Syllabus: Imagining Crime: Serial Killers, Murder, and Whodunits in American Literature and Culture (original) (raw)

This course starts out to explain what crime fiction is, and to provide a historical overview, from The Murders in Rue Morgue to the contemporary American television series CSI. The course aims to deepen our understanding of the origins and developments of crime fiction in US popular culture. From 19 th century detective stories, we will 'stroll' to hard-boiled detective figures, explore constructions of masculinity, and trace concepts of race and gender in crime fiction. A brief excursus will take us to the neglected author of the Yellowthread Street mysteries: William Marshall, and his postcolonial police detectives. Apart from an examination of the (theoretical) anatomy of 'classic' detective stories, (modern) crime novels, thrillers, and mystery stories, and analyses of developments, modifications and innovations in the genre of crime fiction, we will also tackle the following matters: female detective figures, European writers and their detective figures, and recent (filmic) bestsellers on the American market. A further and last step will be on postmodern crime fiction. Paul Auster's New York Trilogy (City of Glass) shall serve as a paradigmatic example.