View article

Based on interviews with 19 readers (15 women, 4 men) of detective fiction (broadly defined as crime novels with a central role for the investigator of the crime, whether a professional or an amateur), I aim to investigate both the practice of reading detective fiction and its possible wider ramifications. In particular I am interested in whether and how this popular genre is connected with ‘cultural citizenship’ and with feminism and gender roles. The link between citizenship and popular culture is made via the concept of the ‘interpretive community’.