Literary forensic rhetoric: maps, emotional assent, and rhetorical space in Serial and Making a Murderer

Abstract

True crime series have had a recent revival following the release of season 1 of the popular podcast Serial, and the Netflix documentary Making a Murderer. These series have been previously studied for how their popularity was derived from taking back legal narratives from institutional gatekeepers, from 'jurifying' the audience, and because of the 'ecosystem' of online fandom. But little seems to have been written about how the series use techniques of forensic rhetoric to draw in audiences. This article aims to evaluate the two series through the prism of law and literature, and explores the oft-overlooked relationship between forensic rhetoric and literature. It concludes that narrative provides a link between rational and emotional 'proofs' in the true crime series.