Detecting Texts: The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism by Patricia Merivale , Susan Elizabeth Sweeney (review)

Abstract

Reed and Clarence Major (rather than just Toni Morrison), among Native Americans Diane Glancy and Gerald Vizenor (beyond Leslie Marmon Silko),and among non-minoritywritersan entire movement reachingfrom Barthto Vonnegut (with historiographicexperiments by Walter Abish, Robert Coover, Grace Paley, and Ronald Sukenickalong the way). These latterauthorsmay be missingnotjust because of Hutcheon's self-imposed limitsbutthanksto Zamora'sotherwiseconvincing conclusion:thatwhile US fiction remains influenced by the romantic reaction to Enlightenment ideas, Hispanic language literature escaped these ideas in favour of existing within the Baroque. Take away the metafictive paradigm and there are baroque styles among US contemporariesgalore. UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA, CEDAR FALLS JEROME KLINKOWITZ DetectingTexts:TheMetaphysical Detective StoryFromPoe to Postmodernism. Ed. by PATRICIA MERIVALE and SUSAN ELIZABETH SWEENEY. Philadelphia: University of PennsylvaniaPress. 1999. x + 305 pp. $45; ?35 (paperbound $19.95; ?15.50). This collection oftextsconstitutesa usefulintroductionto the genreof'metaphysical detective fiction' and offersdetailed criticalreadingsof a range of texts fromwithin this genre. The introductionto the volume considersthe distinctivefeaturesof the genre, including intertextuality;textual self-consciousness;exploration of the limits of hermeneutic understanding;and problematic subjectivities.The relation of this genre to other literarygenres and to literaryhistoryas a whole forms an important element of the argumentof the book and many of the contributorsare concerned to identifythe common themes or formaldevices thatunite textswithin the genre. As the subtitle suggests, the volume also seeks to construct a map of the literary influencesthat have shapedthe development of thisgenre:the introductionpresents this in diagrammaticform and many of the articlesalso make a case for particular patterns of influence. Poe emerges as the key figure at the origin of the genre, and there are many readings of Poe's texts within the volume. Perhapsthe most useful for anyone seekingto understandthe issues at stakein the analysisof metaphysical detectivefictionisJohn T. Irwin'sreadingof Poe and Borges,which offersa bracing and informativedetour through the debate between Lacan, Derrida, andJohnson over Poe's 'The Purloined Letter'. Accounts of Poe's founding influence on the metaphysical detective story do not draw simply on his Dupin stories: they also explore the metaphysical issues at stake in tales such as 'William Wilson' or 'The Man of the Crowd'. If Poe is seen as setting in play the epistemological and philosophical questionsthat will drive the development of the genre, Borges is read as giving these concerns their transgressive and self-conscious textual setting. Robert L. Chibka, for example, offers a persuasive and insightful account of the interpretativeand linguistic challenges inherent in a story such as 'The Garden of ForkingPaths', suggestingthat Borges'sstoryleads us eventuallyto the recognition that 'we in our libraries, like Yu in his prison cell, occupy an impossible, an untenable position' (p. 68). The development of this metaphysical genre in contemporaryfiction produces a varied canon of writers,including Umberto Eco, Georges Perec, PatrickModiano, and Thomas Pynchon, butwithin the volume as a whole the key texts are clearly those in Paul Auster's New YorkTrilogy. Auster's intertextuality,his unsettlingof narrativeidentities, and his metafictionalknowingness all make him centralto the account of metaphysicaldetective fiction offeredin thisvolume. Reed and Clarence Major (rather than just Toni Morrison), among Native Americans Diane Glancy and Gerald Vizenor (beyond Leslie Marmon Silko),and among non-minoritywritersan entire movement reachingfrom Barthto Vonnegut (with historiographicexperiments by Walter Abish, Robert Coover, Grace Paley, and Ronald Sukenickalong the way). These latterauthorsmay be missingnotjust because of Hutcheon's self-imposed limitsbutthanksto Zamora'sotherwiseconvincing conclusion:thatwhile US fiction remains influenced by the romantic reaction to Enlightenment ideas, Hispanic language literature escaped these ideas in favour of existing within the Baroque. Take away the metafictive paradigm and there are baroque styles among US contemporariesgalore. UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA, CEDAR FALLS JEROME KLINKOWITZ DetectingTexts:TheMetaphysical Detective StoryFromPoe to Postmodernism. Ed. by PATRICIA MERIVALE and SUSAN ELIZABETH SWEENEY. Philadelphia: University of PennsylvaniaPress. 1999. x + 305 pp. $45; ?35 (paperbound $19.95; ?15.50). This collection oftextsconstitutesa usefulintroductionto the genreof'metaphysical detective fiction' and offersdetailed criticalreadingsof a range of texts fromwithin this genre. The introductionto the volume considersthe distinctivefeaturesof the genre, including intertextuality;textual self-consciousness;exploration of the limits of hermeneutic understanding;and problematic subjectivities.The relation of this genre to other literarygenres and to literaryhistoryas a whole forms an important element of the argumentof the book and many of...