British and American Detective Fiction
Lecture, ENG, US, 3YP, 2YU
»ANG268-0« Tuesday, 10-12, V. terem Novák György docens

 

Course description: The lecture course will discuss the origins, the rise and the development of the popular genre known as detective fiction in Britain and the United States. Detection elements appear in various works of literature in many places and at various times in history. They finally come together at a point in the last century in a somewhat Athenean delivery by E.A. Poe. The course will discuss the subsequent development of the genre in various places and in various social, political and historical environments. The differences between the classical British mystery and the hard-boiled American PI fiction will be discussed. Latest developments will be touched upon but the emphasis will be on classical works.
The authors discussed will include Collins, Poe 1 2, Conan-Doyle 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 [10], Chesterton, Orczy 1, Christie, Sayers, Hammett, Chandler, Spillane, Dexter (the mottoes) (Prologue of The Dead of Jericho).
The course will conclude with an oral examination. Required readings will include at least one (preferably two for 4th- and 5th-year students) novel-length work by each of the above authors.

Required readings will include at least one novel-length work by each of the authors discussed — in addition to the following:

  • G.N. Dove: The Police Procedural. Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1982.
  • Howard Haycraft: The Art of the Mystery Story. Simon and Schuster, 1946.
  • Stephen Knight: Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction. Macmillan, 1980
  • Gavin Lambert: The Dangerous Edge. Grossman Publishers, 1976.
  • Alma E. Murch: The Development of the Detective Novel. Peter Owen Ltd.,1958.
  • Dennis Porter: The Pursuit of Crime. Yale UP, 1981.
  • Dorothy L. Sayers (ed): The Omnibus of Crime. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1929.
  • Julian Symons: Mortal Consequences. Harper & Row, 1972.
  • Colin Watson: Snobbery with Violence. Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1971.
  • Colin Wilson: A Criminal History of Mankind. Grafton Books, 1987.
  • Robin W. Winks: Detective Fiction. A Collection of Critical Essays. Prentice Hall, 1980.
  • [These books can be borrowed from Novák Gy.]D.L. Sayers (ed.),
  • Keszthelyi Tibor: A detektívtörténet anatómiája. Budapest, 1979.
  • Keszthelyi Tibor (ed.), A krimi. Budapest, 1985.
  • A story by R. Austin Freeman (just for fun)
  • The Case of Maria Marten

 

Literature, in chronological order,offered for xeroxing (175 pages)
master copy in Institute Library

Sample texts:
  • Daniel 13:1-64 (Susanna), (RSV);
  • Also have a look at Gen 37:31-35 (KJV):

31 And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; 32 And they sent the coat of many clolours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This we have found: know not whether it be thy son's coat or no. 33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; and evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. 34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sack-cloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. 35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
  • Conan Doyle, "The Memoires of Sherlock Holmes. The Field Bazaar." The Student, Nov 1896. [Reprinted in: Baker Street 221B, 1-4. [3]
  • Karel Èapek, "Rejtélyes eset." Fordította: ? In: Emberi dolgok (Budapest: Európa Kiadó, 1976), 122-123. [1]
  • "A Possibility of Error." In: Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, 39-43. [3]
  • Mickey Spillane, "The Screen Test of Mike Hammer." In: Tomorrow I Die (The Mysterious Press: New York, 1984), 111-114. [2]
  • Frederick Forsyth, "The Contract." Newsweek, Oct 31, 1994. Special Advertising Section. [1]

 

Secondary readings:

  • Ezra Pound, "Studies in Contemporary Mentality. V. 'The Strand,' or how the thing may be done." New Age XXI.20 (13 Sep 1917), 425-426. [1]
  • Dorothy L. Sayers, "Introduction." In: The Omnibus of Crime (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1929), 9-38. [16]
  • Raymond Chandler, "The Simple Art of Murder." In: Howard Haycraft (ed.), The Art of the Mystery Story. A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946), 222-237. [8]
  • John Dickson Carr, "The Locked-Room Lecture." In: Howard Haycraft (ed.), The Art of the Mystery Story. A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946), 273-286. [8]
  • Edmund Wilson, "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?" In: Howard Haycraft (ed.), The Art of the Mystery Story. A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946), 390-397. [4]
  • Dashiell Hammett, "From the Memoirs of a Private Detective." In: Howard Haycraft (ed.), The Art of the Mystery Story. A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946), 417-422. [4]
  • Ellery Queen, "The Detective Short Story: The First Hundred Years." In: Howard Haycraft (ed.), The Art of the Mystery Story. A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946), 476-491. [8]
  • Ben Day Redman, "Decline & Fall of the Whodunit." The Saturday Review (May 31, 1952), 8-9, 31-32. [4]
  • Charles J. Rolo, "Simenon and Spillane: The Metaphysics of Murder for the Millions." New World Writing, No.1 (1952), pp. 234-245. [Reprinted in: B. Rosenberg & D. Manning White (eds.), Mass Culture and Sovereignty. The Popular Arts in America (The Free Press of Glencoe, 1957), 165-175.] [6]
  • Lillian Hellman, "Introduction." In: Dashiell Hammett, The Continental Op (Dell Book: New York, 1967), 7-25. [10]
  • John C. Cawelti, "The Spillane Phenomenon." Journal of Popular Culture, III:1 (Summer 1969), 9-22. [8]
  • Mark Scott, "An Introduction to the Private Eye Novel." In: D. Andreson, S. Knight, Cunning Exiles. Studies in Modern Prose Writersz (London, 1974), 198-217. [10]
  • Umberto Eco, "Narrative Structures in Fleming." In: The Role of the Reader. Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts (Bloomington, IN and London: Indiana University Press, 1979), 144-173. [15]
  • Michael Barson, "Just a Writer Working for a Buck [Interview with Mickey Spillane]." Armchair Detective, 12/4 (Fall 1979), 293-299. [4]
  • R. Jeff Banks, "Spillane and the Critics." Armchair Detective, 12/4 (Fall 1979), 300-307. [4]
  • Nicholas O. Warner, "City of Illusion. The Role of Hollywood in California Detective Fiction." The Armchair Detective, 16/1 (Winter 1983), 22-25. [4]
  • Frederic Isaac, "The Changuing Face of Evil in the Hard-Boiled Novel." The Armchair Detective, 16/1 (Winter 1983), 241-247. [7]
  • Timothy Steele, "Matter and Mystery: Neglected Works and Background Materials of Detective Fiction." Modern Fiction Studies, 29/3 (Autumn 1983), 435-450. [9]
  • Thomas M. Leitch, From Detective Story to Detective Novel." Modern Fiction Studies, 29/3 (Autumn 1983), 475-484. [6]
  • Donald E. Westlake, "Hardboiled Dicks." The Armchair Detective, 17/1 (Winter 1984), 5-13. [9]
  • John Bayley, "The fangs of fiction. Review of Arthur Conan Doyle, The Oxford Sherlock Holmes." TLS, Nov 12, 1993, 6-7. [3]
  • E.S. Turner, "The landlady's tale. Review of June Thomson, Holmes and Watson. A study in friendship." TLS, May 5, 1995. [1]
  • Jonathan Keates, "Moriarty at large. Review of Ben Macintyre, The Napoleon of Crime. The life and times of Adam Worth, the real Moriarty." TLS, March 6, 1998, 14. [1]
  • Bernard Suits, "The Detective Story: A Case Study of Games in Literature." ??, 200-219 [10]
  • Tzvetan Todorov, "The Typology of Detective Fiction." In: Modern Criticism and Theory. A Reader. Edited by David Lodge (London and New York: Longman, 1991), 157-165. [4]