Geographies of Fear in the Domestic Noir: Paula Hawkins’s The Girl on the Train

• Published in: Miscelánea - Departamento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana, Universidad de Zaragoza Universidad de Zaragoza, 2017, Vol.56 (56), p.109-127
• Main Author: Gonzalez, Carla Rodriguez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alcoholism; Collaboration; Crime fiction; domestic noir; Domestic violence; emociones; emotions; Feminism; Fiction; Gender; geografías del miedo; geographies of fear; Hawkins, Paula; Intersectionality; Literary characters; Literary criticism; Literary devices; Literary influences; Literature; Misogyny; Morality; Narrative structure; Narrative techniques; Narratives; Novels; Paula Hawkins; Plot (Narrative); Readers; Social criticism & satire; The Girl on the Train; Urban studies; Women; Writers
• ISSN: 1137-6368; 2386-4834
• DOI: 10.26754/ojs_misc/mj.20176791

The aim of this article is to analyse the revision of social constructions of spaces of safety and danger in urban environments as represented in Paula Hawkins’s 2015 domestic noir novel The Girl on the Train. As such, it draws from affect and space theory in order to study the interaction of emotions and space —both public and private— in relation to its three first-person female narrative voices and their affective attachments. Special attention is paid to the representation of geographies of fear and security, so as to explore the construction and performance of hierarchical relations based on emotions —fundamentally love and fear— as well as the performance and spatial embodiment of these affects. This work argues that the construction of alternative emotional patterns, namely, alternative embodied displacements and emotional attachments to spaces and relationships, serves to unveil patterns of domination that would otherwise remain hidden in the realm of the home.