Was Sherlock Holmes a real person? What’s the difference between a crime novel and a mystery novel? What really happened to all the TP?
Survey mystery fiction and its conventions, from the genre’s 19th-century origins to the classic Golden Age puzzle to its many postmodern manifestations. Writers to be studied will include Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jorge Luis Borges and others. Understand the mystery novel’s status as a significant form of modern fiction, one that explores how human consciousness makes sense out of what might otherwise be viewed as random experience and meaningless violence.
Section Materials
Textbook (Mandatory) A Murder is Announced (any complete edition) by Agatha Christie
Textbook (Mandatory) Bones and Silence (any complete edition) by Reginald Hill
Textbook (Mandatory) The Maltese Falcon (any complete edition) by Dashiell Hammett
Textbook (Mandatory) The Skull Beneath the Skin (any complete edition) by P.D. James
Reader (Mandatory) Purchase this reader via a link in the online classroom.
Textbook (Mandatory) Hollywood Station (any complete edition) by Joseph Wambaugh
Textbook (Mandatory) The Likeness (any complete edition) by Tana French
Textbook (Mandatory) L. A. Requiem (any complete edition) by Robert Crais
Textbook (Mandatory) A Woman’s Eye (any complete edition) by Sara Paretsky
