Traditional Detective Fiction Research Articles

Val McDermid's Lindsay Gordon: A Revolutionary Portrait in Tartan- Noir

Considered as one of the most influential crime fiction writers of our time, Val McDermid combines her works with Scotland’s city and town culture. Having the opportunity to closely observe the problems faced by the working class in the town of Fife where she spent her childhood, McDermid enriches her fiction with these narratives. These experiences led her to be the voice of the forgotten, oppressed, and marginalised segments of society in her later writing life. Also challenging the male-dominated structure of traditional crime fiction, McDermid brings a new atmosphere to crime fiction by creating fictional characters such as Lindsay Gordon. Classic crime fiction, which spent its golden age under the hegemony of British writers in the 1930s, presents the reader with stories in which typical male detectives are the protagonists. By the 1970s, Scottish crime fiction, or Tartan-Noir writers, produced essential works in this field. McDermid, who took the title of the Queen of crime fiction, puts women at the centre of her narrative, and in this way, she differs from male Tartan-Noir writers. In this study, McDermid, who deconstructed the male-dominated structure in traditional detective fiction and placed strong female detectives such as Lindsay Gordon into fiction, will be examined. Additionally, McDermid’s criticisms of the Margaret Thatcher period will be explained to readers with examples from her novels.

A Socially Realistic Study of Crime and Corruption in P.D. James’ Works

P.D. James is a well - known author of both crime and mysteries who is recognized with enlarging the mystery subgenre. Even though she uses aspects of traditional detective fiction, James is particularly concerned in establishing the psychological motivations of her characters. James is renowned for her sophisticated written style, which is accentuated by literary allusions and quotations, as well as for the vivid, realistic characters and locations she creates. Writing detective fiction is one of James's passions and she strives to use the techniques that make "serious fiction" gratifying while still adhering to the genre's rules. She was interested in realism as early as her writings show. Her literary style is distinct from the classic "country house mystery" of conventional British detective fiction, in which static characters exist solely to further the plot of the mystery. Despite being constructed in the traditional "whodunnit" way, these novels rely on developed, convincing characterizations.

Gerçek nerede? Resimde mi?: Peter Ackroyd’un Chatterton adlı romanında sorunlu gerçekliğin temsili

The detective fiction genre undergoes a radical change along with the thematic and structural innovations brought about by postmodernism in the second half of the twentieth century. The most recognisable changes are inconclusive endings with no resolution; eager characters and vain engagement in certain incidents though there is no crime to be investigated, and the reader's newly assigned role i.e. that of the detective. The aim of this paper is to explore Peter Ackroyd's Chatterton with regard to the changing features of the detective genre. Chatterton is not labelled a pure example of detective fiction despite various use of thematic and structural elements exclusive to this genre. Ackroyd reshapes and employs the conventional components of detective fiction according to his authorial needs. Thus the focus of this paper is on Ackroyd’s reformulation of traditional detective fiction in Chatterton. The emphasis is on structural and thematic affinities and differences between traditional and contemporary detective novels. The analysis is mainly based on the intertextual representation of the perception of the real and the unreal.

Mapping London in Peter Ackroyd's Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem: Promenades into a Murderer's Mind

Bu makale Peter Ackroyd'un Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem başlıklı romanındaki şiddet olgusunu incelemektedir. Makale romandaki şiddetin kaynağı olan şehir imgesi ile baş karakter arasındaki ilişkiyi ele alır. Makaleye göre okuyucunun gerçek kimliğini ancak romanın sonunda anlayabildiği acımasız seri katili yaratan, besleyen ve bir sonraki katliam için sürekli cesaretlendirerek adeta bir canavara dönüştüren on dokuzuncu yüzyıl Viktorya Dönemi Londra'sının sosyo-ekonomik koşullarında hüküm süren fiziksel ve psikolojik güçlerdir.Yaşadığı tüm zorlukları aşarak çocukluk hayallerini gerçekleştiren ve genç yaşta başarılı bir müzikhol oyuncusu olan Elizabeth Cree kanlı sanatını makrokozmik bir tiyatro sahnesi olarak betimlenen Londra'da izleyicilerin beğenisine sunmaktadır.Katilin kurbanları arasında etnik köken, sınıf, cinsiyet ve yaş ayrımı yapmaması, okuyucunun katilin motivasyonunu anlamlandırarak mantıklı bir sebep-sonuç ilişkisi kurmasına engel olur. Postmodern anlatım teknikleri kullanılarak oluşturulan olay örgüsü yazarın hem dedektif romanı geleneğine meydan okuyarak türü yeniden kurgulamasını hem de okuyucunun önyargı ve varsayıma dayanan suç kavramı ve suçlu psikolojisi ile ilgili yerleşik algılarını yeniden sorgulamasını sağlar. Sonuç olarak makale bir Viktorya Dönemi metropolü olan Londra sakinlerine eşit sosyo-ekonomik, sanatsal fırsatlar sağlayabiliyor mu? Yoksa şehir yoksul, zayıf, yoksun sakinlerini, özellikle kadınları, bir canavar gibi çiğnemeden yutup posalarını tükürüyor mu?Londra'nın özgün tarihçesi ve kimliğini seri katilin yaşam öyküsü ve kimliği ile örtüştürmek olası mıdır? Etimoljik açıdan isminin kökeni “şiddet” kelimesine dayanan bir şehir olan Londra, alt sınıftan, nefret duyguları ile büyütülmüş bir karakterin zihinsel haritasına dönüştüğünde ne olur? gibi sorulara cevap aramaktadır.

The Deconstruction of “Metanarrative” of Traditional Detective Fiction in Martin Amis’s Night Train: A Postmodern Reading

This paper examines this view of “unreliable” or “little narrative” or “incredulity toward metanarrative” in Martin Amis’s novel Night Train as an anti-detective novel. In so doing, the paper falls into two parts. The first part focuses upon the convention of traditional “reliable” or “metanarrative” in a typical traditional detective story, in which Mike Hoolihan as a detective investigates Jennifer Faulkner’s suicide by collecting all the possible evidences and then examining them in a chronological linear way to solve her enigmatic death: who has killed her? Why was she murdered? If it is suicide, why has she ended her life? However, the paper also discusses that the way Mike passionately attempts to solve Jennifer’s mysterious death is not possible due not only to lack of evidences but also to the fact that there occurs various interpretations about her death, including Mike’s her one, which, after a while, turns into a psychological evaluation of the case with her own emotional involvement. Hence Jennifer’s death remains a mystery from the beginning to the end in the novel. This situation obviously defies the expectation of her father Tom as in the traditional sense because why Tom hires Mike as an “exceptional interrogator” with an outstanding “paperwork” in the past is to clarify the case and then appease his anxiety, as well as the mystery of his daughter’s death. Through his representation of Mike in such a condition, Amis apparently illuminates that it is almost impossible to create a detective story with a final legitimate total meaning and resolution as in a typical traditional detective novel in an age based on fragmentation, uncertainty, doubt, interruption, lack of authority, and self-expression.

Surveying the Post-Millennial Sherlock Holmes: A Case for the Great Detective as a Man of Our Times

This article analyses the three most recent sets of Sherlock Holmes adaptations: the Warner Brothers film franchise, the BBC series Sherlock, and the CBS series Elementary. Asserting that the questions surrounding Sherlock Holmes adaptations, namely, why do they appear so frequently, and what qualities have they evolved to remain relevant since they began appearing on screen in 1901, should be fundamental to the field of Adaptation Studies as a whole, it seeks to interrogate the fresh conceptions of the character as he is made to appeal to a 21st century viewing audience in these adaptations. This interrogation shows that though they differ in several ways including genre, medium, setting, and target audience, taken together, these adaptations offer not only unique interpretations of the character, but a surprisingly uniform vision of how this hero of page and screen has evolved. It considers how that uniform vision is manifested in the various executions of each show’s particular vision and concept as well as how they are all motivated by the same drive to make a viable Sherlock Holmes for today’s audiences. It specifically focuses on the transition of the character from traditional detective fiction hero to a more complex postmodern antihero and how this transition is fundamental to the character’s journey into the 21st century.

Uma boa mãe de família chicana: a práxis cotidiana na série "Brown Angel Mysteries", de Lucha Corpi

As práticas cotidianas marcam presença na série policial Brown Angel Mysteries, da escritora chi­cana Lucha Corpi. Com base na teoria de Michel de Certeau sobre a práxis cotidiana, desenvolvida em A invenção do cotidiano, este artigo propõe­-se a discutir de que modo os usos e fazeres do dia-a-dia, como o trabalho doméstico e os mitos e crenças herdados da tradição mexicana, repre­sentam um meio de opor resistência às práticas socioculturais dominantes, assim como seu papel político como uma tática por meio da qual as co­munidades marginalizadas representadas buscam se (re)apropriar de um espaço cultural, político e socioeconômico, adquirindo novos significados no espaço de confronto entre o centro de poder e a periferia. Por meio da caracterização da protago­nista da série, Gloria Damasco, Lucha Corpi abre o gênero policial à diversidade cultural, oferecendo uma percepção não-eurocêntrica da realidade, que aceita como real o conhecimento que vem de fontes intangíveis como os sonhos, as visões, a intuição e a percepção extra-sensorial. Essas experiências não-racionais se entrelaçam à presença de mitos fundamentais para a cultura e memória chicanas – como La Llorona e La Malinche – para apresentar um enredo policial que subverte a lógica cartesiana da ficção detetivesca tradicional.

What's In a Name? A Seventeenth-Century Book, Detective Fiction, and Calvino's Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore

This essay examines Italo Calvino's novel If on a Winter's Night a Traveler as the author's experiment with the conventions of the classic detective fiction formula. Calvino launches two parallel investigations: the epistemological one carried out by his protagonist, the Reader, and the ontological one carried out by us, the readers. The two investigations, the essay argues, come together at the moment of the novel's denouement, but where in traditional detective fiction this occurs at the end of the narrative, in Calvino's it is hidden in the center. Numerous clues interspersed throughout the novel (as are many red herrings as well) lead to some of the keys to Calvino's game of cloak and dagger, the most significant being in the names of the protagonists. Chief among these is that of Ermes Marana, whose connection to a homonymous writer of the seventeenth-century brings to light issues of authenticity and authorship.

Busca el libro! : la intervención de Sherlock Holmes y D'Artagnan en El Club Dumas de Arturo Pérez-Reverte

The essay examines Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel The Dumas Club. The novel can be categorized as a literary crime story; it maintains the characteristics of traditional detective fiction, but, as the author points out, it also presents the use of refined and complex narrative techniques. Pérez Reverte offers a dizzying array of cultural, literary and historical references, which all carry a metaphoric layer of meaning and expand the narrative space and time of the novel into infinity. Similarly to the Greek tradition and the characteristics of the literature of adventure, defined by Bakhtin, the condensed time and space become the principal motivators for the action. The complex system of symbols, the chronotopical motives and the metatextual references offer different layers of possible interpretations and provide a complex character portrayal. Pérez-Reverte's characters embody Sherlock Holmes and other famous detectives; at the same time, they evoke the classic heroes of The Three Muskateers, and often bear similarities to the author himself, and to important literary predecessors. Each of the 16 chapters of the novel is preceded by a motto taken from a famous literary work of art; these quotations function as an incipit, advancing and, at the same time, reflecting to the most important elements of the chapter.

The Passing of Things Remembered: Sébastien Japrisot's Un long dimanche de fiançailles

This article examines Sébastien Japrisot's 1991 novel Un long dimanche de fiançailles which, through the detective work of Mathilde Donnay, relates the unusual and unsuccessful execution of the young deserter Manech. It explores the construction of Mathilde's explanatory narrative which, unlike the official narrative of French heroism against which it is set, points to no universal truth and is concerned exclusively with the recuperation of the individual's memory of the conflict. It argues that Japrisot's novel, far from suggesting the causal relationship between the past and present we expect of much traditional detective fiction, proposes the alterity of both temporal states towards each other, an alterity that is revealed in the confrontation between Mathilde's narrative and the individual memories from which it is constituted. In this, the novel highlights the problematic passage of memory into narration, suggesting the persistence of memory, but also its very fragility and limitations, and the irretrievability of the past.