Professor Ostrom, University of Puget Sound

Spring 2001

English 342—Genre (Fiction)

Office: Wyatt Hall, 336

Office Hours: T-Th, 9:30-10:30; Monday, 1:00-2:00, and by appointment: I’m on campus quite a lot.

Phone: x3434 (office & voice mail); x3235 (main English office).

English 342 explores not just a genre (fiction) but a sub-genre, one that may seem easily defined but that becomes more mercurial the more one explores it. Among its names are detective fiction, crime fiction, and mystery fiction. Customarily, we peg its origins in the United States and 1841, when Edgar Allan Poe published "Murders of the Rue Morgue." Customarily, we quibble with such origins and point, for instance, at narratives from mythological and sacred texts that feature crime, detection, and punishment. Or we might mention in passing that a play like Hamlet is, on its way to becoming a tragedy, an engaging detective story. (Fairly soon we will read Dorothy Sayers’ essay, "Aristotle on Detective Fiction"). Disagreements about origins pale in comparison to those concerning the essential value of detective fiction. Many people attach the descriptors "pulp," "popular," "category," and "whodunnit" to the noun "fiction" intending to derogate. Others praise the remarkable resilience of detective fiction over the last 160 years; they highlight the artfulness and style to be found in works by Conan Doyle, Chandler, Rendell, and others; they suggest that such fiction constitutes an unusual if not unique lens through which to look at contemporary society; and they question the premise that "popular" necessarily means "inferior."

In this course, we will join the fray, discussing origins and development, probing boundaries between "popular" and "literary": Does popular mean unliterary? Does literary mean unpopular? We will read detective novels (and a few short stories) as more as complex, pleasurable narratives that have occupied intriguing niches in different societies for some time now. We will read some secondary material and explore issues of culture, publishing history, gender, class, and race that dovetail with this sub-genre, and we will study the sub-genre to learn more about the overarching genre of "the novel." That is to say, we will become textual detectives.

The books, which will be supplemented with some photocopied stories and an extra book each of you will select, are as follows:

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four. Berkeley Prime Crime edition (one volume).

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Penguin Edition.

Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely. Vintage Crime edition.

Rex Stout, The Golden Spiders. Bantam edition.

Ruth Rendell, Death Notes. Ballantine edition.

Barbara Neely. Blanche Among the Talented Tenth. Penguin edition.

Caroline Garcia-Aguilera. Bloody Shame. Berkeley Prime Crime edition.

Come to class and come on time. Please do not eat in class—all professors have their pet peeves. Beverages are all right, as long as slurping is kept to a minimum.

Keep up with the reading and other assignments. Contribute actively and productively to discussions; listen well to one another. As important as "plot" is to this sub-genre, be ready to read for much more than plot. We shall apply the same rigorous reading (and writing) methods to the fiction in this course as we would to that in any other 300-level literature course.

Take due dates for drafts of essays (and finished essays) seriously. Do not assume that I will accept late work. You may wish to consider assuming otherwise.

Two essays: approximately 50 per cent

Two tests: approximately 20 per cent

One detailed outline of your own detective novel,

produced and presented collaboratively: approximately 10 per cent

Attendance, participation, and written

response(s) to one or more films: 20 per cent

This schedule is detailed, but it is subject to change. Bring it to class each time so that you may note any changes.

Tuesday, January 16. Overview of the course. Some writing. Distribute copies of "The Gold Bug." Start reading both Conan Doyle books immediately.

Thursday, January 18. For today, read "The Gold Bug" and most of A Study in Scarlet. Dupin as precursor to Holmes. Holmes: template of "the private investigator." The various meanings of "private." Holmes: artist, addict, scientist? Watson as narrative device. Intellect vs. sensation. Stability vs. chaos.

Tuesday, January 23. Finish A Study in Scarlet and read all of The Sign of the Four. What exactly did Conan Doyle invent? What makes a Holmes novel a Holmes novel? Also, "A Scandal in Bohemia." Watson, Holmes, Doyle and gender. Women and American Mormons as "other."

Thursday, January 25. "A Case of Identity," "The Red-Headed League," "The Blue Carbuncle," "The Noble Bachelor," and "The Copper Beeches." Social class and the detective genre. Sub-genre differences between fiction and short fiction? Starting our own (outlines of) detective novels.

Tuesday, January 30. Farewell, My Lovely, through 161. The private investigator is transported in time (1940) and space (London to L.A.) and culture (fog to smog?!). Marlowe’s Los Angeles. The changing (or not?) roles of women in detective fiction. What is the Chandler style, and how do we account for it? A crucial change in narrative voice? Is Marlowe a criminal? Distribute stories by MacDonald and Spillane.

Thursday, February 1. Finish Farewell, My Lovely. Imitation or parody?: MacDonald and Spillane. Distribute a Sayers story and her essay, "Aristotle on Detective Fiction." Looking ahead to the test.

Tuesday, February 6. Continuing our own detective novels. Back to Britain: Dorothy Sayers, "The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question," and Ruth Rendell, Death Notes, part one (through 110): the detective as official (police inspector), and the conventions of "the procedural novel" and "the village cozy" tale.

Thursday, February 8. Finish Death Notes. The British detective in Marlowe country. Conan Doyle, Chandler, Rendell, and the fine points of plot (red herrings, twists, "fairness," etc.). Conventions versus quirks in detective "characters." Discuss Sayers’ "Aristotle on Detective Fiction." List of books from which to choose the extra reading. Distribute and discuss essay topics.

Tuesday, February 13. Test.

Thursday, February 15. Film: The Maltese Falcon: Detection and Hollywood; hard-boiled meets film noire; villainy and difference; feminism and the femme fatale. Distribute essays by Sayers and Auden.

Tuesday, February 20. Finish and discuss the film. Discuss "The Omnibus of Crime," by Dorothy Sayers, and "The Guilty Vicarage," by W.H. Auden. Bring in notes, a provisional thesis, etc., for your essay, please. Distribute Ronald Knox’s "A Detective Story Decalogue."

Thursday, February 22. One-page response to The Maltese Falcon due. Read at least half of Rex Stout’s The Golden Spiders. The variations Stout plays. The psychology of "the armchair detective." Food and crime. Discussing "the spaces of detective fiction." Continuing our own detective novels: Knox’s Ten Commandments? Distribute stories by Grafton and Paretsky.

Tuesday, February 27. Finish The Golden Spiders. Rough drafts of essays due.

Thursday, March 1. Read Sue Grafton, "A Little Missionary Work," and Sarah Paretsky, " "Three-Dot Po." American women private detectives. Grafton and Paretsky and what we’ve read so far. What is a "feminine" detective?

Tuesday, March 6. Essays due in class. Film: Devil in a Blue Dress.

Thursday, March 8. Finish and discuss film.

Tuesday, March 20. One-page response to Devil in a Blue Dress.

Thursday, March 22. Have you chosen your extra book yet? For today read about half of Blanche Among the Talented Tenth. The amateur detective. Convergence of class and ethnicity. Blanche in contrast to other detectives we’ve met, including Easy Rollins. Continuing our own detective novels.

Tuesday, March 27. Finish Blanche Among the Talented Tenth. Writing and imitation. Distribute stories by Borges, Disher, and Oates.

Thursday, March 29. Borges, Disher, and Oates. Postmodernism and other amusements. Essay topics distributed, discussed.

Tuesday, April 3. Read about half of Bloody Shame.

Thursday, April 5. Finish Bloody Shame. Bring in notes and a provisional thesis for your essay. Getting ready for April 10.

Tuesday, April 10. Presentations of the novel-outlines.

Thursday, April 12. Presentations of the novel-outlines.

Tuesday, April 17. Test.

Thursday, April 19. Draft of essay due.

Tuesday, April 24. Film: The Seven Per Cent Solution.

Thursday, April 26. Finish and discuss The Seven Per Cent Solution.

Tuesday, May 1. Essays due.