Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction

Herausgeber: Delamater, Jerome H.; Prigozy, Ruth

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Combining theoretical and practical approaches, this collection of essays explores classic detective fiction from a variety of contemporary viewpoints. Among the diverse perspectives are those which interrogate the way the genre reflects important social and cultural attitudes, contributes to a reader's ability to adapt to the challenges of daily life, and provides alternate takes on the role of the detective as an investigator and arbiter of truth. Part I looks at the nature of and the audience for detective fiction, as well as at the genre as a literary form. This section includes an inquiry into the role of the detective; an application of object-relations psychology to the genre; and analyses of recent literary criticism positing that traditional detective fiction contained the seeds of its own subversion. Part II applies a variety of theoretical positions to Agatha Christie and her heirs in the British ratiocinative tradition. A concluding essay positions the genre within the middle-class traditions of the novel since its inception in the eighteenth century. Of interest to all scholars and students of detective fiction and British popular culture.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Praeger
• Seitenzahl: 222
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Oktober 1997
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 240mm x 161mm x 17mm
• Gewicht: 504g
• ISBN-13: 9780313304620
• ISBN-10: 0313304629
• Artikelnr.: 21000053

Autorenporträt

JEROME H. DELAMATER is Professor of Communication at the School of Communication, Hofstra University. RUTH PRIGOZY is Professor of English at Hofstra University.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface Theoretical Approaches to the Genre Canonization, Modern
Literature, and the Detective Story by John G. Cawelti Shamus-a-um: Having
the Quality of a Classical Detective by Timothy W. Boyd and Carolyn Higbie
An Ideal Helpmate: The Detective Character as (Fictional) Object and Ideal
Imago by Timothy R. Prchal The Politics of Secrecy and Publicity: The
Functions of Hidden Stories in Some Recent British Mystery Fiction by Peter
Hühn Not so Much "Whodunnit" as "Whoizzit": Margaret Millar's Command of a
Metonymic Sub-Genre by Ann Thompson and John O. Thompson Parody and
Detective Fiction by Janice Mant "The Game's Afoot": Predecessors and
Pursuits of a Postmodern Detective, by Kathleen Belin Owen Agatha Christie
Novels and British Detective Fiction Christie's Narrative Games by Robert
Merrill "It Was the Mark of Cain": Agatha Christie and the Murder of the
Mystery by Robin Woods Impossible Murderers: Agatha Christie and the
Community of Readers by Ina Rae Hark "The Daughters of His Manhood":
Christie and the Golden Age of Detective Fiction by Mary Anne Ackershoek "I
Am Duchess of Malfi Still": The Identity-Death Nexus in The Duchess of
Malfi and The Skull Beneath the Skin by Carolyn F. Scott "An Unsuitable
Job" for Anyone: The "Filthy Trade" in P. D. James by Marnie Jones and
Barbara Barker Between Men: How Ruth Rendell Reads for Gender by Martha
Stoddard Holmes Class, Gender, and the Possibilities of Detection in Anne
Perry's Victorian Reconstructions by Iska S. Alter A Suitable Job for a
Woman: Sexuality, Motherhood, and Professionalism in Gaudy Night by Jasmine
Y. Hall The Bureaucrat as Reader: The Detective Novel in the Context of
Middle-Class Culture by James E. Bartell Index