Decentring Through Islands: Archipelagic Approaches to Multilingual Crime Fiction

ABSTRACT Building on previous work on Corsican crime fiction, this contribution highlights the island as a pivotal object of inquiry, arguing that isolation, resource constraints and cultural diversity dynamically shape crime narratives. Our aim is to extend these insights, proposing that similar dynamics exist in multilingual narratives from non-Anglocentric regions such as the Mediterranean, Central America and Asia. Adopting a cross-disciplinary approach, this contribution merges literary analysis with cultural geography and transnational studies to broaden the scope of crime fiction. It explores how islands influence our understanding of crime, place and identity, challenging conventional literary paradigms. This contribution calls for crime fiction scholars, particularly those focused on island narratives in languages other than English, to join a collaborative effort aimed at deepening narrative strategies across diverse geographies. By laying theoretical groundwork, it seeks to foster a network of scholars to expand the study of island-based crime fiction’s dynamics and its literary impact.