Theory and Practice of Classic Detective Fiction (Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture)

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. Contents......Page 10 Preface......Page 14 Acknowledgments......Page 16 I. Theoretical Approaches to the Genre......Page 20 1. Canonization, Modern Literature, and the Detective Story......Page 24 2. Shamus-a-um: Having the Quality of a Classical Detective......Page 36 3. An Ideal Helpmate: The Detective Character as (Fictional) Object and Ideal Imago......Page 48 4. The Politics of Secrecy and Publicity: The Functions of Hidden Stories in Some Recent British Mystery Fiction......Page 58 5. Not So Much “Whodunnit” as “Whoizzit”: Margaret Millar’s Command of a Metonymic Sub-Genre......Page 70 6. Parody and Detective Fiction......Page 80 7. “The Game’s Afoot”: Predecessors and Pursuits of a Postmodern Detective Novel......Page 92 II. Agatha Christie and British Detective Fiction......Page 104 8. Christie’s Narrative Games......Page 106 9. “It Was the Mark of Cain”: Agatha Christie and the Murder of the Mystery......Page 122 10. Impossible Murderers: Agatha Christie and the Community of Readers......Page 130 11. “The Daughters of His Manhood”: Christie and the Golden Age of Detective Fiction......Page 138 12. “I am Duchess of Malfi still”: The Identity-Death Nexus in The Duchess of Malfi and The Skull beneath the Skin......Page 148 13. “An Unsuitable Job” for Anyone: The “Filthy Trade” in P. D. James......Page 156 14. Between Men: How Ruth Rendell Reads for Gender......Page 168 15. Class, Gender, and the Possibilities of Detection in Anne Perry’s Victorian Reconstructions......Page 178 16. A Suitable Job for a Woman: Sexuality, Motherhood, and Professionalism in Gaudy Night......Page 188 17. The Bureaucrat as Reader: The Detective Novel in the Context of Middle-Class Culture......Page 196 C......Page 212 D......Page 213 J......Page 214 P......Page 215 S......Page 216 W......Page 217 About the Editors and Contributors......Page 218 This collection of essays explores classic detective fiction from a variety of contemporary viewpoints. Among the diverse perspectives are those which interrogate how the genre reflects social and cultural attitudes and interpret the role of the detective as arbiter of "truth"