ABSTRACT

This is an investigation into the ways in which serial killer mythology and notions of place are often co-created. In this study, we focus on the mythos of the serial killer and its relationship to the construct of Australian suburbia. We focus on the ways in which the tension between working-class suburbia and upper-middle-class suburbia plays out through the serial killer narrative. Politically, the serial killer narrative is also intertwined with the production of race-based, class-based and gendered definitions of space. We show how culture is deeply invested in ‘making sense’ of serial killing through several political manoeuvres, including the privileging of certain victims over others, such as the way in which women of colour are rendered invisible in these mythologies. To argue these assertions, we draw from a case study located in Perth, Western Australia, dubbed by the media as the Claremont serial killings. By tracing several sub-narratives, we perform qualitative discourse analysis on diverse media texts.

摘要

这是对连环杀手神话和地方概念经常共同创造的方式的调查。在这项研究中，我们关注连环杀手的神话及其与澳大利亚郊区建设的关系。我们专注于工人阶级郊区和中上阶层郊区之间的紧张关系通过连环杀手的叙事表现出来的方式。在政治上，连环杀手的叙事也与基于种族、基于阶级和性别的空间定义的产生交织在一起。我们展示了文化如何通过多种政治手段深入“理解”连环杀戮，包括赋予某些受害者高于其他人的特权，例如在这些神话中使有色人种女性隐形的方式。为了论证这些断言，我们借鉴了珀斯的一个案例研究，西澳，被媒体称为克莱蒙特连环杀人案。通过追踪几个子叙事，我们对不同的媒体文本进行定性话语分析。