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Crime writing is a vibrant genre that has undergone crucial developments since the publication of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), featuring early 'mastermind detective' C. Auguste Dupin. The success of the genre was initially enabled by its formulaic nature. However, it has since undergone crucial developments. Its flexibility to adapt to new settings and reflect social change while simultaneously challenging and subverting social and gender-specific norms has led to its increasing diversification across and beyond the Anglophone world.
This lecture will begin with an introduction to the field of popular culture and popular literature, and will then familiarize students with the history of the crime genre, which emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the UK and USA. After this historical introduction, we will turn to specific periods and settings across Anglophone literatures in order to trace more recent trends and developments, which include the emergence of women crime writers and the influence of feminism, the lasting success of the hard-boiled genre and the emergence of postcolonial crime fiction across the Anglophone world, including (but not limited to) Australia (including Indigenous Australian crime writing), Canada, the Caribbean, Ireland and South Africa. While the lecture will map the genre across the Anglophone world, parallel developments and influential trends, e.g. in Scandinavian and German literature and TV productions, will be acknowledged if and when relevant in order to address the international dimension and enduring popularity of the genre. A selection of critical as well as literary texts will be made available via a Moodle course. |
