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The Darkness Within: European Crime Fiction, Film and TV
  • ISSN: 2040-6134
  • E-ISSN: 2040-6142

Abstract

Traditionally national and local, the crime genre has shifted to depictions of invisible borders and free movement during European integration. In the wake of Brexit, this development has been disturbed, with greater focus on borders as obstacles and on restricted movement. This article examines the spaces of borders and movements of border crossings in UK transnational series (2021–present), set in the Atlantic Ocean and Scotland, and (2019), set in London and Tokyo. It focuses on the crime scene in these series as a space that has responded to these historical shifts in genre. The series illustrate two contrasting responses to these developments in a post-Brexit context. depicts its crime scene on a nuclear submarine as a space that is initially both isolated and rigidly bordered. At the same time, it reveals borders between nations, characters and genres to be increasingly porous. follows a Tokyo police detective on the search for his ex-Yakuza brother in London. Its crime scene connects both cities into a mediatized space that moves with the characters. In both series, the highly connected cross-border spaces of earlier series are shown to be disrupted on various levels, including their temporalities.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship
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/content/journals/10.1386/jepc_00069_1
2025-02-18
2025-04-21
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): borders; crime fiction; Europe; nationalism; television; United Kingdom
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