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Dementia, Care and Elder Abuse in Late Twentieth-Century Detective Fiction: Reginald Hill's Exit Lines and Michael Dibdin's The Dying of the Light

Dementia, Care and Elder Abuse in Late Twentieth-Century Detective Fiction: Reginald Hill's Exit... Dementia-themed detective fiction has become something of a trend. This article extends the critical history of this development to a period often ignored by scholars, considering two noteworthy examples from the late twentieth century: Reginald Hill's (1984) Exit Lines and Michael Dibdin's (1993) The Dying of the Light. Through textual analysis and historical contextualisation, the article shows how these novels raise disturbing questions about dementia care, older people's rights and therefore their citizenship. Both texts make sophisticated use of the distinctive affordances of the detective fiction genre to comment on failings of care in their time, belying common assumptions that the productive engagement of detective fiction with dementia is a recent innovation. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Crime Fiction Studies Edinburgh University Press

Dementia, Care and Elder Abuse in Late Twentieth-Century Detective Fiction: Reginald Hill's Exit Lines and Michael Dibdin's The Dying of the Light

Orr, David M. R.
Crime Fiction Studies , Volume 2 (2): 17 – Sep 1, 2021
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh University Press
ISSN
2517-7982
eISSN
2517-7990
DOI
10.3366/cfs.2021.0046
Publisher site
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Abstract

Dementia-themed detective fiction has become something of a trend. This article extends the critical history of this development to a period often ignored by scholars, considering two noteworthy examples from the late twentieth century: Reginald Hill's (1984) Exit Lines and Michael Dibdin's (1993) The Dying of the Light. Through textual analysis and historical contextualisation, the article shows how these novels raise disturbing questions about dementia care, older people's rights and therefore their citizenship. Both texts make sophisticated use of the distinctive affordances of the detective fiction genre to comment on failings of care in their time, belying common assumptions that the productive engagement of detective fiction with dementia is a recent innovation.

Journal

Crime Fiction Studies – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2021

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