American Mystery and Detective Novels cover

Author

Larry N. Landrum

More by this author

American Mystery and Detective Novels

A Reference Guide

by Larry N. Landrum

PreviewGoogle Books

About this book

Mystery and detective novels are popular fictional genres within Western literature. As such, they provide a wealth of information about popular art and culture. When the genre develops within various cultures, it adopts, and proceeds to dominate, native expressions and imagery. American mystery and detective novels appeared in the late nineteenth century. This reference provides a selective guide to the important criticism of American mystery and detective novels and presents general features of the genre and its historical development over the past two centuries. Critical approaches covered in the volume include story as game, images, myth criticism, formalism and structuralism, psychonalysis, Marxism and more. Comparisons with related genres, such as gothic, suspense, gangster, and postmodern novels, illustrate similarities and differences important to the understanding of the unique components of mystery and detective fiction. The guide is divided into five major sections: a brief history, related genres, criticism, authors, and reference. This organization accounts for the literary history and types of novels stemming from the mystery and detective genre. A chronology provides a helpful overview of the development and transformation of the genre.

Publisher

Bloomsbury Academic

Published

1999-05-30

Pages

273

Language

EN

Literary Criticism / GeneralLiterary Criticism / Mystery & DetectiveLiterary Criticism / ReferenceReference / Bibliographies & Indexes

Preview & Source

Google Books provider

Preview bookView on Google BooksFind similar booksExplore category

Preview

American Mystery and Detective Novels cover

This book is available for preview through Google Books.

More by Larry N. Landrum

American Popular Culture cover
Reference1982

American Popular Culture

A Guide to Information Sources

Larry N. Landrum

Description unavailable for this volume in the current provider response.

More in Literary Criticism / General

Elementary Children's Literature cover
Education2006

Elementary Children's Literature

The Basics for Teachers and Parents

Nancy A. Anderson

MyLabSchool - Where the classroom comes to life! bull; bull;Watch real classrooms in action in the MLS VideoLab. bull;Study for the PRAXIS exam using our video cases and practice test! bull;Prepare for your first (or next!) job interview with the MLS Career Center. bull;Learn how to write effective research papers with Research Navigator. Contact your local Allyn & Bacon sales representative for more information about this great tool or for the Valuepack ISBN.

Cultural Amnesia cover
Literary Collections2007

Cultural Amnesia

Necessary Memories from History and the Arts

Clive James

Containing more than 100 original essays organized by quotations, James illuminates, rescues, or occasionally destroys the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the 20th century. 110 photographs.

The 'air of Liberty' cover
Foreign Language Study2008

The 'air of Liberty'

Narratives of the South Atlantic Past

Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger

The Caribbean imagination as framed within a Dutch historical setting has deep Portuguese-African roots. The Seven Provinces were the first European power, in the first half of the 17th century, to challenge the Iberian countries directly for a share in the slave trade. This book analyzes the philosophy underlying this transoceanic link, when contacts with Africa started to be developed. The ambiguous morality of the `air of liberty? governing the Afro-Portuguese past had its impact on the creole cultures (white, black, Jewish) of the Dutch territories of Suriname and Curacao. Although this influence is gradually disappearing, it is astonishing to witness the engagement with which writers and visual artists have interpreted this heritage in their different ways. Recent narratives from Angola and Brazil offer an appropriate starting-point for an examination of strategies of self-representation and national consolidation in works by authors from the Dutch Caribbean. In order to reveal this complex historical pattern, the (formerly) Dutch-related port communities are conceived of as cultural agents whose `lettered cities? (Angel Rama) have engaged in critical dialogue with the heritage of the South Atlantic trade in human lives.Artists and writers discussed include (colonial period): Caspar Barlaeus, David Nassy, Frans Post, and John Gabriel Stedman; (modern period): Frank Martinus Arion, Cola Debrot, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Albert Helman, Francisco Herrera Luque, Boeli van Leeuwen, Tip Marugg, Alberto Mussa, Pepetela, Julio Perrenal, and Mario Pinto de Andrade.'This is a notable achievement, for it both draws attention to the region and challenges critics and historians to engage in cross-regional and `trans-disciplinary' research and analysis? ? Saul Sosnowski.

Past and Present cover
History2005

Past and Present

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Scottish essayist, historian, cultural critic, and leading man of English letters during the Victorian era, published Past and Present, one of his most influential works, in 1843. Written as a response to the economic crisis of the 1840s—closure of factories, loss of jobs, the growth of slums in industrial centers, the starving poor—Past and Present aimed to lead readers toward a "conversion experience" in order to stimulate social reform. In this work, Carlyle provides a trenchant articulation of the political, social, religious, and economic climate of the mid-nineteenth century and a prophetic vision of the future. This volume, the fourth of the eight-volume Strouse Edition, includes an informative historical introduction and illustrations, along with complete notes and scholarly apparatus, and is the definitive modern scholarly edition.

Judgment at Nuremberg cover
Drama2002

Judgment at Nuremberg

Abby Mann

The Nuremberg trials brought to public attention the worst of the Nazi atrocities. Judgment at Nuremberg brings those trials to life. Abby Mann's riveting drama Judgment at Nuremberg not only brought some of the worst Nazi atrocities to public attention, but has become, along with Elie Wiesel's Night and Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, one of the twentieth century's most important records of the Holocaust. Originally written as a 1957 television play, later made into an Academy Award winning 1961 film, and available now for the first time in print (using the text of Mann's recent Broadway adaptation), Judgment at Nuremberg is as potent and relevant as ever. To this day the Nuremberg trials stand as a model for international criminal tribunals, due in large measure to the spotlight thrown on them by Mann's dramatic interpretation of the historic events. Mann's overwhelming compassion strikes at the heart of human suffering--his achievement has been to reaffirm humanity and justice in the wake of unspeakable evil.

Treasure Island cover
Fiction2004

Treasure Island

Robert Louis Stevenson

.0000000000Treasure Island is one of the best-loved children's stories of all time but is a wonderful adventure story that can be enjoyed at any age.When Jim Hawkins finds a pirate's treasure map in an old sailor's sea trunk the local doctor and squire take him with them to find the island and the treasure. But Long John Silver, with his missing leg and talking parrot, has his own ideas about who should find the treasure.Illustrated by H M Brock, with an Afterword by Sam Gilpin.

Similar books

The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century cover
Comics & Graphic Novels2000

The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century

Tony Hillerman, Otto Penzler

In this essential distillation of American suspense, 100 years worth of peerless tales are collected into a volume where giants of the genre abound: Raymond Chandler, Lawrence Block, Sue Grafton, Elmore Leonard, and Sara Paretsky.

Whodunit? cover
Fiction2003-05-08

Whodunit?

A Who's Who in Crime & Mystery Writing

Rosemary Herbert

Who populates the pages of crime and mystery writing? Who are the characters we willingly follow into the mystery genre's uneasy imaginative territory? And who created those characters in the first place? What life experience and expertise informs their work? What are the sources of their themes, regional accents, and even the axes that some grind? Why do some wish to give us a good laugh, while others seem hell-bent on making us shudder? Whodunit? answers these questions and more. Here mystery expert Rosemary Herbert brings together enlightening and entertaining information on hundreds of classic and contemporary characters and authors. Some--such as P.D. James, Ian Rankin, Sherlock Holmes, and Kinsey Millhone--appear in individual entries. Still more keep company in articles about characters we admire, such as the Clerical Sleuth, and in pieces about those we love to hate, including the Femme Fatale and Con Artist. There is even an article on a figure that haunts so many great works of mystery--The Corpse. Drawing on the Edgar Award-nominated volume The Oxford Companion to Crime & Mystery Writing, Herbert adds 101 new entries on the hottest new names in works ranging from puzzling whodunits to chilling crime novels.

Golden Age Detective Stories cover
Fiction2021-07-20

Golden Age Detective Stories

Otto Penzler

The greatest detectives of the Golden Age investigate the most puzzling crimes of the era Sometimes, the police aren’t the best suited to solve a crime. Depending on the case, you may find that a retired magician, a schoolteacher, a Broadway producer, or a nun have the necessary skills to suss out a killer. Or, in other cases, a blind veteran, or a publisher, or a hard-drinking attorney, or a mostly-sober attorney… or, indeed, any sort of detective you could think of might be able to best the professionals when it comes to comprehending strange and puzzling murders. At least, that’s what the authors from the Golden Age of American mystery fiction would have you think. For decades in the middle of the twentieth century, the country’s best-selling authors produced delightful tales in which all types of eccentrics used rarified knowledge to interpret confounding clues. And for even longer, in the decades that have followed, these characters have continued to entertain new audiences with every new generation that discovers them. Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler selects some of the greatest American short stories from era. With authors including Ellery Queen, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Cornell Woolrich, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Anthony Boucher, this collection is a treat for those who know and love this celebrated period in literary history, and a great introduction to its best writers for the uninitiated. Includes discussion guide questions for use in book clubs.

Book details

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Published: 1999-05-30

Pages: 273

Language: EN

Categories: Literary Criticism / General, Literary Criticism / Mystery & Detective, Literary Criticism / Reference, Reference / Bibliographies & Indexes

Preview: Preview available

Ventari Books links to external provider metadata and access states and does not rehost copyrighted text.

We use optional analytics cookies to understand how visitors use Ventari and improve the experience. This banner controls analytics measurement only. See our Cookie Policy.