CFP: “America was Never Innocent”: Special issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection for the Thirtieth Anniversary of James Ellroy’s American Tabloid

Theme issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection

Guest editors: Nathan Ashman (University of East Anglia) and Steven Powell (University of Liverpool)

2025 will mark the 30-year anniversary of James Ellroy’s American Tabloid, a historical novel which
challenged the established view of the events leading up to the assassination of President Kennedy. For
Ellroy, who had heretofore written acclaimed but largely genre-focused noir novels set in his native Los
Angeles, it represented a critical breakthrough in his writing career, and proved a major step in him
becoming a literary figure with an idiosyncratic revisionist take on American history. Thus, as Ellory’s
literary career moves into its fifth decade, it seems like an appropriate moment to reappraise his vast
literary output, particularly given the seeming decline of critical interest in his work from within the
academy over recent years. This can perhaps be situated within the context of Ellroy’s ever provocative
and controversial ‘Demon Dog’ persona, one that feels increasingly anachronistic in the era of social media and in the wake of recent political and social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too. Yet these contexts also provide fertile ground for new or revised approaches to Ellroy’s canon and to the mode of the historical novel more broadly.

Subjects might include (but are not limited to):

● Ellroy’s characters as agencies of the State (and questions of state power more broadly)
● Ellroy and the Historical Crime Novel (including Ellroy’s influence on other practitioners and on
the development of the form more broadly)
● The various meanings of ‘policing’ and its relationship with the State in Ellroy’s fiction
● Gender in Ellroy’s work
● Ellroy and American History
● Sexuality in Ellroy’s work
● Race/racism in Ellroy’s work
● Music in Ellroy’s work
● Underworld and Overworld. Webs of corruption linking organised crime to the LAPD in James
Ellroy’s novels
● The protagonist as voyeur: Perverted viewpoints in the Quartet and Underworld USA novels
● Public and Private space
● Ellroy’s ‘demon dog’ persona (as well as broader consideration of animality in Ellroy’s work)
● Ellroy’s ‘late’ fiction

Submissions should include an abstract of 250-300 words and a brief bio (max 150 words). Proposals due 1st March 2025 and should be sent to Dr Steven Powell (s.p.powell@liverpool.ac.uk) and Dr Nathan Ashman (n.ashman@uea.ac.uk). Full manuscripts due of 5,000 to 6,500 words based on accepted proposal will be due 31st October 2025.

About Clues: Published biannually by McFarland & Co., the peer-reviewed Clues: A Journal of Detection
features academic articles on all aspects of mystery and detective material in print, television, and film
without limit to period or country covered. It also reviews nonfiction mystery works (biographies,
reference works, and the like) and materials applicable to classroom use (such as films). Executive Editor:
Caroline Reitz, John Jay College/The CUNY Graduate Center; Managing Editor: Elizabeth Foxwell,
McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers Clues Web Site: https://sites.google.com/site/cluesjournal/