Detective/Crime Fiction

Abstract

Crime fiction, also known as detective fiction, is a major genre of twentieth‐century world fiction in terms of number of titles, sales, and variety, though some critics view it as a poor cousin of general fiction. However, during the last 30 or 40 years a large body of critical literature has grown up around crime fiction, and it has begun to acquire an academic imprimatur. Perhaps because of sales, critical interest, and forays into the genre by some writers of “literary” fiction, the boundaries between crime and general fiction have become blurred. In some cases, such blurring might be better described as a transcending of boundaries as crime fiction writers consider things social and cultural as well as criminal. Crime fiction may also transcend traditional national and cultural boundaries, as, for example, in A Shadow of Myself (2001) by the black British novelist Mike Phillips, in which English, German, and African cultures each play their part in a multigenerational narrative. Defining crime fiction is therefore no easy matter. Add to this the problems of defining “postcolonial” – the predominant rubric under which world fiction is now studied – and the difficulties multiply.