How much can a story change when women take control of the plots, the characters, and the difficult questions? This Wednesday, this question was answered in the editorial office of elDiario, where the writers Berna González Harbor and Susana Martín Gijón talked about the black genre and answered the questions of the members.
The Cantabrian journalist and writer Berna González Harbor has been recognized with the Dashiell Hammett 2020 award and the Granada Noir 2022. Among her most notable works is Summer in red, starring Commissioner Ruiz and made into a film in 2023; and other titles like Margin of error (2014), Claire Jones’ Tears (2017), The dream of reason (2019, Hammett Award). Susana Martín Gijón consolidated herself in the panorama of Spanish crime novels with the saga of Inspector Camino Vargas, protagonist of the works Progeny, Species and Planet. More recently he published Babylon, 1850, his first foray into the historical novel.
These two essential authors of the noir genre in Spain talked about literature, inequalities and the future of noir. Organized by elDiario.es in collaboration with Librotea and with the support of Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, the event inaugurated the cycle of literary meetings Written by them which promises to bring future meetings where the place of women in the publishing world is debated.
How can it be that a sector dominated by editors and literary agents continues to publish more books by men than by women? The figures don’t lie, and both González Harbor and Martín Gijón know them by heart. “I don’t believe that the publishing world has a machismo problem today, but it has been male because male authors have been chosen until recently,” explained González Harbour, who recalled how women have been the invisible readers of the literary system for decades. . “It has been very noticeable that publishers are betting on women’s voices and are finding them.”
For his part, Martín Gijón pointed out that women writers face challenges that go beyond the act of publishing. “In the middle of 2024, in interviews, they still continue to ask me about the prominence of women in my novels.” But for her, the publishing sector is ahead in the representation of women and opens doors to diversities. “There is no going back with this change and they know that there are things with which we will never agree,” he warns.
“When I started writing crime fiction, I realized that the woman was always in the kitchen or dying on the first page,” González Harbor recalled. “My curator Ruiz is a reaction against all these stereotypes, against all those vital readings of the crime novel marked by clichés and masculinity. “Those novels no longer reflect the world today.”
Susana Martín Gijón was more direct. “There was a lack of references. Even when female detectives appeared, they were close to the stereotype of masculine toughness and did not know how to cook and punched.” For her, introducing complex female characters is not a “fashion” but a necessity. “Fiction creates a construction of reality and I believe that female readers no longer accept that masculine world.”
The debate also turned towards the inclusion of social issues. Martín Gijón highlighted that for her the black genre allows her to explore issues such as climate change, animal abuse or social inequalities in an incisive way. “I don’t know if the noir genre is evolving anywhere in particular, but I would like it to be a place where new questions, themes and spaces are raised.”
Both writers agreed that the future of the crime genre seems more open than ever and according to Berta González Harbor, “the way the world is, the crime novel has plenty of future.” Susana Martín Gijón, for her part, encouraged women to read and break down those prejudices that still exist among male readers, who mostly read other men.
The meeting left a feeling that something is changing. The words of Berna González Harbor and Susana Martín Gijón not only illuminated the chiaroscuros of the noirbut also opened windows into a more inclusive and bold literary landscape.
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