Mediatization and mothers accused of murder in Sophie Hannah’s crime novel A Room Swept White

Beyer, Charlotte ORCID: 0000-0002-2701-5443 (2011) Mediatization and mothers accused of murder in Sophie Hannah’s crime novel A Room Swept White. Northern Lights: Film and Media Studies Yearbook, 9 (1). pp. 79-93. doi:10.1386/nl.9.79_1

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Abstract

This article explores representations of media reporting and cot death in the British writer Sophie Hannah’s recent crime novel A Room Swept White. The article argues that Hannah’s novel interrogates the mediatization of cot death and maternal identity, in order to probe notions of gender and power. Hannah’s representations are closely linked to the figure of the female detective, whose own identity is challenged by what she discovers during the course of her investigation. Recent media coverage of cot death, and mothers accused of infanticide, suggests that this controversial subject is capable of provoking a re-evaluation of conventional constructions of motherhood. The article concludes that the complex relationship between the mediatization of cot death, maternal identity and the probing of crime in Hannah’s novel allows the reader to reassess the role of the female investigator and the nature of authority.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Crime fiction,media,female detective,maternal,cot death,Sophie Hannah
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Research Priority Areas:	Culture, Continuity, and Transformation
Depositing User:	Charlotte Beyer
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2014 14:50
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2023 08:56
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/748

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