- Title
- The supernatural detective: witchcraft crime narratives in the Daily Sun
- Creator
- Boshoff, Priscilla A
- Date
- 2013
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/143447
- Identifier
- vital:38247
- Identifier
- DOI: 10.1080/1013929X.2013.833420
- Description
- Reports of witchcraft crimes are a staple feature in the South African tabloid newspaper, the Daily Sun. Instead of dismissing these sensational and seemingly implausible narratives, this paper examines them as ‘fictions’ through the lens of theory developed for the analysis of detective fiction. It draws on Huhn's (1987) model of the readerly relationships established by the narrative forms of the classical detective story and the hard-boiled novel in order to show how the reportage, together with its expected reception, reveals subliminal tensions within working-class black culture. Ironically, such a reading illustrates how the brazen and emotive nature of the tabloid text, which signals for some its untrustworthiness, perhaps comes closer to telling a ‘truth’ about contemporary South African society than the most ‘objective’ reports.
- Format
- 12 pages, pdf
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, Boshoff, P., 2013. The Supernatural Detective: Witchcraft Crime Narratives in the Daily Sun. Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa, 25(2), pp.164-175., Current Writing: Text and Reception in Southern Africa volume 25 number 2 164 175 September 2013 2159-9130
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)
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Collections
Boshoff, Priscilla A (Associate Prof)
RU School of Journalism and Media Studies
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | The Supernatural Detective.pdf | 664 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |