Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction

Jerome H. Delamater, Ruth Prigozy

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 1997
• Print ISBN: 9780313304620
• eBook ISBN: 9780313370311
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Performing Arts

Combining theoretical and practical approaches, this collection of essays explores classic detective fiction from a variety of contemporary viewpoints. Among the diverse perspectives are those which interrogate the way the genre reflects important social and cultural attitudes, contributes to a reader's ability to adapt to the challenges of daily life, and provides alternate takes on the role of the detective as an investigator and arbiter of truth. Part I looks at the nature of and the audience for detective fiction, as well as at the genre as a literary form. This section includes an inquiry into the role of the detective; an application of object-relations psychology to the genre; and analyses of recent literary criticism positing that traditional detective fiction contained the seeds of its own subversion. Part II applies a variety of theoretical positions to Agatha Christie and her heirs in the British ratiocinative tradition. A concluding essay positions the genre within the middle-class traditions of the novel since its inception in the eighteenth century. Of interest to all scholars and students of detective fiction and British popular culture.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• I. Theoretical Approaches to the Genre
• II. Agatha Christie and British Detective Fiction
• Index
• About the Editors and Contributors