[Commlist] CFP: The Female Detective on TV (MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture)

*CALL FOR PAPERS: The Female Detective on TV*

/MAI: Feminism & Visual Culture /(maifeminism.com 
<http://maifeminism.com>) invites academic authors with expertise in 
television studies and other related disciplines to contribute to our 
upcoming special issue on female detectives on TV.

For decades now, the female detective has occupied space within a genre 
that has been all-too-often reserved for the celebratory storylines of 
self-sacrificial men. She has served to break down sexist barriers 
placed before women within professional and personal frameworks, acting 
as an on-screen surrogate and inspiration for (female) spectators. The 
popularity of female-led TV crime drama across the world points to her 
success in captivating widespread audience attention.

The topic of women in TV crime drama has inspired a range of significant 
feminist scholarship (see for example, Pinedo 2019; Coulthard, Horeck, 
Klinger, McHugh 2018; Greer 2017; Buonanno 2017; Moorti and Cuklanz 
2017; Steenberg 2017, 2012; Jermyn 2017; Weissman (2016; 2010; 2007); 
McCabe 2015; Turnbull 2014; Brunsdon 2013; D’Acci 1994). This work has 
examined female-led TV crime drama from a variety of angles, including 
transnational cultural exchanges and currencies, serial form and 
narrative, gender, class, sexual and racial politics, and postfeminist 
identities and logics.

Certain series such as /The Killing /(Denmark 2007-2012, US 2011-2014)/, 
The Bridge /(Sweden 2011-2018, US 2013-2014)/, The Fall /(UK 2013-2016), 
and /Top of the Lake /(NZ/Australia 2013/2017)/, /have been singled out 
for how their female protagonists (Sarah Lund/Sarah Linden; Saga Noren; 
Stella Gibson, and Robin Griffin) resonate with viewers across 
transnational borders. Meanwhile, on primetime episodic US TV crime 
drama, Mariska Hargitay’s 21-year stint as Olivia Benson on /Law & 
Order: Special Victims Unit /(US 1999-present) – the longest running 
live-action TV series in American history – has turned her into a 
‘touchstone figure’ (Moorti and Cuklanz 2017). Hargitay’s real-life 
activism, and her dedication to fighting sexual violence against women, 
has attained important cultural recognition, as /Law & Order: SVU 
/itself has received renewed critical consideration in the wake of the 
#MeToo movement.

Notably, though, the female detectives mentioned in the above paragraph 
are overwhelmingly white. What shifts occur in the genre when a 
non-white female actor helms the main role as detective? What new 
possibilities, for example, are opened up by the emergence of black 
female legal investigators and detectives on network series such as 
ABC’s /How to Get Away with Murder /(US 2014-2019) and online TV series 
such as Netflix’s /Seven Seconds /(US 2018)?//And to what extent is TV 
crime drama able to meaningfully engage with issues of intersectionality 
and the precariousness of social justice in twenty-first century society?

This special issue seeks to build on the existing body of feminist 
writing on women in TV crime drama, through a further investigation of 
the figure of the female detective at this critical juncture for 
feminist television studies.  What new feminist visions of the female 
detective have emerged with changes in industrial practices and the 
growth of online streaming and niche television? How does the female 
detective of streaming TV compare to the images of the female detective 
found in the middlebrow crime dramas of linear TV? In an era of 
networked media in which popular feminism and popular misogyny 
(Banet-Weiser 2018) are more intertwined than ever before, what notions 
of empowerment are articulated through the figure of the female 
detective? To what extent does the female detective enable an 
exploration of central issues regarding female subjectivity and 
political resistance against systemic forms of violence?

We hope to open further debate on the subject of the female detective in 
all her guises. Staying true to MAI spirit, we are seeking papers 
written from intersectional and multivalent feminist perspectives. We 
hope this issue not only examines the figures and representations of 
women crime investigators on the screen, but also situates their work in 
related social, cultural and political contexts.

Our definition of the female detective is broad and inclusive. She can, 
but doesn't have to be a private eye or a police professional, just as 
long as she pursues social justice or truth.

While analyses of current and recent examples seem to be an obvious 
priority as far as contribution to the field knowledge of visual culture 
analysis, we also welcome papers on female detectives from the past.

In particular, we would like to encourage authors to consider submitting 
articles on the following titles:

/Seven Seconds/

/How to Get Away with Murder/

/Marcella/

/Spiral/

/Unbelievable /

/Killing Eve/

/Safe /

/Top of the Lake /

/The Fall/

/The Bridge /

/Veronica Mars/

/Southland/

/Fargo/

/Prime Suspect /

/La Mante /

/Castle /

	

/The Killing/

/Broadchurch/

/Lucifer/

/Elementary /

/The Wire/

/The Closer /

/Happy Valley /

/Jessica Jones/

/ Absentia/

/Tatort /

/The Bletchley Circle/

/Collateral/

/Suspects/

/Witnesses/

/Loch Ness/

/Cagney and Lacey/

We recognise that there are many more titles of interests, and the list 
could run quite long. If you wish to propose a paper on any other TV 
title, please get in touch with the editors to discuss your suggestion: 
(contact /at/ maifeminism.com) <mailto:(contact /at/ maifeminism.com)>

We plan to publish this issue in the first half of 2021.

The editorial team includes:

Tanya Horeck (Anglia Ruskin University, UK)

Jessica Ford (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Anna Backman Rogers (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

Anna Misiak (Falmouth University, UK)

*300-word Abstracts due:* 30 May 2020

*4000-6000 word Full Papers due:* 1 December 2020

Please consult the/MAI /submission guidelines before submitting: 
https://maifeminism.com/submissions/

Please send your abstracts and forward responses to this call to 
(contact /at/ maifeminism.com) <mailto:(contact /at/ maifeminism.com)>


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