The Rumpelstiltskin Effect

The present volume analyzes the ideological construction of the identities of heroes, villains, and victims in American police procedural novels, exploring the tropes, patterns, and narrative devices used to portray these characters. Mona Raeisian critically examines the ways these identities are portrayed and constructed in the United States, connecting the two dominant ideologies of capitalism and individualism with the representations of perpetrators, police officers, and victims through an in-depth analysis of novels from prominent authors such as Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Michael Connolly, and Thomas Harris. Theories on identity and ideology by Louis Althusser, Jacques Derrida, and others have been used to frame and ground this analysis.