ipl-logo

How Does Nancy Drew Use Heterodiegetic Narrative In Detective Fiction?

1826 Words8 Pages

Thesis
My examination of the narrative structure of Nancy Drew novels reveals how heterodiegetic narrators can subvert masculine power structures in detective fiction, allowing for the reclamation of agency and linguistic power by female detectives. Through an analysis of how the heterodiegetic narrator aligns with and against the titular character, this project will argue that using heterodiegetic narration in detective fiction can serve as a tool for feminist intervention and subversion of patriarchal language practices. By examining how Nancy Drew's linguistic power increases as she solves mysteries, this project will demonstrate how detective fiction can offer a space for resistance against masculine authority over language.

Analysis
As …show more content…

For example, upon solving the mystery, Nancy reveals to the Matthews brothers, “‘I have good news,’ she said, her eyes dancing. ‘Mrs. Topham lost her case. The will Dad and I found has been accepted for probate. You will receive the inheritance Mr. Crowley left you!’” (175). In this quote, Nancy is the bearer of the good news. Although she credits the finding of the will to both her father and herself, she incorporates herself as an equally equipped and intelligent sleuth, unlike the heterodiegetic narrator who frequently reminds the audience of the father/daughter power dynamic. Additionally, there is a description of her eyes, which I argue is not an intrusion of the narrator but focalized through Nancy. Her eyes are “dancing,” full of movement, life, and energy. This is distinct from the initial description of her eyes as “blue.” The initial description marks her with elements of the beauty of the patriarchal (white-dominated) world. The latter, however, describes the lively eyes of an energized and impassioned woman, which the audience can gaze through rather than upon.
Finally, we get real-time access to what she knows when Nancy solves the mystery. In solving the mystery, the masculine power of the novel is subverted. Readers align themselves with Nancy, and the authority …show more content…

Although the novels are steeped in a masculine power structure, with male authority figures like Carson Drew and the heterodiegetic narrator exerting significant influence over Nancy, her character can reclaim agency and linguistic power through instances of narratological focalization through her perspective. By examining examples from three novels in the series, I have demonstrated how Nancy's linguistic power increases as she solves mysteries and how this serves as a space for resistance against masculine authority over language.
Through this analysis, it becomes clear that heterodiegetic narration can be a tool for feminist intervention in detective fiction, allowing female characters to subvert patriarchal language practices and reclaim agency and linguistic power. Although the Nancy Drew novels were written in a specific period and cultural context, their use of heterodiegetic narration remains relevant today as feminist scholars and writers continue to explore the potential of narrative structure as a tool for resistance and

Show More
Related

Crazy Like Us Chapter Summary

1341 Words | 6 Pages

As

Read More

Ethos And Pathos In The Character Shaping Of Nancy Lemmeter

285 Words | 2 Pages

“This excessive rumination and self-questioning is perhaps a morbid habit inevitable to a mind of much moral sensibility when shut out from its due share of outward activity and of practical claims on its affections--inevitable to a noble-hearted, childless woman, when her lot is narrow. (17, 164)” This quote was chosen to be the subject of presentation because of its powerful diction, and its significance in the character shaping of Nancy Lemmeter. The presentation involved the manipulation of two elements of pursuation: Ethos and Pathos. Ethos is the first element of persuasion being used; the UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May is established as a credible source of information, Prime Minister May is a confident example for this presentation

Read More

Similarities Between Their Eyes Were Watching God And Salvage The Bones

631 Words | 3 Pages

The novels' portrayal of gender is more nuanced than their portrayal of race. The novels delve deeply into the intricacies of gender identity, including the intersections of gender, sexuality, and motherhood. The novels also highlight how gender influences relationships and social dynamics within communities. In contrast, while race is an essential factor in the novels, it is not as nuanced as the portrayal of gender. The novels highlight the experiences of Black people and their struggles in a racially oppressive society.

Read More

Harry Lavender Codes And Conventions

1104 Words | 5 Pages

Warping the conventions of the hard-boiled detective genre facilitates the ability of the audience to distinctively explore ideas and attitudes present within Marele Day’s prose fiction, ‘The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender’. The representation of the protagonist, Claudia Valentine, subverts both gender stereotypes associated with the hard-boiled genre as well as the conventions of the genre, which serves to provoke a renewed perception of the novel. In addition, Day uniquely personifies a city to embody the role of the femme fatale to cleverly challenge the audience to uncover the true nature behind a facade. Moreover, Day confronts societal values towards criminals by portraying the antagonist as a victim of his own upbringing. Day subverts

Read More

Sara Paretsky's Femininity Analysis

2884 Words | 12 Pages

As a female hard-boiled detective writer, Sara Paretsky makes the choice of creating a character in a masculine world that must compromise between her newly acquired masculinity and natural femininity. Beverly Jenkins on the other end is already set in a familiar genre being a romance writer, however she creates a character who assumes a male –dominated career in a male-dominated world who wrestles with what she is told to do as a woman and what she believes she deserves as a person. Both authors present strong female characters engaged in worlds were they must make compromises between their commitment to their jobs and engaging in interactions where the traditionally feminine elements of emotion and love determine their actions and choices. However by establishing this situation of compromise between masculinity and femininity, Paretsky and Jenkins create a gap where the denial of one part for the other becomes detrimental to the entire

Read More

Femininity In The Outsiders

696 Words | 3 Pages

A book editor for mass-market books and a female magazine writer, Danuta Kean (2012) found a startling trend of women writers producing more horrific violence novels that some men authors have. Confronted with the question about the trend, some women writers argued that they simply wrote about the fear that only women feel, like the fear of being raped that men do not understand. Unlike the current trend and the freedom that many women writer enjoy, Cherry character in the The Outsiders novel represents the transition of a woman’s writer views on their own roles and expectations in the

Read More

Mothering Under Slavery In Toni Morrison's Beloved

963 Words | 4 Pages

(131) Gynocriticism helps to learn “something solid, enduring and real about the relation of woman to the literary culture. ”(49) It concentrates on the newly visible world of the female culture. Toni Morrison’s fictional characters could be analyzed from gynocritic view point because they confront with cultural issues of gender, class as well as race. The world today also challenges the black woman.

Read More

Dangers Of Conformity In The Giver

400 Words | 2 Pages

This is crystallised when Jonas notices that like him, a girl he observes has “different, lighter eyes' ' and that “no-one mentioned such things, it… was reconsidered rude to call attention to things that were unsetting or different' '. Therefore, blue eyes become a symbol of uniqueness in the face of a society that relies on technology to ensure the oppressive ideology of sameness. Throughout this timeless speculative fiction piece, Lowry evokes a sense of courage within readers as we consider the need to dismantle the existence of dictatorships in our own world. Lowry offers an intricate evaluation of the dystopian trope of the oppressive government by elucidating to us the dangers of conformity through the characterisation of Jonas, who realises that his father’s job entails murder, “He Killed it! My father killed it!

Read More

Susan S. Lanser's The Yellow Wallpaper

464 Words | 2 Pages

Susan S. Lanser’s “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the politics of color in America” examines the impacts “The Yellow Wallpaper” had on feminist writing styles and critiques. Lanser writes that the story helps to analyze the reading trough “the lens of a female consciousness” and apply the knowledge gained from a female perspective onto other literature (418). The transition that the narrator displays from being dependent on John to becoming independent reflects the feminist movement and challenges the “male dominance” that currently takes precedence in society (418). The “patriarchal prisonhouse” that is society controls the narrator and oppresses women not only in “The Yellow Wallpaper” but in real life as well (419). The

Read More

Criticism In Pd James's An Unsuitable Job For A Woman

936 Words | 4 Pages

PD James’ novel, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, published in 1972, coincides with a new, emerging strand of feminist thought. Not surprisingly therefore, several of the concerns of the text starting from its very title, were some issues raised by the feminist movement of this period. In my paper, I’ll be examining the crime(s), criminals, and the detective in the novel in the light of not only generic context but also against the dominant feminist thought of the time. The novel opens not with a crime but the suicide of Bernie Pryde, Cordelia’s partner at the detective agency, and who, as the reader discovers, would have headed the investigation of Mark Callender’s suicide.

Read More

Nancy Mairs On Being A Cripple Essay

807 Words | 4 Pages

This quote shows that even though Mairs sometimes has difficulty accepting her illness, she knows that there is a growing acceptance of people who must deal with the difficulties that she faces. This ultimately lends a hopeful and positive tone to an otherwise serious and depressing section of her essay. This contrast in tone, but general feeling of hope is key to the type of emotions that Nancy Mairs is trying to educate her readers about. Mair is successful in using multiple rhetorical strategies to connect with the reader.

Read More

The Secret In The Old Clock Analysis

1287 Words | 6 Pages

In the story, a more seasoned refined man, Josiah Crowley, means to pass his legacy to the Horner sisters, said above, and his cousins, Edna and Mary Turner. In an abnormal wind, he winds up leaving the majority of his cash to another arrangement of cousins, the Tophams, who live in River Heights. The Tophams have Josiah's will in their ownership, and Nancy's investigator endeavors rotate around finding another will concerning Josiah's legacy (which, asone may figure, she finds in an old clock). Both the Horners and the Turners request Nancy's help with recuperating the lost will, and she guarantees to help them. At last, the legacy goes to the Horners and the Turners as opposed to the Tophams, speaking to a returning of cash to its "meriting" owners.89 The Turners and the Hoovers are just poor at first as a result of the Tophams' dishonesty and the Tophams rapidly lose their cash in the share trading system and are compelled to minimize their way of

Read More

Use Of Tropes In Literature

3031 Words | 13 Pages

Wikipedia has devoted considerable space to the topic. However, the use of tropes that victimize women is a dizzyingly popular choice that authors have been milking since the written word was pressed into a book. This raises question on whether fiction is art that is imitating life? What happens when we apply the beloved tropes from

Read More

Womanism In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

1029 Words | 5 Pages

Dee approaches culture by decontextualising it, while Maggie and Mama relate to it with a kind of ‘organic criticality’. The former stance is mere rhetoric and the later one is womanist. In one of her interviews, Alice Walker identifies three cycles of Black Woman she would explore in her woman’s writing: 1.

Read More

Role Of Women In Literature

1495 Words | 6 Pages

The role of women in literature crosses many broad spectrums in works of the past and present. Women are often portrayed as weak and feeble individuals that submit to the situations around them, but in many cases women are shown to be strong, independent individuals. This is a common theme that has appeared many times in literature. Across all literature, there is a common element that causes the suffering and pain of women. This catalyst, the thing that initiates the suffering of women, is essentially always in the form of a man.

Read More

More about How Does Nancy Drew Use Heterodiegetic Narrative In Detective Fiction?

Related Topics

Open Document