Mystery, Crime, and Detection

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

"Mysteries" have become a dominant genre; their proliferation is a sign of modernity. What do we find in tales of crime and detection that we don't find elsewhere? Have these stories taken over from tragedy as the genre mainly dedicated to death? Such stories exercise our minds, while evoking also fearful delight in the unknown (or the "sublime" as defined by Edmund Burke). We read to learn fear—cultivated in the "gothic" mode and central to the Romantic-era short stories of Hoffmann and Poe. Even the lightest "mystery stories" touch our anxiety about the instability of the outer world of social order; is it about to tip over? Fear of the foreign and of disorder have made some mystery stories historically vehicles of prejudice ,while others take us beyond our current boundaries towards new relationships. Stories of "detection" enforce modern scientific logic. Their hero is the mind not to be baffled by the cleverest criminal, not to be taken in by the fictions of identity that we produce even in our "normal" lives. Sherlock Holmes is the hero of the intensive intellect-- the more effective as he never entirely blends into his own culture in the first place. Stories of detection from Sophocles on point to the problematic nature of identity, which can be shaped, tweaked, hidden or faked. Spy stories emphasize this point, for the job of the "spy" is to read a culture and blend into it. The observer or narrator also becomes problematic, given the limitations of individual points of view (as we recognize in The Moonstone's multiple narrators). Mystery stories can be used to examine social structures, political realities, sexual feelings, relationships and rules. Characters always include those with and those lacking power, including servants, women and minorities; in the 20th century mystery stories are increasingly written by women and members of minority groups. Narratives may point to inbuilt injustices, or to the aberrant individual, the killer who looks "normal". We like the idea that humans are multi -layered; the interpretation of signs or clues becomes more exciting. Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams proposes that the individual is a mystery who produces clues for himself (and the analyst) in dreams. The problem of identity is a rich source of tragedy and comedy; interpretation of signs or clues becomes more exciting. Detection itself can be a form of enjoyable obsession, and our suspicions may extend to the detective, that hero of reason in a world not governed by reason. TRUE CRIME: We will examine some "true crime" documents of the 18th and 19th centuries, including trials and confessions, while also looking at the development of policing through the growth of Scotland yard. FILMS: The selection of TV shows or movies is up to the students who will divide into report teams and present the film of their choice. TEXTS include one play by Sophocles; the short story of "Susannah and the Elders" in the Biblical Apocrypha; Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy ( a Renaissance revenge play); Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful ; The Tryal of Miss Mary Blandy ;William Godwin, Caleb Williams; Ann Radcliffe, Sicilian Romance; short stories by E.T. A. Hoffmann and Edgar Allen Poe (to be selected); Sigmund Freud, Interpretation of Dreams ( excerpts); Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone; Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (unfinished novel); Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four; Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison; Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd; Peril at End House; Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress.