Detective and Spy Fiction

Abstract

Detective fiction is a genre of literature that traditionally employs a protagonist who is an amateur or professional detective involved in solving a central mystery. Detective fiction has frequently been viewed as merely a popular medium, one that was and continues to be criticized as literarily inferior. Critics have traditionally examined the popularity of detective fiction rather than its presence in other works of literature. For a number of years, the dismissal of detective fiction as not worthy of critical study relegated it as a genre unto itself. However, beginning with the examination of its continued appeal, as Michael Cohen does in Murder Most Fair (2000), the study of this genre revealed the literary conventions it both mined and influenced. Although most critics situate the beginning of detective fiction with the appearance of Edgar Allan Poe's story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), we can identify elements of the genre as far back as William Goodwin's Caleb Williams (1794). Poe's story is primarily structured around the detective Auguste Dupin and, alongside Emile Gaboriau's stories featuring detective Monsieur Lecoq, established detective fiction as a genre that situated itself between mainstream distrust of the police and the increasing desire for law and order. The narrative structure, the relationship between detectives and their partners, and the unfolding of the mystery itself became important sites of study. Just as important, however, is the creation of the detective figure.