Detective Genre Research Articles

Detective Genre in the West and in Russia

The article is devoted to the study of the history of the genre in literature formation. The term detective is still controversial in literature studies. Academicians distinguish different subgenres of works, in this case taking into account synthesis of storyline model of psychological, adventurous, and spying novels. An important feature of the genre is the completeness of the facts: the solution of the mystery cannot be based on the information that was not provided to a reader during the investigator’s description. Hence, readers should have enough information to find a solution on their own. Studies on genre have appeared in the West first. Its arrival to Russia occurred in the 1990s. The authors analyze the theoretical works devoted to the genre, identify the most important features of the classic and postmodern genre, as well as identify the key steps in the formation of literature on genre. The article states that the founder of the genre was E. A. Poe. Then this genre has developed in England (A. Conan Doyle, A. Christie), in France (S. Japrisot, Georges Simenon), the U.S. (Hammett, Chase), and Russia (R. Ovals, R., Kim, Y. Semenov, br. Weiners, D. Koretsky, N. Leonov, B. Akunin, etc.). Herewith, during the transition to the 21st century, this genre has experienced significant changes regarding the leading character: a hero is not a police officer but an amateur investigator with a strong personality, analytical mind and outstanding abilities.

Parodia, intertextualidad y sátira en la narrativa policial de Lorenzo Lunar Cardedo

Detective fiction as parodic reformulation of genre’s defining patterns has a long history in the Latin American tradition: Borges, Bioy Casares, Soriano, Levrero, Ibargüengoitia, etc. Besides, the evolution of Latin American detective genre has always been characterized by a progressive focalization in the social aspects over the detective story line which has served as a mask to depict in a critical way the flaws of the region’s societies and governments. In nowadays Cuba it could be highlighted the crime narrative of parodic slant by Lorenzo Lunar Cardedo. Among the major features of Lunar Cardedo’s style there are the marginal atmospheres, the stylization of popular speech, the intertextuality, the humor, the parody, and the social criticism. This article focuses on the parodic, intertextual and satiric aspects of his work, particularly discernible in the novel Proyecto en negro (2013), in which the author emphasizes – in opposition to the official discourse – the perpetuation of corrupt, chauvinist, racist, and homophobic behaviors in contemporary Cuba, while relaxing the genre formula limits in order to follow a much more irreverent path within the new Latin American detective fiction.

The Image of the West on the Soviet Screen in the Era of the 'Cold War': Case Studies

This article analyzes the Soviet films of the "Cold War" period about Western world and Western characters – in terms of their ideology, social and cultural context. As examples from movies and detective fiction genre – "The Mystery of Two Oceans", "Amphibian Man", "The Case of Corporal Kochetkov", "Gardens of the Scorpion."

Edgar Allan Poe and His Nineteenth-Century American Counterparts

Edgar Allan Poe and His Nineteenth-Century American Counterparts

Literature as Activism - From Entertainment to Challenging Social Norms: Michael Nava’s Goldenboy (1988)

The aim of this article is to examine how Michael Nava appropriates the conventions of Detective/Crime Fiction to engage in artivism, whereby art is used to challenge sexual and ethnic social oppression and inequality. By providing an analysis of the heteronormative conventions of the Detective and Crime Fiction genre, the article focuses on the ways in which narratives portray homophobic violence, as well as on the fact that such portrayals result from and contribute to the promotion of heteronormative hegemonies. Following this, I focus on Michael Nava’s Goldenboy (1988) and I analyse Nava’s writing in relation to the wider Chicano tradition of using art to engage in activism, what has been termed as ‘artivism.’ The central argument of this paper is that Nava ‘queers’ the form of the Detective Fiction genre to highlight the shortcomings of our society, the effects of the hegemonial heteronormativity, and the need for social change.

Детективы Агаты Кристи как философия повседневности: постмодернистский анализ

The article is devoted to the study of the detective genre as a model of philosophical cognition of the world and a system of cultural values. The goal of the article is to study how the attitude to the detective genre evolved in the academic discussions of the 20th century: transformation of status of the detective from an “entertainment genre” to the object of the philosophical reflection was the result of evolution of the philosophical paradigms from semiotics and postpositivism in the Modern epoch to postmodernism and theories of everyday thinking in the Postmodern epoch. The actuality of the article is due to insufficient study of the epistemology of the detective in the contemporary Cultural studies. The research methods of the article are based on the "archeology of knowledge" by M. Foucault and the cultural-semiotic approaches of R. Barthes and U. Eco. Author argues that although both detectives of A. Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie belong to the intellectual type of detective, they are based on different epistemological images of the world. Author of the article investigates the epistemological paradigms which the base in the detective stories of A. Conan Doyle and in the novels of Agatha Christie. The author analyzes the methodological approaches to the detective genre in the works of the leading theorists of the 20th century, including V. Shklovsky, M. Bakhtin, Z. Krakauer, U. Eco, and others. The author proposes to consider the modern detectives not only as the entertaining genre, but as a way to know various different forms of culture and traditions. The author notices that Finnish philosopher J. Hintikka has created a tradition of using the stories on Sherlock Holmes as an explanatory model of the principles of operation of artificial intelligence systems which goes back to Aristotle's logic. As a rule, the detectives in Agate Christie’s novels represent not formal logic (which prevailed in the stories about Sherlock Holmes), but searches of criminal through intuition, own life experience, knowledge of people and their typical behavior (habitués). Recognition of a criminal or a victim in the novels of Christie occurs through knowing the lifestyle of a person which becomes a source of the formation of his / her “idea”, his motives, desires and disappointments, which lead to certain decisions and actions. There concludes that A. Christie's detectives were based on the ideas of the philosophy of “everyday social thinking” (by A. Schütz) as the epistemological and culturosophical model. The author argues that the detectives of A. Conan Doyle and A. Christie are determined by different philosophical paradigms which represent the different epochs.

Переводы западной литературы и их влияние на развитие детективного жанра в Китае в начале ХХ века

The article is devoted to the study of the impact of Western literature translations on the development of the detective genre in China. Active introduction of China to the Western tradition in the late 19th – early 20th century led to the emergence of a large amount of translated literature. Writers of the first half of the 20th century were innovators, they borrowed in many respects from the form of Western detective stories, which was a rather natural phenomenon considering the necessity to accumulate experience for the creation of a distinct style. A new private detective hero appeared – Huo Sang in Cheng Xiaoqing’s novellas, Li Fei in Lu Tan’an’s stories, Song Wuqi in Zhang Biwu’s stories, as well as the ‘anti-detective’ gentleman thief Lu Ping in Sun Liaohong’s works. Although the names of these writers are not very well known, precisely their works lay the foundation for further development of the detective genre in Chinese literature.

Психологические особенности представлений любителей произведений фантастического и детективного жанров о субъекте безопасности

This research is devoted to studying the views of fans of detective and fantasy media products about security in general and about the security subject in particular. It has been suggested that the preference for media products of the fantasy and detective genres contributes to the specification of representations about the security subject. The study was carried out using the semantic differential method with the participation of 400 subjects aged 18 to 22 years. Highlighted significant differences in the structure of ideas about the subject of security among fans of detective fiction and fantasy fans: if from the point of view of the first behavior and actions of the subject security must be based on a realistic assessment of the situation of danger and actualize their own resources, the main qualities of the subject security from the standpoint of the latter are flexibility of thinking, the ability to change behavior, ability to communicate with people, while maintaining the confidentiality of the received information (factor “variability”, “privacy”, “openness”). Common to both groups of subjects are such qualities inherent in the subject of safety as originality of approach to solving a difficult or dangerous situation and energy, activity of actions (factors “novelty” and “activity”). The proposed projective method of evaluating the strategies of the subject’s actions in the conditions of threat, risk and stress expands the diagnostic and predictive capabilities of security psychology.

Радянський кінодетектив: історія створення та особливості жанру

The article is devoted to the issue of formation and development of the detective genre on the Soviet cinema screen. Detective is one of the favorite genres of the mass audience. It came from literature in the intriguing story of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe — “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841). It is there that the author formulates the main features of the detective genre. The detective shows a person “strained to the limit” of his mental and physical capabilities. Another peculiarity of the detective is an appeal to the logical capabilities of the recipient. Cinema has turned its attention to the detective since its early years. The founder of this genre was the French director V. Jasset, who directed a series about detective Nick Carter in 1908-1909. “The Rumyantsev Case” (1955) is considered to be the first Soviet detective movie. Probably, this film laid the foundation of the Soviet detective film: psychologically in-depth image of the protagonist, that often weakened the plot, dramaturgical content of other characters, including negative, understanding and desire to support a missteped person, emphasized the moral aspect. The times of the “Khrushchev Thaw” especially accentuated the problem of choosing between the official law of society and the human individual conscience. In 1966, the film “Beware of the Car” was released. It was probably one of the latest outbreaks of the “thaw” era in a desperate desire to defend one’s dreams and ideals, to adjust the system by conscience. The end of the 1960s was marked by the coming of the so-called “Stagnation”. Cinematographers, like tightrope walkers, balance on a thin and sometimes dangerous line between the laws of the genre and the efforts of editors (they were also ideological censorship), because the Soviet detective had to not only entertain but also educate both aesthetically and morally, because no one is allowed to break the law, the thief will always be found and punished. Cinema, as it could, delighted its viewers with not frequent, but such desired detectives. In the late 1960s, purely Soviet detectives appeared: “The Master of the Taiga”, “Village Detective”, and their sequels. In the 1970s, everyone’s favorite series, “Investigations Held by ZnaToKi”; a trilogy about our Commissioner Maigret – Colonel Zorin (“The Return of Saint Luke”, “The Black Prince”, “The Colonel Zorin’s Hypothesis”), appeared on television. Ukrainian film studios also did its part in the development of the detective genre: “Born to a Revolution”, “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed”, “The Man in the Courtyard”, “Criminal Inspector”, “Inspector Losev”, “Criminal Investigation Weekdays”, “Vertical Race” and others. The Soviet film detective had its disadvantages, but it also had its advantages. There was not much blood, brutal killings, loud shootings, and breathtaking persecution. However, there were psychologically filled, interesting images with their history, life experience, faith in man, though a kind of naive, but sincere attempts to correct it, to help in difficulties.

Детектив в пространстве культуры

n the space of modern culture there can be seen an approchement of mass and elite literature, which is manifested in the formation of numerous hybrid forms using the iconic constructions of a classic detective. New novel modifications, on the one hand, are considered as the development and transformation of the detective genre, and on the other hand, as the disappearance and dissolution of the detective tradition, blurring of genre boundaries.

Social Problems Reflected through Literature (On John Grisham’s Creativity)

Changes in world literary criticism, along with the expansion of the ideological content and themes of legal detective works, have created individual artistic styles of writers to represent criminal and investigative processes. This allowed us to develop new artistic skills that allow us to effectively and convincingly analyze the human psyche and the spiritual world from different angles. That is why this article examines the literary features of legal detective work in world literature and analyzes its scientific and practical features. This is also explained by the fact that the formula for the development of legal detective work is the result of various partial changes, new methods of killing or specifically hiding the identity of the criminal, as well as the inevitable familiarization of the reader with the new methods and techniques used by the detective. The article also emphasizes the fact that among other fiction books, legal detective works also have a special place for the detective lover of the whole world. From a scientific point of view, it is justified that the renewal of social and legal relations in modern society and its concrete expression in fiction increasingly require legal detective works. This article mainly analyzes the content and stages of the development of the detective genre in world literature. The forms of manifestation of the concept of the genre in literature and art, as well as the features of detective works in world and Uzbek literature are covered by theoretical and empirical facts. In addition, it is scientifically substantiated that the content and stages of the development of the detective genre in the United States were to some extent studied by literary scholars from different countries.

Synesthete Spies, Detectives and Outlaws: Unsettling Truths Uncovered Through (an Equally Unsettling) Synesthetic Process

This article focuses on portrayals of fictional characters with neurological synesthesia in seven selected 20th and 21st century English-language novels in the detective-spy genre. Characters are discussed in terms of the five categories of literacy depiction of synesthete characters as outlined in the chapter, “Synesthesia and Literature” in the Oxford Handbook of Synesthesia (Oxford University Press, 2013). I will suggest that depictions of synesthete characters in the detective genre link synesthetic perceptions with glimpses of ultimate truth, and trace these tendencies back to descriptions of synesthesia in 19th century seminal European works (written during a very fertile period of research into audition colorée), including Arthur Rimbaud’s “Letter of a Seer” and Max Nordau’s Degeneration. Novels included in this study: Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov, The Synesthete by Brent Kiernan, Top Ten by Gene Ha and Alan Moore, The Fallen by T. Jefferson Parker, Miracle Myx by Dave Diotalevi, Still Waters by Nigel McCrery, Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews.

CRIME FICTION IN THE RUSSIAN BOOK PUBLISHING AND READER'S PRACTICE OF SIBERIANS AND FAR EASTERNERS

For the first time, the share and the place of detectives in release of fiction and in Siberians reading are revealed and inter-correlated. The rating of crime fiction authors is constructed. Comparison of ratings of the most published and read by Siberians authors of the detective genre works is carried out first.

“Thou Art the Man” as a Clue to “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt”

Abstract “Thou Art the Man” has long been regarded by critics as Poe’s burlesque and repudiation of the detective genre after his failure to solve the Mary Rogers case. This article intends to demonstrate that Poe has planted several clues in “Thou Art the Man” to imply its connection to “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt,” and that Poe’s reason for doing so is to reinforce that he has succeeded in solving the Mary Rogers mystery. In “Thou Art the Man,” the narrator notices that the evidence is artificial and, by creating a scene in which the dead man speaks, successfully extorts the confession from the murderer. By creating the connections of “Thou Art the Man” and “Marie Rogêt,” Poe indicates that he has also noticed the artificial evidence in Mary Rogers’s case, and, more importantly, he implies that the publication of his story has actually extorted Mrs. Loss’s confession, which leads to the solution of the case. For Poe, “Marie Rogêt” is a success not only as a fiction, but also because of its role in solving the real-world crime.

ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ ДЕТЕКТИВНОГО ЖАНРА В СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ДЕТСКОЙ АНГЛИЙСКОЙ ЭКСЦЕНТРИЧЕСКОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ПРОИЗВЕДЕНИЙ ДЖ. К. РОУЛИНГ И Р. ДАЛЯ)

The article examines the detective genre in the modern English eccentric children’s literature. The existing subgenres of the classical detective story are compared with the subgenres of the children’s detective; the constitutive characteristics of the detective genre in modern children’s literature are systematized; similarities and differences of the children’s and adult detective story are identified. The study is based on comparing the works of two famous English authors in the genre of eccentric children’s literature. The researcher identifies quantitative and qualitative difference of detective subgenres in children’s and adult literature and describes the trends typical of the modern English eccentric children’s detective.

Observation and Analysis of the Peculiarities of English and Uzbek Detective Genre (in the Examples of J.H.Chase’s Works)

Observation of English modern detective genre and peculiarities of Uzbek detective genre is the main topic of this article. Comparative analysis of the Uzbek and English detective genres have been studied in the novels of James Hedley Chase and Uzbek translations of his works. Some similarities and differences between Uzbek and English detective genres have been shown in this pape

REBIRTH OF THE POSTMODERN DETECTIVE NOVEL

Introduction. This paper analyzes narrative changes in the detective genre, especially the influence of post-modern era on its reformation. From a metaphysical perspective, such writers as Borges, Eco, Auster, Grillet etc., contributed new narrative techniques to detective fiction. Though it traces back to ancient literature, the detective genre is a product of the XIX th century American literature.Purpose. The paper aims at revealing the features of postmodern detective novel in the focus of fundamental theories of metaphysical detective story by interpreting the samples from the novels written in this genre. The main task of this study is to investigate the features of metaphysical detective fiction.Methods. The research is based on the methods of comparative analysis, structural analysis and textual analysis.Results. By researching metaphysical detective genre, the paper reveals that such significant components of postmodern theory as rhizomatic narrative structure, intertextuality, pastiche, and parody subverted classical form of the detective novel and established new literary genreas an anti-detective or metaphysical detective novel. The paper foregrounds that metaphysical detective story is used to raise a series of questions and suspicions; the author raises interest to a mystery and avoids resolving it by the reader.Conclusions. My research findings indicate that the metaphysical detective is a sub-genre of classical detective, which comprises metaphysical elements depicting author's philosophical views to universal values in a framework of the rhizomatic structure. Metaphysical detective genre is characterized in cultural-historical aspects where the historical facts are reminded to the reader by literary devices as pastiche, parody, intertextuality and rhizomatic maze.

Power, Sex, and Detection in Tarun Tejpal’s The Story of My Assassins

Through its repeated references to William S. Burroughs’s Naked Lunch Tarun Tejpal’s The Story of My Assassins announces a close textual kinship to this earlier work, one that plays out in terms of a common aesthetic aim of laying bare the naked ugliness of the social forces of power and oppression structuring the societies each represents. This essay argues that while operating in this vein The Story of My Assassins uses elements of the detective fiction genre to critique the structures of power of an early twenty-first-century India whose emergence as a major global economic power has allowed a small minority of its population to garner previously unheard-of levels of wealth and power while leaving an 900 million or so strong underclass subject to myriad forms of brutalization and social marginalization. In doing so, it uses narrative to consider the roles played by sexualized violence, state bureaucracies, and an emergent plutocratic elite in fomenting the defining social inequalities and exclusions of a society it poses as having drifted far from the originary social visions of Gandhi and Nehru.

An Introduction to the Police Procedural: A Subgenre of Detective Genre

Based on a library research, this paper aims at introducing the police procedural as a subgenre of detective genre. To achieve the aim, this paper elaborately discusses three definitions of the police procedural. The discussion shows that experts have apparently provided a working definition of the police procedural after having identified how the new variant is different from, and yet the same as the “parent” genre. While the third definition discussed puts emphasis on the authentic and realistic aspects of the police procedural, the first two definitions can be used as a reference to elaborately discuss the police procedural as a variant or subgenre of the detective genre. The police procedural retains the basic conventional elements of the detective genre—plot and motifs, character, setting, theme, and props, but it twists these elements and turn them into inventions to keep the interest of the readers and viewers. Having established itself as a subgenre, the police procedural grows to become formulaic by creating its own conventions. It is a formula that is generally employed by writers and has come to be expected by readers or viewers. By doing so, the police procedural has helped the detective genre as its “parents” genre stay popular.

D. D. jak dreszcz demencji

The claim here is that cultural representations of dementia may benefit from the structure of crime fiction which appears therefore to be among the theme most suited genres. We do not know enough about the disease or its etiology (the “culprit” remains unknown), hence the situation of the sufferer befits that of enigma or suspense, fear or confusion, doubt and presumption, standardly deployed by detective stories. Crime fiction narratives underscore that which is at stake in dementia: the riddle of disappearing of the person affected, the puzzle of memory loss, the identity doubt which extends to the relative when he or she is not recognized by the sufferer. By turning to a detective genre, Alzheimer’s novel profits from the genre’s growing popularity, owing to the reading public’s demand for challenges enhancing “mind reading” competences and training predictive abilities. The latter are more in demand as neurocognitive standards of readers grow.