SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

The Connection of Literary Works with Social and Cultural Context

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The Connection of Literary Works with Social and Cultural Context

Introduction

It is true that significant texts and literary works are made in the social and cultural contexts. Further, these also have relevance to the society and are embedded in their social and cultural times. Therefore, it is impossible to separate these works from the times and milieu in which they originated. These works essentially include the values and traditions of the times of the authors when these were written. Indeed, this also implies that these works would not have come to fore, had their authors not firmly placed themselves in the contemporary settings of the times to create the plots of crime fiction stories that were not very diffused from the reality. Therefore, the social and cultural settings of any literary work, including those of crime fiction, are inseparable from the development of these literary works. These social and cultural contexts provide the valuable input to the authors to develop these works which show the environment and the ambience of those times. Hence, it is easy to conclude that any good literary work, be it crime fiction, requires the author to place the work in the context of time and civilization.

The connection of crime fiction with the social and cultural context

The Skull beneath the Skin

The Skull beneath the Skin was written by P. D. James in 1982. It shows the life of a private detective Cordelia Gray. She is running the detective agency Pryde's Detective Agency which was established by her husband who killed himself. She is trying to protect a well-to-do woman Clarissa on the Courcy Island. The novel involves multiple murders including that of Clarissa who was being protected by Cordelia (James, 2001).

The novel is set in the time of 1982 in England. It is firmly embedded in time and shows the social and cultural settings of Britain of that time. Further, the novel is set on an island and shows how England would look like at that time. In addition, the attires of Cordelia and Clarissa also depict the clothing of English women of that time. Then, Cordelia's office is also described as the sleuth's workplace of that time. All in all, it is difficult to separate the novel from the times in which it is set. Moreover, it is clear that the author has been able to develop the novel from the social and cultural context of the time.

Anil's Ghost

The novel Anil's Ghost by Ondaatje is also set in Sri Lanka of 1980s when the country was ravaged by civil war. It narrates the story of the forensic pathologist girl Anil Tissera who has returned from the Western world where she worked with the UN to uncover the stories of human rights abuses. The story goes that she also has a friend and colleague who is an archaeologist by the name of Sarath Diyasena. Her brother is a surgeon who is working ...