Description
This paper considers the representation of the legal system in the Russian Empire in crime fiction authored by two female writers, Aleksandra Sokolova (1833-1914) and Kapitolina Nazar’eva (1847-1900). At its inception in the era of the so-called ‘Great Reforms’ in the 1860s, crime fiction in Russia was an exclusively male domain. The conventions of the genre were established by numerous male writers who used the figure of the (always male) detective as the embodiment of the ideals and aspirations of the post-reform legal system. This system was intended to be more professional, independent, open, rational and humane. From the 1880s onwards, these male authors were joined by a handful of female writers, of whom Sokolova and Nazar’eva are the most notable in terms of both the quantity and quality of their work. In keeping with the mimetic impulse of crime fiction, their novels do not portray female investigators, either professional or amateur. However, what they do express is a more sceptical attitude towards the efficacy of the legal system and its male representatives. I will argue that this criticism is expressed through the skilful handling of narrative focalisation in female-authored crime fiction, where the informing perspective is decentred from the male detective figure. It will briefly discuss two novels – Nazar’eva’s From the Clutches of Poverty (1884) and Sokolova’s Without a Trace (1890) – to illustrate the consequences of an approach to narrative perspective that brings female points of view in from the margins of the discourse.| Period | 28 Aug 2025 |
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| Event title | Undercover Agents: Women, Crime, and Detection in the Global Nineteenth Century |
| Event type | Conference |
| Degree of Recognition | International |