the Scottish contemporary crime fiction genre. American, British and Canadian Studies Journal, 28(1), (pp. 52–71). https://doi.org/10.1515/abcsj-2017-0004
• Horsley, L. S., (2005). Twentieth-Century Crime Fiction. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Ian Rankin. (23.03.2020). In conversation with John Robb,” LUSH. [Video]. YouTube
• Knight, S. (2004). Crime Fiction, 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
• Leitch, V. B. (2001). North Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. (pp. 1483–1496). ISBN 9780393974294
• McDermid, V. (1987). Report for Murder. London: The Women Press Limited, [E Book]
• McDermid, V. (1989). Common Murder. London: The Women Press Limited, [E Book]
• Munt, S. (1994). Murder by the Book: Feminism and the Crime Novel. London: Routledge
• Palmer, P. (1991). The lesbian feminist thriller and detective novel. In Hobby, Elaine and White, Chris (Eds.), What Lesbians Do in Books, (p. 15). London: The Women’s Press
• Katzensteiner, P. (2019). “Hard-boiled and Downright Social: The Contemporary Female Tartan Noir.” Thesis. Universitat Wien.
• Wickman, M. (2011). Tartan Noir, or, Hard-Boiled Heidegger. Scottish Literary Review 5.1: (pp. 87–109)
• Scaggs, J. (2005). Crime Fiction. London: Routledge
• Symons, J. (1985). Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: a History. London: Faber and Faber
• Thompson, G. (2007). American Culture in the 1980s. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press WEBSITES Independent. (2010, September 11). Niche off the leash: Val McDermid on progress in lesbian fiction. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/niche-off-the-leash-val-mcdermid-on-progress-in-lesbian-fiction-2073909.html (Access date: 10.05.2023)
• McDermid, V. (n.d.). Welcome to the official website of the celebrated and best-selling Scottish crime writer Val McDermid. Val McDermid 2014. https://www.valmcdermid.com/common-murder/ (Access date: 13.01.2023)
• Reporter, G. S. (2017, November 25). Margaret Thatcher: a feminist icon? The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/the-womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2012/jan/05/margaret-thatcher-feminist-icon (Access date: 23.06.2023)
• The Age of Superwoman: Margaret Thatcher and the 1980s – Stockroom. (n.d.). https://www.stockroom.co.uk/production/the-age-of-superwoman-margaret-thatcher-and-the-1980s/ (Access date: 13.05.2023)
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2011, February 11). Philip Marlowe | Private Detective, Hard-boiled, Raymond Chandler. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philip-Marlowe (Access date: 23.09.2023)