英文摘要 |
This paper aims to explore BarbaraNeely’s crime writing through her creation of the ”domestic detective” series. Providing her heroine with an eye-catching name, ”Blanche White,” Neely brings to the fore black female domestics whose stories and life experiences have been historically marginalized in American society. The author appropriates the generic language of country house crime fiction in an attempt to subvert its conservative ideology and to expose the oppressive power structure of class, race, and gender in contemporary America.This paper will conduct close textual analysis with the help of the generic tradition of crime fiction and African American literary theory and cultural tradition. Although Blanche struggles to make ends meet, she is not a passive victim. She knows how to protect herself through acts of resistance and transgression in the vein of African American tricksters. For her, the racially produced ”invisibility” can be turned into a practical tool, and she makes good use of ”double consciousness detection” by parodying and role playing. Moreover, the detective gets pleasure and feels empowered through this kind of ”masking.” By taking up the subject position as an active individual, Blanche effectively subverts the tradition of minstrelsy. In doing so, Neely also reinvents the stereotypical mammy figure and reaffirms black female cultural identities. However, some critics question the ideology and effectiveness of Neely’s appropriation of country house crime fiction. They believe that when the narrative takes place in a ”contained” space and a ”safe” closure is provided at the end of the story, the author’s critical stance against the institutionalized superstructure will be undermined. To consider the interplay between generic constraints and Neely’s insistence on social criticism, I argue that the author never lessens her attack on the establishment. Instead, Neely strategically unsettles the rules of the genre to offer her poignant critique of America while leaving a ray of hope for the future. |