Harvey-Kattou, L. 2019. Collective Culpability in Costa Rica: The Case of Quince Duncan’s Kimbo . in: Lange, C. and Peate, A. (ed.) Crime Scenes: Latin American Crime Fiction from the 1960s to the 2010s Peter Lang.
| Chapter title | Collective Culpability in Costa Rica: The Case of Quince Duncan’s Kimbo |
|---|---|
| Authors | Harvey-Kattou, L. |
| Editors | Lange, C. |
| Peate, A. | |
| Abstract | Despite Costa Rica’s peaceful rhetoric, Quince Duncan’s 1989 novel, Kimbo, portrays civil society as so corrupt it would rather condemn and kill an innocent man than admit to individual faults. This article therefore considers the nation as a crime scene in Kimbo, whereby the State and its deputies are the perpetrators of several crimes. Using Antonio Gramsci’s and Louis Althusser’s concepts of the State, civil society and subaltern to discuss the idea of a nationwide, collective culpability, it analyses the roles played by the ‘voices’ versus the ‘voiceless’ in the novel. It argues that the former group incorporates Repressive State Apparatus and Ideological State Apparatus, such as the police, judiciary and the Catholic Church, while the latter comprises marginalized groups such as Afro–Costa Ricans, women and the poor. |
| Keywords | Costa Rica; Central American crime fiction; Quince Duncan; Kimbo; Antonio Gramsci; Louis Althusser. |
| Book title | Crime Scenes: Latin American Crime Fiction from the 1960s to the 2010s |
| Year | 2019 |
| Publisher | Peter Lang |
| Publication dates | |
| Published | 21 Jun 2019 |
| ISBN | 9781787074354 |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3726/b10994 |
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