What is it about?
This article looks at C. J. Sansom’s Matthew Shardlake novels, exploring how both crime and history can be used to challenge and rethink collective memories. It shows that Sansom’s stories focus less on the crime itself and more on the historical context, especially Tudor England, revealing different attitudes from traditional views. Through the eyes of his cosmopolitan protagonist, the novels make readers feel like flâneurs—walkers through the city—highlighting how everyday life can carry subversive power.
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Why is it important?
This article is important because it demonstrates how Sansom’s historical crime fiction questions accepted ideas about history and national identity, particularly in relation to Britain’s political climate leading up to Brexit. It reveals how everyday experiences and local details can serve as powerful tools for social critique, encouraging readers to see history and their surroundings in new, more nuanced ways.
Perspectives
This article gives visibility to CJ Sansom's fiction, demonstrating how "popular" genres like crime or historical fiction can be used in highly sophisticated ways to question not only traditionally accepted versions of the past but most importantly but also how these can be used to manipulate the political present.
Dr José Igor Prieto-Arranz
University of the Balearic Islands
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: On strangers sleuthing and flâneurs reading. The subversive power of C. J. Sansom’s historical crime fiction, Textual Practice, August 2023, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/0950236x.2023.2243899.
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