Jan Baetens<\/strong> (KU Leuven)<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][et_pb_row_inner custom_padding=”0px|||” admin_label=”Riga” _builder_version=”3.5.1″][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”3_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.5.1″]<\/p>\n
There may be two ways to study the notion of \u201cEuropean identity\u201d through crime fiction. The first one is \u201cdirect\u201d and tackles the many ways in which European identities are represented by means of words and images: imagine a train crossing Europe and having on board a wide selection of European citizens, discussing cross-national topics and struggling with each other\u2019s languages and idiosyncrasies (the result can be great \u2013 or have the taste of a bad euro pudding). The second one is \u201cindirect\u201d and it performs<\/em> Europe rather than simply representing it: it is a way of creating a world and addressing issues by using building blocks that are deprived of any specific, that is: geolocalizable and historically datable, feature, but capable of strongly resonating with anybody\u2019s personal and collective concerns, yet without falling into the trap of easy allegories. This is what Kafka is doing in The Castle<\/em>\u00a0or The Trial<\/em>, which are not about Prague (where one can visit the \u201ccastle\u201d) or Austro-Hungarian bureaucracy (which the author thoroughly knew in virtue of his work in an insurance office), but which have shaped the way we imagine Europe, and perhaps even the world, today.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][et_pb_row_inner _builder_version=”3.5.1″][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”3_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_image src=”http:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/europe-image.jpeg” _builder_version=”3.5.1″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][et_pb_row_inner custom_padding=”0px||0px|” admin_label=”Riga” _builder_version=”3.5.1″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”3_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.5.1″]Something similar happens in the long short story by Beno\u00eet Peeters, La Biblioth\u00e8que de Villers<\/em> (The Library of Villers<\/em>, first edition 1980, reedited in 2012). This whodunit is the rewriting of many other stories and it appropriates many great references in the field, from Borges to Poe and from Agatha Christie to Herg\u00e9 (yes, also a crime fiction writer, just reread The Castafiore Emerald<\/em>). Yet the book is in the very first an attempt \u2013and a highly successful one \u2013 to invent both a scenario and a writing style that can be seen as the quintessential form and meaning of crime fiction in the European tradition: a certain type of characters, a certain setting, a certain technique of building tension (and not just surprise: Peeters closely follows Hitchcock on this point), and above all the recognition that one cannot separate form and content. If one writes a novel, one will have to do something with words (instead of simply using them). If one makes a movie, one will have to start from images (instead of seeing them as illustrations of an already existing storyline). Peeters is doing all this in The Library of Villers<\/em>, and that makes this book a wonderful example of writing Europe in crime fiction.[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_blurb _builder_version=”3.5.1″ header_font=”Roboto|300|||||||” header_text_color=”#476399″ header_font_size=”16px” body_font=”Roboto||||||||” body_text_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.6)” body_font_size=”12px” border_width_top=”2px” border_color_top=”#dbbb03″ custom_margin=”30px|||” custom_padding=”10px|||”]La Biblioth\u00e8que de Villers<\/em>\u00a0is the rewriting of many other stories and it appropriates many great references in the field, from Borges to Poe and from Agatha Christie to Herg\u00e9.[\/et_pb_blurb][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.5.1″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|” custom_padding=”0px||0px|”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.5.1″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.0.47″ parallax=”off” parallax_method=”on”][et_pb_divider height=”13px” _builder_version=”3.5.1″][\/et_pb_divider][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” disabled_on=”on|on|off” module_class=”hero-section” _builder_version=”3.5.1″ background_image=”http:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Postcards_and_magnifying_glass.jpg” custom_margin=”0px|||” custom_padding=”0px|||” custom_css_main_element=”max-height: 400px;”][et_pb_fullwidth_post_title featured_image=”off” _builder_version=”3.5.1″ title_font=”Roboto||||||||” title_text_color=”#ffffff” title_font_size=”38px” meta_font=”Trebuchet||||||||” meta_text_color=”#ffffff” meta_font_size=”14px” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.5)” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||120px|” filter_sepia=”1%” animation_style=”fold” custom_css_post_image=”margin-top: -190px;”][\/et_pb_fullwidth_post_title][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” disabled_on=”off|off|on” module_class=”hero-section” _builder_version=”3.5.1″ background_image=”http:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Postcards_and_magnifying_glass.jpg” custom_margin=”0px|||” custom_padding=”0px|||” custom_css_main_element=”max-height: 400px;”][et_pb_fullwidth_post_title featured_image=”off” _builder_version=”3.5.1″ title_font=”Roboto||||||||” title_text_color=”#ffffff” title_font_size=”32px” meta_font=”Trebuchet||||||||” meta_text_color=”#ffffff” meta_font_size=”12px” background_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.5)” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||120px|” filter_sepia=”1%” animation_style=”fold” custom_css_post_image=”margin-top: -190px;”][\/et_pb_fullwidth_post_title][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ specialty=”on” _builder_version=”3.5.1″ custom_margin=”||0px|” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[60,58,59],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4141"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4173,"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions\/4173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detect-project.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}