Snake Women and Hideous Sensations: The Strange Case of Gaelic Detective Short Stories by Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar
2020
Abstrakt
The essay focuses on a series of detective short stories by Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar, written for and published in his Gaelic magazine An Sgeulaiche in 1909-10. In particular, it examines the story 'An Tè aig an Robh Cridhe Nathrach' (The Woman with a Snake's Heart), arguably the most elaborate and remarkable piece in the series, and makes a case for the short story as a late fin de siècle text which reflects the anxieties and preoccupations of its era, focusing especially on the ubiquitous late-nineteenth-century image of the female criminal and the animal woman.