Conference on the Territorialisation of Crime fiction, Queen’s University, Belfast

International Conference on the Territorialisation of Crime fiction

INTERNATIONAL CRIME FICTION RESEARCH GROUP

Queen’s University, Belfast, 13-14^th June 2014

The global and the local in contemporary world crime fiction

Circulation and exchanges

Friday 13^th June 2014

9:00-9:30 Old Staff Common Room, Lanyon Building, Welcome address from Professor Margaret Topping, School of Modern Languages, Introduction

9:30-11:00 Maps and Regions in Crime fiction

Eva Erdmann (Munich) “Topographical fiction in relation.
International Crime Scenes in Literature and their cartographic Representation”

Christoph Baumann (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg) “Geographies of crime – Regionalization in German crime series “

11:00-11: 30 COFFEE

11: 30-13:00 The Politics of Place

Benoît Tadié (Rennes University) “All Roads Lead to Hollywood... And the Pause That Refreshes:
Re-routing and Territorializing Hardboiled/Noir fiction in Los Angeles (1930-1950)”

Andrew Pepper ( QUB) “Sovereign Power in an era of Neoliberalism:
State Coercion and Parapolitics in David Peace and Eoin McNamee”

13:00-14:00 LUNCH, QFT Foyer, 20 University Square

14:00-15:30 Old Staff Common Room Patrimonialisation and Globalisation of the local

Kerstin Bergmann, (University of Lund) “Europeanization and Regionalism in 21st Century Swedish Crime Fiction?”

Gabrielle Saumon (University of Limoges) “From crime fiction to the making of a touristic place.
Ystad, Stockholm: two investigations”

15:30-15:45 COFFEE

15:45-17:30 Ireland of Crime

Samantha Weyer-Brown (University Paris 3) “Landscape, territories and 'ghost estates' in Tana French, Broken Harbour”.

Fiona McCann (University Lille 3) “Authority, Permeability and the State of the State in
Eoin McNamee’s Blue trilogy and The Ultras”

Garrett Carr (QUB) “The Map of Connections, illustrated talk”

19:00 No Alibis Bookstore, Botanic Avenue, Reading and questions with invited authors Eoin McNamee and Brian McGilloway

21:00 CONFERENCE DINNER Mourne Seafood, 34- 36 Bank Street, Belfast, BT1 1HL

Saturday 14th June 2014

9:30-11:15 Seminar Room, 21 University Square From Close Reading to Data Visualisation: varying Focalisation in Approaches to Crime Regionalization

Dominique Jeannerod (QUB) “Northern Scenery and Mise-en scène of the Genre in French Crime Fiction”

Jean-Philippe Gury (Université de Bretagne Occidentale) “Blue Guide of Crime: Welcome to Brittany!”

Natacha Levet (University of Limoges) “Building a database for Mapping Regional Crime Fiction in France”

11:15-11:30 COFFEE

11:30-13:00 Negotiating the American Model domestically and globally

Barbara Pezzotti (Wellington) “Giorgio Scerbanenco's Milan and the Domestication of the American Hard-Boiled Novel”

Andrea Hynynen, (University of Turku) “A Feminism too foreign for France? – necessary change of Territory
in the case of Maud Tabachnik’s Feminist Crime Fiction”

13:00-14:00 LUNCH, QFT Foyer, 20 University Square

14:00-15:45 Seminar Room, 21 University Square Localisation and Globalisation

Kate Quinn (University of Galway) “Beyond Chilenidad.
Transatlantic crossings and local inflection in Chilean Crime Fiction”

David Schmid (University of Bufffalo) “City, State, and Globe in the Crime Novels of Paco Ignacio Taibo II”

David Platten (Leeds) “Crossing Bridges: Crime Stories as International Currency”

#QUBimpact Bonus Material

On Wednesday I was a guest at an event organised by Queen’s University Belfast, as an Irish crime writer. '"Thinking Forward Through the Past", a day of events across Belfast profiling the impact of research within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.' They mentioned me in the flier and everything, which was quite cool.

My invitation to this event came from Dr Dominique Jeannerod, a French guy with incredibly good taste in Irish crime fiction. I say this with modesty intact; he hasn’t read my books. Yet. The good Dr Jeannerod kicked off the proceedings with a fascinating presentation on the impact of Irish crime fiction in France. Ken Bruen was described as the most famous among this exclusive set of aficionados who have had their work translated and published in France. Stuart Neville is also a prominent diplomat for the genre, and fair play to the Armagh lad for representing the latest generation of Northern Irish crime writers in such a discerning country. I feel qualified to describe French readers as discerning as I paid very close attention to the presentation. It held my interest despite knowing that I was soon to be interviewed by somebody with an impressive and intimidating wealth of knowledge in Irish crime fiction.

And rather than warm me up with a few easy questions, he hit me with this tricky one-two:

Are you comfortable with the description, Irish crime writer?

Are you equally comfortable with being included in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST BRITISH CRIME or is that a contradiction?

Can of worms, meet chainsaw.

I can't remember what I said, word for word, but I'll rehash the gist of it...

I think it took me longer to get comfortable with calling myself a writer than it did to figure out my national identity. It was after the publication of THE POINT, actually, in October 2011. I'd achieved a decent amount before then, short story publications, co-editing a crime fiction anthology and Arts Council funding – I'd come excruciatingly close to publication with my novel WEE ROCKETS a couple of times as well. But it wasn't until I had the pleasure of signing paperback copies of my novella at No Alibis that I could look somebody in the eye and say, “Aye, I'm a writer, so I am.”

The Irish thing? Well, when it comes to ticking boxes on an application form, I'll pick Northern Irish if it's there, Irish if it's not. I was born south of the border but have lived in the North since I was six years old. I say Derry, not Londonderry. It 's a habit that comes from growing up Catholic. But I don't practice the faith I inherited except to go to christenings, weddings and funerals. But, yes, I'm comfortable with calling myself an Irish crime writer. And I'll not turn my nose up at the sub-categorisation of Northern Irish crime writer either.

Do I belong in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF BEST BRITISH CRIME?

Well, I have a British passport. A couple of years ago, I needed one fast and couldn't be arsed going to Dublin for it. How's that for swallowing your cultural heritage? A past version of myself might have been appalled at my lack of Irish pride. Nowadays, I'm not that bothered. It's just a wee red book. And TMBBBC is a big read book. I was honoured to have my story in a collection with some of the biggest names in British crime fiction (and a couple of great Irish writers who were also happy with the contradiction). In fact, I'd probably have been pissed off if being Irish had disqualified me. That British passport entitles me, you know!

The event lasted an hour and a half, but Dr Jeannerod (he may prefer Dominique, but I really like the look of Dr Jeannerod) didn't get through all of his questions. I got a copy of them from him and over the next week I'm going to select a handful and basically interview myself... with somebody else's questions. If that seems horribly self-indulgent to you, consider this post fair warning and avoid the blog for a week two.