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Literatura Ludowa. Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture

A guarantee of safety, a cautionary tale or a celebration? Popularity of true crime narratives through the lens of Mary Douglas’s concepts of pollution and defilement
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  • A guarantee of safety, a cautionary tale or a celebration? Popularity of true crime narratives through the lens of Mary Douglas’s concepts of pollution and defilement
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  3. Vol. 65 No. 2 (2021): The dark side of fandom /
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A guarantee of safety, a cautionary tale or a celebration? Popularity of true crime narratives through the lens of Mary Douglas’s concepts of pollution and defilement

Authors

  • Joanna Antoniak Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1011-7865

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/ll.2.2021.006

Keywords

fan studies, true crime, Mary Douglas, fandom

Abstract

The fascination with crime, hastily described by some as a symptom of moral degradation of Western culture, seems to be a defence mechanism used by individuals to deal with social transgressions and anomalies represented by serious crimes. The aim of this article is to analyse the growing popularity of true crime through the lens of Mary Douglas’s theory of purity and pollution, with a particular emphasis on the methods of dealing with anomalies appearing within conceptual schemata of a given culture. For this purpose, the text has been divided into four parts: the first part briefly presents the history of true crime; the second part analyses the idea of murder through the lens of Douglas’s theory; the third part discusses the reasons behind the popularity of true crime narratives; and the fourth part showcases how individuals use true crime stories as tools to deal with anomalies.

References

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Bradford, L. (2016). My family was traumatised first by a murder, then by the TV serialisation. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/02/the-secret-my-family-traumatised-murder-tv-drama-bereaved

Brockes, E. (2016). HBO’s Confirmation: How far is too far when it comes to retelling the truth? Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/apr/17/hbo-confirmation-anita-hill-clarence-thomas

Bruzzi, S. (2016). Making A Genre: The Case of the Contemporary True Crime Documentary. Law and Humanities, 10(2), 249-280.

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Douglas, M. (2001). Purity and Danger. An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London & New York: Routledge.

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Foucault, M. (1998). The Will to Knowledge: The History of Sexuality. London: Penguin Books.

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Greco, P. (2020). True Crime Stories Are More Popular Than Ever – Why Are We So Attracted to Them? Retrieved from: https://www.health.com/mind-body/true-crime-why-we-love-it

Greer, A. (2017). Murder, she spoke: The female voice’s ethics of evocation and spatialisation in the true crime podcast. Sound Studies, 3(2), 152-164.

Harvard Library [no date]. English Crime and Execution Broadsides. Online collection. Retrieved from: https://library.harvard.edu/collections/english-crime-and-execution-broadsides

James, P. D. (2009). Talking About Detective Fiction. London: Faber & Faber.

Kayman, M. A. (2010). The Short Story from Poe to Chesterton. In: M. Priestman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction (pp. 41-58). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Roberts, S. (2019). True Crime and the Trash Balance. Retrieved from: https://longreads.com/2019/01/18/true-crime-and-the-trash-balance/

Stinson, A. (2018). How True Crime Shows Affect Your Brain, According to Trauma Therapists. Retrieved from: https://www.elitedaily.com/p/how-true-crime-shows-affect-your-brain-according-to-trauma-therapists-8714092

Summerscale, K. (2008). The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House. London: Bloomsbury.

Summerscale, K. (2016). Penny dreadfuls: The Victorian equivalent of video games. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/30/penny-dreadfuls-victorian-equivalent-video-games-kate-summerscale-wicked-boy

Symons, J. (1992). Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel. New York: Mysterious Press.

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Taylor, C. (2019). Serialized Killing: Unstability and User Experience in the True Crime Genre. MA thesis, Ball State University.

Vicary, A., & Fraley, C. (2010). Captured by True Crime: Why Are Women Drawn to Tales of Rape, Murder, and Serial Killers? Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(1), 81-86.

Waters, T. (2007). When Killing Is a Crime. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Prublishers.

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Wiltenburg, J. (2004). True Crime: The Origins of Modern Sensationalism. The American Historical Review, 109(5), 1377–1404.

Literatura Ludowa. Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture

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Published

2021-11-22

How to Cite

1.
ANTONIAK, Joanna. A guarantee of safety, a cautionary tale or a celebration? Popularity of true crime narratives through the lens of Mary Douglas’s concepts of pollution and defilement. Literatura Ludowa. Journal of Folklore and Popular Culture. Online. 22 November 2021. Vol. 65, no. 2. [Accessed 2 July 2025]. DOI 10.12775/ll.2.2021.006.
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Vol. 65 No. 2 (2021): The dark side of fandom

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Copyright (c) 2021 Joanna Antoniak

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