Chapter 3 - Writing Crime

Summary

The third chapter considers political and social change in relation to the embattled white middle class. Through a reading of contemporary crime fiction, especially Deon Meyer, Margie Orford, Mike Nicol and Roger Smith, it argues that middle-class culture has bifurcated into liberal and illiberal strands. These strands can be examined in relation to the negotiation of the rule of law: on the one hand the detective fictions of Orford and Meyer seek, ultimately, to affirm the constitutional order; on the other hand, the noir novels of Smith and Nicol encode a cynical stance, one which understands the social contract to have been irrevocably violated. These positions are then considered in relation to shifts within the Democratic Alliance, the political party most invested in white middle-class concerns.