Abstract
This article analyzes the psychological and neurological underpinnings
of crime fiction and discusses the interrelation between cultural and
biological-evolutionary determinants of fictions of detection. It argues that
although crime fiction is a product of modern life conditions, it is also centrally
fueled in the minds of viewers and readers by the mammalian dopamine
seeking/wanting system developed for seeking out resources by foraging and
hunting and important for focused mental and physical goal-directed activities.
The article describes the way the working of the seeking system explains
how crime fiction activates strong salience (in some respects similar to the effect
of dopamine-drugs like cocaine, Ritalin, and amphetamine) and discusses
the role of social intelligence in crime fiction. It further contrasts the unempathic
classical detector fictions with two subtypes of crime fiction that blend
seeking with other emotions: the hardboiled crime fiction that blends detection
with action and hot emotions like anger and bonding, and the moral
crime fiction that strongly evokes moral disgust and contempt, often in conjunction
with detectors that perform hard to fake signals of moral commitment
that make them role models for modern work ethics. The article is part
of bio-cultural research that describes how biology and culture interact as argued
in Grodal’s Embodied Visions.
K
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Projections - The journal for movies and mind |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Pages (from-to) | 64-85 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| ISSN | 1934-9688 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2010 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities
- bioculturalism
- dopaminergic seeking
- detection
- crime fiction
