Nineteenth Century Crime and Detective Fiction

3 credit hours · Undergraduate

This course considers the development of fiction of crime, mystery, and detection during the nineteenth century, a period in which this genre flourished. Authors to be studied include Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens, Henry James, E. A. Poe, and R. L. Stevenson. Attention may also be given to relevant social developments, such as the rise of the police force, advances in criminology and detection, the typology and psychology of the criminal, the “lady detective,” white-collar crime and criminal networks, and the Victorian Underworld.