Criminal violence: Systemic violence in the crime fiction of Claudia Piñeiro

Over the past twenty years, the bestselling Argentine author, Claudia Piñeiro, has produced a number of compelling works of fiction including crime novels, short stories, theatre plays and audiovisual production, each one, in its own unique way, dealing with the complexities of contemporary Argentine society. One of the most prominent topics across her crime fiction is systemic violence, which manifests as individual instances of criminality which are largely informed by the socio-economic and political environments of her protagonists. The following research examines Piñeiro’s depiction of the complex interplay between seemingly ordinary individuals and the state apparatus leading to instances of violence related to coercion, fraud, corruption, objectification, media manipulation, gender violence and violation of female reproductive rights, across six of the author’s standalone crime novels; Tuya (2005), Las viudas de los jueves (2005), Elena Sabe (2006), Las grietas de Jara (2009), Las maldiciones (2017) and Catedrales (2020). The primary aim of this research is to illustrate how the author uses crime to uncover the larger systemic violence informing the characters’ behaviour. The secondary objective of this research is to demonstrate how Piñeiro uses her protagonists’ experiences of systemic violence, resulting from their subjugation to social, economic and political demands, to create an intricate portrayal of contemporary Argentine society. However, this research also aims to highlight the international significance of Piñeiro’s fiction as the urgency and importance of topics in her work, particularly relating to political corruption and violation of women’s rights, can be felt amongst contemporary societies across the globe.

Funder

National University of Ireland

Publisher

University of Galway

Rights

CC BY-NC-ND

cbn

Collections

University of Galway Theses (PhD Theses)