'Normal Happy Girl' Interrupted: An auto/biographical Analysis of Myra Hindley's Public Confession. Issue 4 (3rd April 2021)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- 'Normal Happy Girl' Interrupted: An auto/biographical Analysis of Myra Hindley's Public Confession. Issue 4 (3rd April 2021)
- Main Title:
- 'Normal Happy Girl' Interrupted: An auto/biographical Analysis of Myra Hindley's Public Confession
- Authors:
- Clark, Tom
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: Responding to the need to develop the range and scope of narrative criminology, this paper provides an empirical demonstration of how auto/biographical analysis can be used for criminological purposes. More specifically, the paper explores how British serial killer Myra Hindley sought to construct, (re)present and rehabilitate her own identity in the face of the 'mad, bad, or evil' discourse that she was typically associated with. Using her auto/biographical letter to The Guardian newspaper as the main source of data, supplemented with material taken from her prison files available in The National Archive, the paper examines how she sought to develop her own causation narrative in the face of massive public derision. It demonstrates how the 'normal happy girl' interrupted narrative which Hindley constructs is neither an accurate account of her life, nor an invention of her imagination. Instead, it is a product of the immediate local context which she found herself in; the conventions of criminal autobiography; the rules and regulations that govern prisoners; the redemptive requirements of the penal process; and, the generalized causation narratives of serial killers that were being reconfigured by various lay commentators for use in the 'Moors murders' story.
- Is Part Of:
- Deviant behavior. Volume 42:Issue 4(2021)
- Journal:
- Deviant behavior
- Issue:
- Volume 42:Issue 4(2021)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 42, Issue 4 (2021)
- Year:
- 2021
- Volume:
- 42
- Issue:
- 4
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2021-0042-0004-0000
- Page Start:
- 458
- Page End:
- 472
- Publication Date:
- 2021-04-03
- Subjects:
- Deviant behavior -- Periodicals
302.54205 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/udbh20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/01639625.2019.1689047 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0163-9625
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 3579.099900
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 16355.xml