Japanese Mystery Fiction

4.0 credits

Mystery fiction arose in response to the anxieties accompanying the industrial age. Rapid cultural changes were unsettling, leaving people fearful of strangers and strange places. How do these stories create suspense? How does the character of the detective evolve through time and space? Our purpose in this class is to survey a selection of both foundational Japanese mystery writing and subversions of the genre in English translation. Starting with early examples of depiction of villains and detectives, we will explore the work of Okamoto Kidō, Edogawa Ranpo, and Shiga Naoya, before encountering different staples of the genre: the hard-boiled detective, locked-room mysteries, post-modern detectives, and even a foray in a science-fiction mystery, among others. Students will be asked to interact with primary and secondary works to identify and analyze the central elements of mystery and detective fiction. They will demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of these genres and how they have changed over time. As this survey of mystery literature is not exhaustive, students will be asked to find a work we did not read in class, present it to their classmates, and write about it in their final project.