detective fiction
TRANSCRIPT
Crime Fiction and Detective Fiction
➢ Crime fiction is the literary genre that
fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals, and
their motives. It has several subgenres, including
detective fiction, legal thriller and courtroom
drama.1
➢ Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction in
which an investigator or a detective—either
professional or amateur—investigates a crime,
often murder.2
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fiction
2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction
Gothic Fiction and Detective Fiction
➢ The early novels of the gothic tradition included a
component of mystery that had an important influence
in the the creation and development of detective
fiction.
➢ These novels included crimes but there was not (unlike
in detective fiction) a body of professionals or an
individual (amateur or professional) trying to solve the
mystery by deduction.
Illustration for Caleb Williams
➢ William Godwin's Caleb Williams (1794) is a novel which uses some of
the characters, trappings and plot elements of the Gothic novel, but it is
set in contemporary England and Godwin was mainly interested in the
problems of class perception and the nature of oppression that he had
developed fully the previous year in his essay Concerning Political
Justice.
➢ In Caleb Williams we have two “detectives.” Caleb who unearths a
sinister secret from his master Falkland and Gines who is “the prototype
of the state-employed but `legitimate` professional agent”1 in his
relentless pursuit of Caleb.
➢ Caleb williams is not considered the first detective novel in English, but
Caleb is considered as the first detective in an English novel.
➢ In the creation of the detective story Edgar Allan Poe “acknowledged
some debt to the structure as well as content of [...] Caleb Williams.”2
Caleb Williams: the First Detective in English Literature
1. Godwin, W., & Hindle, M. (2005) Pag. X
2. Priestman, M. (2003). Pag.2
William Godwin
Edgar Allan Poe: the Father of Detective Stories
➢ Edgar Allan Poe is considered as the creator of the detective story with his
character of C. Auguste Dupin.
➢ Poe introduced Dupin for the first time in his short story “The Murders in the
Rue Morgue.” So this is taken to be the first detectives story in the English
language and Dupin became the prototype for many fictional detectives.
➢ A contrast recurs throughout Poe´s work between reason and imagination:
Poe´s ideal was a perfect synthesis of the two modes of
intelligence. In his fiction the closest he came to this ideal was
in the creation of his master detective Dupin, a poet who
brings to commonplace reality the discriminating eye of the
artist, but who weighs his evidence as a logician and is able to
extrapolate from the raw material of the real world the ideal
solution.1
Dupin solves the crimes both by his reason and by his imagination
which he uses to penetrate the minds of the criminals.
1. Poe, E. A., & Galloway, D. (2003). Pag.xxii
Harry Clarke´s illustration for ”The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
➢ Poe wrote three short stories featuring Dupin:
❖ In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Dupin solves the
mystery of the murder of two women in Paris.
❖ “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” is based on the actual
murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers. It is the first murder
mystery based on the details of a real crime.
❖ In “The Purloined Letter” a woman has been
blackmailed by an unnamed minister who has in his
possession a compromising letter. Dupin solves the
mystery of where the minister hides the letter.
● Charles Dicken included in a subplot of his novel Bleak House a murder
that has to be solved by an Inspector Bucket.
● But the first detective novel in English was written by Dickens´
collaborator Wilkie Collins.
● In The Moonstone (1868) Collins established several elements that will
become essential elements of future detective novels:
● English country house robbery
● An “inside job”
● Red herrings
● A celebrated, skilled, professional investigator
● Bungling local constabulary
● Detective inquiries
● Large number of false suspects
● The "least likely suspect"
● A rudimentary “locked room” murder
● A reconstruction of the crime
● A final twist in the plot1
Wilkie Collins: the Father of Detective Novels
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction
● The most popular fictional detective and one of the
most famous literary characters is Arthur Conan
Doyle´s Sherlock Holmes.
● In the creation of Sherlock Holmes Conan Doyle
was influenced by Poe's Dupin and by his own
professor at the University of Edinburgh, Joseph
Bell.
● Sherlock Holmes appeared for the first time in the
novel A Study in Scarlet and then Conan Doyle went
on to write another three novels and 56 short stories
featuring his detective. Among the most popular are
The Hound of the Baskervilles, His last Bow, “A
Scandal in Bohemia,” and The Sign of the Four.
Arthur Conan Doyle
● Similarly to Dupin, Holmes “reads signs and
interprets them according to a process which
combines logical deduction with leaps of the
imagination”1
● Conan Doyle´s had a decisive influence on
the genre of detective fiction:
With Doyle’s creation of the
Sherlock Holmes series, detective
fiction became for the first time an
indubitably popular and repeatable
genre format.2
1. Sanders, A. (2000). Pag. 469
2. Priestman, M. (2003) Pag. 4
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction
➢ The golden age of detective fiction is usually
taken as the period between the two world
wars.
➢ Among the most relevant authors of this period
are S. S. Van Dine, Mary Roberts Rinehart,
Dorothy L. Sayers and Ronald Knox. Agatha
Christie is the crucial author of this period.
➢ Gilbert Keith Chesterton is usually included in
this group, although he started writing detective
fiction earlier. He created the figure of a
detective priest with his Father Brown
G. K. Chesterton
➢ There were certain common characteristics that many of
these writers shared:
-Murder is now essential as the central crime.
-The story is also socially enclosed: The criminal comes
from among the social
circle of the victim.
-The wider politics of the context are ignored
-The victim will be a man or (quite often) a woman of
some importance and wealth,
-Detection is rational rather than active or intuitional.
-There will be a range of suspects (Like in Wilkie
Collins´ The Moonstone), all of whom appear capable
of the crime and are equipped with motives.
-The identification of the criminal is usually the end of
the story.1
1. Priestman, M. (2003). Pag 78
Agatha Christie: “the Queen of Crime”
➢ Her reputation as "The Queen of Crime" was built upon the large
number of classic motifs that she introduced, or for which she
provided the most famous example. Christie built these tropes into
what is now considered classic mystery structure:
❖ A murder is committed
❖ There are multiple suspects who are all concealing secrets.
❖ The detective gradually uncovers these secrets over the course of
the story,
❖ He discovers the most shocking twists towards the end.
❖ At the end, the detective usually gathers the surviving suspects
into one room, explains the course of his or her deductive
reasoning, and reveals the guilty party.1
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie
➢ Her most famous creation is the Belgian detective
Hercule Poirot. He is featured in 33 novels and
54 short stories:
❖ The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
❖ The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
❖ Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
➢ She also created the character of Miss Marple, an
elderly spinster who acts as a consulting
detective. She is featured in The Murder at the
Vicarage (1930).
Illustration by Gilbert Wilkinson of Miss Marple
Harboiled Fiction: the Time of the Private Eye
➢ The hardboiled fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction considered by many
authors as a genuine American version of detective fiction.
➢ It appeared in the United States in the the 1920s and 1930s, the time of the
Prohibition era, the bands of gangsters and the Depression years.
Probably the most deeply misguided piece of legislation of the
American twentieth century [the 18th Amendment to the Constitution
by which the Prohibition began], its effect was to turn hundreds of
thousands of ordinary working and middle-class Americans into
criminals, and to create a society in which crime syndicates
flourished in the effort to cater to an appetite that could not be
contained.1
➢ Hardboiled fiction was published in and closely associated with so-called pulp
magazines, most famously Black Mask.
➢ While classic Golden Age British detective fiction derived much of their
materials from comedy of manners, private eye stories shared much of theirs
with American literary realism.2
1. Priestman, M. (2003).Pag 96
2. Priestman, M. (2003). Pag 97
Samuel Dashiell Hammett
● The most significant practitioners of this kind of detective
stories were Samuel Dashiell Hammett and Raymond
Chandler. Both of them got their start in Black Mask
magazine.
● The world of the novels and stories of Hammett and
Chandler is very different from the world of Golden Age
British detective fiction. The emphasis now is on violence
and corruption and the detective has to resort both to his
intuition and to other more expedient means.
● Samuel Dashiell Hammet created the detectives Sam Spade
(The Maltese Falcon) Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man)
and The Continental Op (Red Harvest and The Dain Curse)
➢ Chandler´s first novel, The Big Sleep, was
published in 1939 and it was the first to feature
his detective Philip Marlowe.
➢ Philip Marlowe is considered, alongside
Hammett's Sam Spade, as the quintessential
“private detective.”
➢ Philip Marlowe was featured in other novels like:
❖ Farewll, my Lovely (1940)
❖ The Lady in the Lake (1943)
❖ The Little Sister (1949)
❖ The Long Goodbye (1953)
❖ Playback (1958)
Raymond Chandler
Bibliography
Godwin, W., & Hindle, M. (2005). Things as They Are, or The Adventures of Caleb Williams. London:
Penguin.
Hayes, K. J. (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Poe. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hogle, J. E. (2002). The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Poe, E. A., & Galloway, D. (2003). The Fall of the House of Usher and other Writings: Poems, tales, essays,
and reviews. London: Penguin.
Poe, E. A. (1993) El escarabajo de oro y otros cuentos. Madrid: Grupo Anaya.
Priestman, M. (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sanders, A. (2000). The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bibliography
Agatha Christie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Christie
Crime Fiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fiction
Detective Fiction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction
Detection Club http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detection_Club