True Crime: Scoundrels, Villains, and Vice

The old adage "If it bleeds, it leads" suggests an uneasy fascination with crime, murder, and violence preoccupies American culture and media. From the colonial period to the present day, true crime narratives have simultaneously disgusted, riveted, and terrified audiences. Although critics have denounced the genre as glorifying crime and titillating spectators, real-life crime narratives also invite readers to contemplate the ways in which people engage in transgressive behavior that violates societal norms. This course will examine the evolution of the true crime genre to explore how these narratives reveal changing attitudes about gender, mental illness, morality, race, and so on. Our analyses will center on three pressing questions: What are the ethics of consuming tales of real-world tragedies? Further, how do these narratives reveal shifting societal anxieties surrounding crime, discipline, and trauma? And, finally, how does the genre of true crime perpetuate, complicate, or refute harmful stereotypes about marginalized groups, such as racial minorities?