Glocalizing Genre Fiction in the Global South

This study offers a comprehensive overview of post-millennial Indian (English) and Latin American crime fiction. Drawing on genre theory and the field of literature & globalization, Neele Meyer examines the history of crime fiction and traces similar developments in the book markets in these largely disconnected regions. In an analysis of the characteristics of the genre, the author studies the works of 17 writers from India, Argentina and Chile focusing on aspects like detective figures (particularly women detectives or journalists), the plot structure, intertextuality, settings or the impact of media and technology. The analysis shows that authors consciously choose the globally circulating genre and modify it as “social commentaries” to accommodate economic or social transformations. Neele Meyer challenges the idea that the global presence of the genre leads to homogenization and argues that global circulation of crime fiction in the Global South is a ‘glocal’ phenomenon that reflects the heterogeneous outcomes of processes of globalization.