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“History provides numerous examples of people who were convinced that they were doing the right thing and committed terrible crimes because of it.”

                                                 ---Christopher Paolini

The primary objective of this research volume is to investigate the relationship between criminality and literature, and visual media. In various literary and visual works, including both classical and contemporary pieces such as the biblical narrative of Abel's murder, Oedipus' patricide and incest, Shakespeare's depiction of Duncan's murder, Diana Urban's "These Deadly Games," and the Indian web series "Mirzapur," the theme of criminality and violence is prominently featured. These themes are pervasive across multiple forms of artistic expression, encompassing both written and visual media. According to Oxford Learner’s Dictionary ‘criminality’ is ‘the fact of people being involved in crime; criminal acts.’ The lexical definition of criminality is limited and narrow. Criminality involves psychological, cultural, political, religious and economic factors. Criminality and Sin share some common grounds despite their differences. Palgrave Key Concepts in Crime Fiction (2011) underlines the tension between crime and sin: The confusion between ‘sin’ and ‘crime’ has contributed to the difficulty of defining what exactly constitutes crime but, broadly, from the eighteenth century onwards in the West the decline of religion and the rise of secularism meant that ‘crime’ came to encompass much that had previously been considered ‘sin’ (38).

In 20th-century crime fiction, the predominant emphasis lay in the punishment of criminal activity. Renowned detectives were revered for their deductive acumen and proficiency in unravelling mysteries to bring perpetrators to justice. However, the onset of the 21st century witnessed a notable shift in focus within crime fiction, with an emphasis on criminal behaviour superseding the concept of retribution. Rather than accentuating the detection of crimes, contemporary crime fiction and thrillers frequently pivot toward depicting graphic, gruesome violence as their central theme. 

The present volume promises to incorporate chapters on the following topics-

1. History of Crime and criminality in fiction-changing dimensions.

2. Socio-political and socio-economic factors responsible for the popularity of the genre

3. Criminality in web series in the 21st century

4. Criminality in movies in the 21st century

5. Crime and criminality in fiction in the 21st century

6. psychological interpretation of the depiction of criminality in the 21st century. 

Abstracts (not exceeding 400 words) may be sent to the following email address before 05 May 2025.  Full chapters should be sent before 30 September 2025 to criminalitycfp@gmail.com

Follow the formatting and citation rules.

A. The length of the paper must not exceed 4000 words.

 B. Use Times New Roman 12, double spacing.

C. Use MLA 9 for citation

D. Use Endnotes instead of footnotes.

E. Send a plagiarism report (if possible).

There is no publication charge.

Edited volume published:

Disease and Discrimination: Gender Discrimination during the Pandemic in South Asia and Beyond (Routledge). [https://shorturl.at/A0DTy]

Edited volume to be published soon: Man and the Machine: Exploring the Future of AI Literature

Editor- Dr. Sourav Kumar Nag 

           Assistant Professor, Dept. of English 

           Onda Thana Mahavidyalaya, 

           Bankura University, West Bengal

           India.