Detective Fiction Flashcards

Flashcards on Detective Fiction

Detective Fiction

A literary genre where a detective investigates and solves a crime, usually a murder, using clues, deduction, and observation.

British Detective Novel Context

Post-WWI era marked by desire for logic and order.

American Hard-Boiled Novel Context

Era marked by cynicism, crime, and distrust of institutions.

Sam Spade

Tough, self-serving, but with a personal code. Protagonist created by Hammett.

Philip Marlowe

Ironic, introspective, moral in a corrupt world. Protagonist created by Chandler.

Adam Dalgliesh

Reflective, poetic, principled, emotionally complex. Protagonist created by James.

American Noir Style

Fast-paced, gritty, minimalist, often first-person.

British Detective Tradition Style

Detailed, methodical, often more introspective or third-person omniscient.

American Noir Setting

Urban decay and corruption

English Detective Fiction Setting

Contained, socially stratified spaces

Noir setting

Highlights breakdown.

English fiction setting

Analyses dysfunction within an existing system.

Edgar Allan Poe

gave form to the detective story genre.

Crime

Must be solved, with a closed circle of suspects with motives to commit the crime.

Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Offered a return to logic and justice in post-WWI Britain.

American Detective Fiction

Often reflect the harshness of American life with morally ambiguous and crime-ridden cities.

Pulp magazines like Black Mask

Favored fast-paced, accessible stories aimed at a wide, working-class audience.

Dashiell Hammet

Gave crime fiction realism.

Raymond Chandler

Gave crime fiction style and soul.

P.D. James

Gave crime fiction psychological and moral weight.