The Things We Do for Love - Crime and Queerness in the Works of Sarah Waters
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2023-06-15
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en
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The following thesis attempts to analyse the link between crime and queerness in two novels by
Sarah Waters, namely Fingersmith and The Paying Guests. More accurately, it argues that the
criminal acts committed by the lesbian protagonists in the novels can be read as symbols of female
empowerment. Subsequently, it explains that the illegality eventually affects the open endings of the novels as well as the resolution of the queer relationships of the plots. To achieve such purpose, the applied theoretical framework creates a connection between crime fiction and queer studies. The thesis consists of four chapters: the first offers an explanation of the theoretical framework. Chapter
two and three are devoted to Fingersmith and The Paying Guests respectively. The last one provides a conclusive analysis which synthesises the chapters and highlights their relation to queer crime fiction. The features of lesbian crime fiction displayed in both novels make clear what Sarah Waters’s position in contemporary feminist literature is.
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