Mysteries

1
Mysteries Detective Fiction
2
Its a mystery?

• Elements of mystery are found in great literary
  works of the past (Bible, Shakespeare)
• Elements of mystery may be main plot or subplot
  we find mystery in romance and science fiction
• Detective fiction is a subgenre of mystery

3
When Detective Fiction Appears

• Poe the founder of the genre
• The Murders In The Rue Morgue (1841)
• The Mystery Of Marie Roget - A Sequel To "The
  Murder In The Rue Morgue" (1850)
• The Purloined Letter (1845)
• Historical Factors that led to the genre
  development
• First modern police forces organized in late
  1700s, early 1800s responsible only to the law
  and not to some wealthy patron
• The rise of democracy esp. in America gives
  rise to the belief that law/the police are on the
  side of the people
• Changes from past genres
• Before, the criminal could be seen as heroic,
  like Robin Hood, but not in this genre
• While some characters might question the efficacy
  of justice, or even the possibility of justice
  through the lawultimately, the authors of this
  genre always side with the ideal of law and order

4
Development of Detective Fiction

• An increasing emphasis is placed on Science
• In its classic form, it is a fictional
  celebration of scientific method Think CSI
• 19th c. conception of Science included the
  natural sciences, but also philosophy,ethics
  law as well as a reliance on observable fact and
  logical processes.
• Both deductive and inductive reasoning are
  required of the detective

5
Science and Detective Fiction

• There is a strong connection between detective
  fiction and science fiction both feature a man
  of science using his reasoning skills to produce
  a solution to a pressing social problem.

6
The Double Contest

• At the heart of detective fiction is both the
  contest of wits between the detective and the
  villain, but also between the writer and reader.
• In good fiction, the writer must play fair with
  the reader that is, there must be enough
  reasonable clues in the story for the reader to
  figure out who done it

7
Detective Fiction as Game of Wits

• Detective fiction developed as a highly
  structured, formal art with rules
• Evidence must be available to the reader
• The solution must be reasonable (not impossible)
• No surprises at the end ex. the number of
  suspects must be finite
• Crime should be significant
• There must be detectionnot simply a solution.

8
Detective Fiction as Discipline

• Because of these rules, theres a sense in
  which writers dont have the same kind of freedom
  that writers of other kinds of stories have.
• its similar to a poet choosing to work within
  the conventions of the sonnet