Academic literature on the topic 'Literature and fiction, mystery and suspense'

Abstract (Sophie Hannah’s. 2009. The Other Half Lives. London: Hodder). The Other Half Lives both complies with, and departs from, the crime fiction formula or text schema. It features a mystery the specifics of which are unravelled non-chronologically, while its numerous crimes and non-ideal criminals and victims disrupt readers’ world schemas and help enable its surprising effects. Not unlike such fiction, the story’s early happenings feature late in the telling, while many happenings are given from different character perspectives. Both of these help unsettle narrative perspective, and generate suspense, mystery, and readers’ later repairing and replacing of frames. Focalisation and the working and reworking of killing characters’ early depiction are techniques also enabling foreshadowing and misdirection, for readers’ sympathies and prejudices to be manipulated accordingly, and for surprise revelations to prove effective, even when a surprise ending is – given the nature of this genre – only to be expected.

Clausal presupposition in Flannery O'Connor's fiction is examined and shown to contribute stylistically to O'Connor's explorations of the fallibility of human knowledge. Marked presuppositional constructions - those in which the narrator and narratee do not share the background knowledge of the presupposition - are analysed as attempts on the part of the narrator to put into a shared gestalt background contested knowledge. These attempts have three main effects: (1) an ironic comment on false knowledge held by a character; (2) a displacement of knowledge from a character's awareness; (3) an empathetic response to a character's knowledge of mystery or destiny. A call is made to develop a typology of literary uses of marked presuppositional constructions making reference not only to the quality of knowledge among the narrator, narratee, and character(s), but also to the specific literary effect of marked presupposition, e.g. irony, narrative suspense, empathy. If it is true that marked presupposition is a fundamental characteristic of literary enjoyment (Kock, 1976), a typology of a narrator's use of contested presuppositions tells us much about a particular author's characteristic strategies of engaging a reader's interest. It is left an open question whether all authors whose narrators use contested presuppositions are as concerned as O'Connor was with the fallibility of human knowledge.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in detective literature among the youngest readers. The appeal of this type of literature is confirmed not only by a kind of “publication overproduction” observable in the segment of books for children and young adults, but also by reader rankings. The latter also show two significant trends: firstly — the declining age of the youngest readers who choose detective stories, secondly — girls are beginning to prevail among the young recipients of this literature. The goal of the article is to seek an answer to the question why young girls increasingly often choose detective literature and what makes it attractive from the reception perspective. The example which is the focus of attention is the mystery-type trilogy written by American author Karen Karbo about the adventures of an eccentric teenager Minerva Clark. The series consists of the following volumes: Minerva Clark Gets a Clue, Minerva Clark Goes to the Dogs, and Minerva Clark Gives Up the Ghost, all of which can be categorized as classical detective stories. The latest detective fiction for young girls, which readily utilizes gender and feminist topics, features more and more characters of brave and independent female amateur detectives. Minerva Clark has joined this colorful gallery of characters, who appeared in the twentieth-century literature thanks to Miss Marple novels authored by Agatha Christie. The literary character of Minerva Clark arouses associations with another fictional character meant for female teenage readers — Nancy Drew, the titular hero of American novels Nancy Drew Mystery Series, published in the USA since the 1930s. Minerva Clark has become part of the contemporary discourse on femininity and the role of gender in popular culture. The popularity of the trilogy in question as well as the whole trend of detective stories for girls can be explained in several ways. Apart from the feminine topic repertoire, the literary factors are of significance: suspense-keeping stories, captivating plots, young people’s slang, and most of all — humor, highly thought of by the young audience. In Karen Karbo’s series we are dealing with verbal-intellectual and situational comedy as well as that of characters. The content-related comedy-making factors in the trilogy about Minerva Clark also include humorous narration (play on words), situational scenes, and a happy ending. Books about female teenage detectives such as Minerva evoke a substantial response among their gender also because they are written with present-day girls and their needs in mind.

The article deals with the theoretical generalization of the attributes of a poetic of gothic, in particular in the article is analyzed in details the figurative-motive and plot-compositional levels; is traced the evolution of the image of Devil; is identified the triune category − mystery / horror / suspense – as a genre constant of gothic fiction; is identified the road archetype; is analyzed the functionality of gothic, contrast as the dominant feature of the gothic paradigm; and also is grounded the philosophical doctrine of the theodicy as one of the fundamental basis of all gothic fiction.

And Then There Were None and A Murder is Announced are two prominent works written by the “Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie. While both novels belong to the genre of the murder mystery and detective fiction, the writer employs different literary techniques to build suspense and keep the readers’ engagement until the final scene. Moreover, Agatha Christie also pays great attention to the details of the crime. Providing the audience with certain clues, the writer succeeds to manipulate the reader’s thoughts. Thereby, And Then There Were None and A Murder is Announced are remarkable examples of the murder mystery that is achieved by different literary means making the stories topical literary works.

The literary canon carries with it a huge array of possible writings exploring the various contours of fiction, the genre of Detective fiction is one such umbrella term. The effect of mystery and suspense and the surprise factors being hidden away in the pages, keeps the readers glued to detective fiction. This paper explores the plot line of one of the prominent detective stories, Thomas Harris’s ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ in search of certain existential questions regarding the named serial killer in the plot. The social evil of killing the lives of many for the purely pleasure aspect is viewed from multiple viewpoints and a new reading of the plot by placing it within relevant contextual framework is carried out. A traversal through the psychological, behavioural and social norms of the context is explores within the paper.

Opera Zora D., composed by Isidora Zebeljan during 2002 and 2003, and which was premiered in Amsterdam in June 2003, is the first Serbian opera that had a world premiere abroad. It is also the first Serbian opera that has been staged outside Serbia since 1935, after being acclaimed at a competition organized by the Genesis Foundation from London. Isidora Zebeljan was commissioned (granted financial backing) to compose a complete opera with a secured stage realization. The Dutch Chamber Opera (Opera studio Nederland) and the Viennese Chamber Opera (Wiener Kammeroper) were the co-producers of the first production. The opera was directed by David Pountney, the renowned opera director, while an international team of young singers and celebrated artists assisted the co-production. The opera was played three times in Amsterdam. Winfried Maczewski conducted the Amsterdam Nieuw Ensemble whereas Daniel Hoyem Cavazza conducted the Wiener Kammeroper on twelve performances. The Viennese premier of Zora D. opened the season of celebrations, thus marking the 50th anniversary of the Wiener Kammeroper. The libretto, based on the script for a TV film by Dusan Ristic, was co-written by Isidora Zebeljan, Milica Zebeljan and Borislav Cicovacki. Speaking of genre, the libretto represents a m?lange of thriller, melodrama and mystery, with elements of fiction. The opera consists of the prologue and seven scenes. The story, set in the present-day Belgrade, also goes back to the 1930?s and the periods interweave. The opera was written for four vocalists: the soprano, the baritone, and two mezzo-sopranos. The chamber orchestra has fifteen musicians. The story: One summer day in 1935, Belgrade poetess Zora Dulijan mysteriously disappears. Sixty years later, Mina, an ordinary girl from Belgrade, quite unexpectedly becomes part of an incredible story, which gradually unravels as time goes by. Led by a dream (recurring night after night, with some vague verses about poplar trees and contours of a mysterious woman with a silver scarf being all that Mina remembers) she sets out to solve the mystery that seems to haunt her for no apparent reason. Part of the secret is also an invisible force, which Mina uses to gradually piece together the story of a great love that was brutally brought to an end 60 years ago and now seeks fulfillment. At the same time, Vida, a woman in her 80s, who has just returned to Belgrade from a long exile, begins to feel tortured and haunted by ghouls from the past, the very same she has been trying to escape all those years. Mina, desperate to solve the mystery, and Vida, in search of final rest and redemption, meet to disclose to us the answer and tell us what really happened to Zora D. The leading characters of the opera, whose main attribute is illusiveness, undergo transformation that is something rarely found in opera literature. This quality of the characters and the story, as well as the absence of a real drama in the libretto, matches the specific idea of a contemporary opera. Unlike composers who insist on giving characters psychological quality, thus reducing their emotions to clich?s for reasons of clarity, Isidora Zebeljan demonstrates a need for a completely different type of opera. Her idea is to have an opera which focuses on the sensual exploits of music itself. This is the very type of opera sought after by Isidora Zebeljan. The first and most striking feature of her music is a very unique melodic invention. Opera Zora D. could be described as a necklace of thickly threaded music pearls. Microelements of the traditional music from Serbia (Vojvodina), Romania and the south of the Balkans give her melodies a very special quality. Those elements, however, have not been taken over in their entirety, nor do they exist in the form that would link this music to any particular type of folk music. Music elements of the traditional music, incorporated in the music expression of Isidora Zebeljan, provide additional distinctiveness and the colour, while being experienced as an integral part of Zebeljan?s creative being which carries within itself the awareness of the composer?s musical roots. Melodic elements of the opera expressed in such a manner give form to vocal parts, which require of performers great musicality and perfect technique without compromising the nature of their vocal expression. Specific chords with a diminished fifth, resulting from the use of folk music scales with augmented second, give the opera a distinct harmonic quality. The rhythmic and metric components of music are complex, naturally stemming from the melody and are characterized by a mixture of rhythms and changeable metrics. The rhythmic patterns of percussion are incorporated in the whole by parallel lining up of melodic and rhythmic layers, so that they produce sonorous multiplicity. Very often the rhythmic elements have characteristics of a dance. The chamber orchestra consists of flute (piccolo and alto), clarinet and bass-clarinet, saxophone (soprano and alto) bassoon, French horn, trumpet, harp, piano, percussion, and string quintet. By providing specific orchestration and coloring, Isidora Zebeljan manages to completely shift the real dramatic suspense from words to music particularly the orchestra, thus causing various emotional states to quickly change. Speaking of structure, the opera represents an infinite sequence of melodies. Although rarely, melodic entities have, in some places, the form of arias. There are no real recitatives in the entire opera. Each segment of the opera belongs to a corresponding melodic section of the stage that they are part of. The extraordinary quality of the music in Zora D. lies in the music surprise that it provides, which is an element of the composer?s language and style rarely seen in the music literature but is a symbol of a special talent. Emotional states are not merely evoked through particular musical clich?s, the unusual origin of which may be found in the exceptional parallel quality of states stemming from the very music. The listener, in his or her initial encounter with the music of the opera, will never hear dark and disconsolate music when tragic and dramatic happenings are taking place. Listening to the music will, however, help them feel the sound layer of the tragedy that is present in the offered sound. They will not follow it consciously but, instead, they will be leaded to the exact emotional stimulus that they will not be able to defy rationally. Such a music expression we call a music fiction. Artistic team involved in the first production of Zora D. has discovered a HVS technique, which helps shifting elements of scenography, from one set into the next, very efficiently and effectively. Isidora Zebeljan?s opera Zora D. represents a great success of Serbian music on the international scene, and undoubtedly the greatest success of Serbian opera. Her music liberates listeners from the compulsion of reflecting upon the content they are listening to. Instead, her music compels them to feel.

Stephen King has published more than 70 books, many of them adapted to the cinema and television, some original series with no published scenario, except Storm of the Century in 1999. His reach is a lot wider than plain horror. He systematically mixes the various genres of horror, fantasy, suspense, mystery, science fiction, etc. I will only consider his latest stand-alone novel with no co-author, and not part of a series like Gwendy’s Final Task, also published in 2022, co-authored with Richard Chizmar. I will show the style uses some patterns to build the architecture of the story, in this case, ternary structures at all levels of story and style. This ternary pattern is borrowed from the Bible and many fairy tales collected by the Grimm Brothers. The ending brings up a problem: it locks up the two deep and deeper levels with a concrete slab, thus breaking the ternary topography. Is it meaningful about Stephen King’s fiction, or is it only suspending the situation in order to produce a sequel by reopening the passage under the concrete slab, or when Gogmagog manages to escape the deeper level and to invade the human world? That’s Stephen King’s mystery. His fiction is so popular and has been so much exploited on the various screens that we wonder if this multifarious fiction will survive the author, even with his two sons to promote and prolong the fame of his fiction when it becomes necessary.

War causes physical exertion and suffering. The soldiers and the people have to make themselves indifferent to these otherwise they would be destroyed. There is always uncertainty in war. Chance also plays an important role in war as it makes everything more uncertain. The whole course of events is interfered by it. War is a matter of determination and courage. The War Beyond Ruin is Liviero's war based fiction. It is a lyrical writing and unusual story. Though a war novel, this is not typical World-War-II-era novel. It's beautiful and gritty historical fiction combined with mystery and suspense and completely unique characters who live through hard times. The ending is life-affirming and fills with hope. It is all about the misery and complexity of life during and after WW II in Germany and Italy.

This mystery is set in the early 1980s and based on actual events. A high-school student unearths dark and deadly secrets of his Appalachian community. The explosive consequences forever mark his own life, his family's, and his town's.
https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1009/thumbnail.jpg

River on Fire" is the story of Randall Smith, a foundling orphan growing up in the midwestern United States in the late 1960s. Without the intimate guidance of loving parents, Randall struggles to understand a dangerous and confusing world during one of the most tumultuous times in modern history. Immensely readable and filled with humor and irony, "River on Fire" will both warm and break your heart. A Discussion/Study Guide is included at the end of the novel.
https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1031/thumbnail.jpg

Suspense and surprise, as common and crucial elements of interest realised in literary fiction, are analysed closely in a sample of short stories, so as to develop a detailed explanation of how these forms of interest are created in literary texts, and to propose models for them. Creating suspense involves more conditions, necessary and optional, and more complication than surprise: the several optional conditions mainly serve to intensify the feeling of suspense the reader experiences. Surprise requires two necessary and sufficient conditions, with only a couple of optional conditions to maintain or ensure coherence in the text. The differences are considered attributable to a more fundamental difference between suspense and surprise as emotions. Suspense can be regarded as a progressive emotion, whereas surprise is a perfective emotion. As such, suspense as an interest is considered as a process-oriented interest, while surprise is an effect-oriented one. Suspense is mostly experienced while reading and has the reader involved with the story. Surprise drives the reader to reassess the story in the new light it throws on events and to look for some further message; this is often a main aim of the literary fiction which ends in surprise.

This chapter reviews the transition in children’s literature after the 1960s from colonialist to postcolonialist content as a framework for understanding contemporary Anglophone Caribbean children’s literature. Local voices integrated folklore into curricular material beginning in the 1930s, with far more expansive output after 1960. Writers offer historical and realistic fiction that countered colonialist paradigms. Waves of immigration to the US, Canada, and Great Britain (with its Caribbean Arts Movement) contributed to the rise of such literature, proliferating into children’s poetry, folklore, and rhyming books that integrating tastes of the region’s linguistic Creole-informed cadences. In the past two decades, festival awards, non-profit organizations, and local publishing houses have fostered the development of young adult literature that now treats problems common to the genre—emerging sexuality, mental health, sports, romance, and issues of identity. Writers address contemporary problems such as poverty, global warming, and political corruption through multiple genres popular among the age group including dystopian fiction, romance, mystery, and new realism, often laced with bits of Caribbean mythology.

Chapter 5 shows how Alice McDermott’s fiction reflects the ways in which Catholic faith and culture help give shape and structure to the routines of domestic life and the various ways that people try to make sense of suffering and the reality of death. The chapter begins by positioning her work in the broader narratives surrounding postsecular fiction and the state of contemporary Catholic literature, and then looks closely at a number of novels, particularly Charming Billy, Someone, and The Ninth Hour, demonstrating that her work poses hard questions about the adequacy of faith in the modern, skeptical age, while still making space for the presence of mystery and the transformative reality of grace.