Rees, Matthew Beynon (2026) Something More than Night: The role of trauma in the creation of the Middle Eastern crime fiction of Matt Rees. Doctoral thesis, York St John University.
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Text (Doctoral thesis)
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Abstract
This thesis examines the role of my trauma in the form and content of my crime fiction, the writing of which was informed by my experiences as a foreign correspondent in the Middle East between 1996 and 2015. The study draws on an analysis of my Palestinian mystery novels featuring the amateur sleuth Omar Yussef and my international thrillers centred on US agent Dominic Verrazzano. In these novels, trauma is more than a mere thematic element. Rather it is a force underpinning narrative structure, characterisation, tone and genre.
The thesis builds on Sarah Trott’s analysis of Raymond Chandler’s war trauma, examining its narrative function from an authorial perspective, rather than as something experienced by fictional characters. The crime fiction genre structures this trauma, feeding it into narrative momentum and plot resolution. The genre’s formal progress from disturbance to investigation and thence to closure mirrors psychological processes of confrontation with and attempted mastery of traumatic experience, as theorised by Freud and more recent trauma scholars.
Through first-person reflection and textual analysis, the thesis illustrates how my experience of conflict-related violence informed the evolution of protagonists with differing degrees of agency, from the constrained moral authority of Omar Yussef to the action-orientation of Dominic Verrazzano. This evolution reflects my increasing awareness of my trauma and need to assert control over it in narrative form. The crime fiction form derives energy from the author’s personal trauma, while its structure brings stability to the traumatised psyche, allowing the formation of socially and politically critical narratives rooted in Middle Eastern settings.
The thesis contends that crime fiction is as an expressive, therapeutic form. Rather than offering a mirror of traumatic fragmentation, it provides a structured means of engaging with and partially resolving its enduring effects.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) |
| School/Department: | School of Humanities |
| URI: | https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/15783 |
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