Absences & Presences: towards a Detective Gothic

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dc.check.chapterOfThesisTotality of thesis to be restricted for the first two years, to be revised after that pending copyright decision on certain creative elements.en
dc.check.date2026-12-31
dc.check.infoControlled Access Partial Restriction
dc.contributor.advisorWalshe, Eibhear
dc.contributor.advisorDenton, Danny
dc.contributor.authorConnolly, Johnen
dc.date.accessioned2024-10-02T08:27:40Z
dc.date.available2024-10-02T08:27:40Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.date.submitted2024
dc.descriptionControlled Access Partial Restriction
dc.description.abstractAbsences & Presences: Towards a Detective Gothic comprises two main sections. The first, extending from pp.6-193, is a critical/ biographical study that discusses various literary, cultural and social influences on my writing, the validity of ‘Detective Gothic’ as a descriptor for my work, and defends my fiction’s engagement with the uncanny, an engagement that runs counter to traditional thinking about the rationalist roots of the mystery genre. The second section, pp 194–281, is the creative component, consisting of three short stories that draw upon some of the ideas and themes arising out of the critical/biographical section and the research for my earlier critical anthology Shadow Voices. The introduction to that volume forms part of the supporting material in the Appendices, in addition to a draft of my essay on Irish crime fiction for the forthcoming Cambridge History of the Irish Novel (which draws on my academic research), and one further short story originally intended for the creative section but excised for reasons of length. The critical section contains eight chapters. Chapters I and II examine the Irish literary, cultural, and political factors that influenced, directly or indirectly, my formation as a writer, with reference to the career of the Irish detective writer M. McDonnell Bodkin. Chapter III looks at British crime fiction, principally mysteries of the twentieth century’s ‘Golden Age’, and how it reflects a particular mode of thinking about criminality and its victims. The chapter also sets that thinking against my personal experiences as a journalist, which fed into the conceptions of law and justice subsequently explored in my novels. Chapter IV contrasts the British approach to crime writing with the American, and includes critical examinations of two key Ross Macdonald texts, leading into a discussion of Macdonald as a Gothic novelist. Chapter V expands upon this discussion to consider the hauntological elements of Macdonald’s work and how those elements also arise in my fiction. Chapter VI returns the focus to Irish writing, using Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu as a starting point for a discussion of the supernatural, occult, and horror in crime fiction, and how their presence may run contrary to orthodox assumptions about the genre. Chapter VII continues this theme but focuses on hybrid modes of writing, tracing a path from Le Fanu and Uncle Silas to my novels, and arguing that the combination of detection and the Gothic in my work marks it as both distinctly Irish and faithful to the origins of the genre. Finally, Chapter VIII considers the influence of childhood OCD on my writing, as well as the connection between fairy tales and the Gothic, and how that connection manifests in my novels and short fiction. N.B.: I have elected to capitalise ‘Gothic’ throughout for consistency, though when quoting from other sources I have not capitalised where lower case is used.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationConnolly, J. 2024. Absences & Presences: towards a Detective Gothic. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
dc.identifier.endpage370
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/16478
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2024, John Connolly.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectDetectiveen
dc.subjectGothicen
dc.subjectMysteryen
dc.subjectFairytaleen
dc.titleAbsences & Presences: towards a Detective Gothic
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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