Strange Affair: Representations of human trafficking in Peter Robinson’s 2004 novel in conjunction with this crime’s contemporaneous UK news reports

• In Event: Social perceptions of crme

Abstract

Though millions are victims of human trafficking, one-sided representations of the issue impede the recognition of real, but non-stereotypical, cases (e.g. Bouché et al., 2018; Cunha et al., 2022). Whilst proposing that fictional analyses affect this crime’s perception, we note that studies of trafficking representations primarily focus on newspapers (see Gregoriou & Ras, 2018) instead of fiction (e.g. Beyer, 2018). With access to a special collection archive containing various materials Robinson collected and created whilst writing Strange Affair (2004), we ask to what extent this novel’s treatment of exploitation may be linked to contemporary newspaper articles. These materials are examined through a combination of a critical stylistic, content (using Atlas.TI 24) and corpus (using AntConc) analysis. Preliminary findings suggest that Robinson’s novel does tap into the then-dominant narrative, for instance by unnecessarily conflating smuggling and trafficking, but also deviates from this narrative, for instance by introducing organ harvesting as part of a broader trafficking scheme that otherwise primarily focuses on sexual exploitation.

References
Beyer, C. (2018). “In the suitcase as a boy”: Representing transnational child trafficking in contemporary crime fiction. In Representations of Transnational Human Trafficking (pp. 89–116). Palgrave.
Bouché, V., Farrell, A., & Wittmer-Wolfe, D. E. (2018). Challenging the Dominant Frame: The Moderating Impact of Exposure and Knowledge on Perceptions of Sex Trafficking Victimization. Social Science Quarterly, 99(4), 1283–1302.
Cunha, A., Gonçalves, M., & Matos, M. (2022). Exploring Perceptions of Portuguese Police about Human Trafficking Victims and Perpetrators. Crime, Law & Social Change, 77(3), 253–273. Criminal Justice Abstracts.
Gregoriou, C., & Ras, I. A. (2018). Representations of Transnational Human Trafficking: A Critical Review. Palgrave.
Robinson, P. (2004). Strange Affair. Pan Macmillan.

Authors

• Ilse A. Ras, Leiden University

• Christiana Gregoriou, The University of Leeds