Description
Book SynopsisThroughout its limited run beginning in 2014, the HBO series True Detective has presented viewers with unique takes on the American crime drama on television, marked by literary and cinematic influences, heavyweight performances, and an experimental approach to the genre. At times celebrated and opposed, the series has ignited a range of ongoing critical conversations about representations of gender, depictions of place, and narrative forms. True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series includes a breadth of scholarly chapters that cross disciplinary boundaries, interrogate a range of topics, and ultimately promise to further contribute to critical debates surrounding the series.
Trade ReviewSamuel and Stoddart have cultivated a strong collection of conversations surrounding a popular yet often polarizing television series. The first season of True Detective attained wide critical acclaim, whereas the second was panned by viewers and critics alike. However, this anthology impressively complicates the dominant readings of each season (and, in so doing, reclaims meaning and value to the maligned second season) with analyses of the show’s representations of gender, space, and morality, offered through literary, cinematic, narrative, thematic, and philosophical lenses. It is a great text for any scholar interested in examining a recent popular culture phenomenon through multiple perspectives. -- Todd M. Sodano, St. John Fisher College
In True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series, scholars explore an exemplar of the preeminent narrative form of our time. These essays sensitively probe issues of genre, performance, and adaptation, revealing True Detective’s animation by traditions from the ancient and medieval, to William Faulkner, and Southern Gothic. -- William Mooney, Fashion Institute of Technology
Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Notes on References Chapter One: Introduction Michael Samuel and Scott F. Stoddart Section I Chapter Two: Finding “Sanctuary” in True Detective Season One: Faulkner and the Gender Politics of Southern Gothic Crime Drama Cameron Williams Crawford Chapter Three: Petrochemical Families: Landscape and Lineage in True Detective Helen Williams Chapter Four: Traces of Melodrama in True Detective’s narrative strategies Kathryn Jensen and Tony Prichard Section II Chapter Five: “I Welcome Judgment:” Revenge and Redemption in True Detective Alexis M. Egan Chapter Six: The Secret Fate of All Pessimism: Time, Determinism, and Eternal Recurrence in True Detective Season One Rick Elmore Chapter Seven: “I contemplate the moment in the garden:” Medieval Sainthood in True Detective Jessica Walker Section III Chapter Eight: (Un)Bury Me: The Fate of Pizzolatto’s Antigone Jennifer Crumley and Amy Stavola Chapter Nine: Names so deep and Names so true—Identity Crises and Greek Tragedy in True Detective Season Two Isabell Große Chapter Ten: Oedipus in Vinci: Parental Dynamics in True Detective Season Two Ryan Twomey Episode Guide Cast List About the Contributors
