CRIME FICTION AND THE UNRELIABLE NARRATOR IN SHUTTER ISLAND: A CASE STUDY
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2024-06-15
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en
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[...]On the other hand, research has also identified a new subgenre of crime fiction, namely postmodern metaphysical detective fiction. This subgenre employs many of these traditional crime fiction tropes to investigate personal mysteries of the investigator instead of a logical solution to the crime. Therefore, the genre focuses more on the relationship with identity and memory, fronting the question of the reliability of the narrator as well. This thesis will demonstrate that Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island focuses on these issues of identity and memory of the investigator Teddy “Edward” Daniels, while using the common crime fiction tropes which include the detective figure, crime detection, the clue puzzle, disorder and chaos due to paradoxical clues, the use of rational knowledge to objectively solve the crime, and the final confession that bring the solution to the crime to light. Moreover, this thesis will show that due to the investigator’s issues with his memory and identity, the narrator is very unreliable. So, while the text still applies many of the traditional elements of crime fiction, through the use of unreliability and self-referentiality, this text falls into the genre of metaphysical detective fiction.
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