Due Dates:  Feb. 16th  and/or                                                                                             Length:    1 x 2000 words OR
                    March 30th                                                                                                                          2 x 1000 words

Notes: You may choose to write ONE long comparative paper (2.000 words) OR TWO shorter papers (1,000 words each) on a single author or work. Consult your course syllabus for more information on essay format, plagiarism, grading, citations, extensions etc. You are welcome to devise your own topics, but if you choose to do so, you must consult with me in advance.

2. Sally Munt writes that "The centre of the crime novel requires Cartesian rational Man. Black man, because of his construction as non-thinking, non-rational, and non-literate, cannot deliver the denotation 'detective' easily." The same might be argued for other marginalized characters. Write an essay on how racial considerations influence the characterization of the detective (and other features of the detective formula) in one or two works. You may agree or disagree with Munt's statement. Suggested texts: Devil in a Blue Dress, Blanche on the Lam, Skinwalkers.
 

3. In his Golden Age rules for detective fiction, S.S. Van Dine banished romantic love from the detective story, but many detective novels integrate love and sexuality into the conventions of the mystery story in thought-provoking ways. Consider the treatment of love, sex or sexuality in one or two works. Suggested texts: "The Purloined Letter,""A Scandal in Bohemia,""The Adventure of the Speckled Band," The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Gaudy Night, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Bitter Medicine, Devil in a Blue Dress, Gaudí Afternoon.
 

4. Examine the ways one or two works use and revise specific conventions of the detective novel for the purpose of social critique. What elements of society are criticized? How is this criticism enacted through the conventions of the detective story? Are alternatives to institutional legal models of justice signalled? Suggested texts: "A Jury of Her Peers," Gaudy Night, The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Bitter Medicine, Blanche on the Lam, Skinwalkers, Devil in a Blue Dress, Gaudí Afternoon.
 

5. Despite its realist style, detective fiction often demonstrates a self-consciousness about the norms and conventions of the detective genre (and, sometimes, other literary forms) and its relationship to those norms. Discuss instances and implications of reflexivity in one or two works. Suggested texts: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Gaudy Night, Bitter Medicine, Gaudí Afternoon.
 

6. Literary theorist Geoffry Hartman writes that "to solve a crime in detective stories means to give it an exact location: to pinpoint not merely the murderer and his motives but also the very place, the room, the ingenious or brutal circumstance." How is the "scene of the crime" (i.e. its architecture, nation, geography, urban or rural status, cultural milieu, specific location, etc.) important to the interpretation of works by one or two authors on the course? Suggested texts: any.
 

7. The "quest" in detective stories frequently involves an overt or covert investigation of the "mystery" of what women are, or what women want. Consider the dynamics of such mysteries as they apply to one or two works on the course. Suggested texts: "The Purloined Letter,""A Scandal in Bohemia," "A Jury of Her Peers," Gaudy Night, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Bitter Medicine, Devil in a Blue Dress, Gaudí Afternoon.
 

8. Using specific evidence from the text to support your argument, discuss the tension between Romantic (or supernatural or artistic) and Rationalist approaches to the solution of the crime in one or two stories. Be sure to provide precise definitions of the two pivotal terms. Suggested texts: "Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Purloined Letter," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band,""A Scandal in Bohemia."
 

9."The detective story is the realm of the happy ending," writes Ernest Mandel: "The criminal is always caught. Justice is always done. Crime never pays. Bourgeois legality, bourgeois values, bourgeois society, always triumph in the end. It is soothing, socially integrating literature, despite its concern with crime, violence and murder." Discuss the significance of these observations to one or two works on the course. You may agree or disagree with Mandel's statement. Suggested texts: any.
 

10. "The corpse is, as it were, the lever that provides the impulse to the story," opines literary critic Helmut Heissenbüttel in a discussion of the crime novel. Discuss the significance of the dead body (or bodies) in one or two works on the course in terms of the evidence the victim of murder provides of the story's larger themes, concerns or the questions it raises. Do the characterizations of dead bodies shed any light on the roles of living bodies (or vice versa)? Suggested texts: any.
 

11. Catherine Belsey argues that the most obvious instance of textual "closure" is the detective story, where in the story's dénoument the criminal is revealed and the motive is made plain. Are there ways of reading the detective story against closure--for fissures, red herrings, unanswered questions and unsolved mysteries? What would be the point of such a reading? Investigate the lingering mysteries in one or two of the works on the course and consider why you think they might be significant to a reading of the story. Suggested texts: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "A Scandal in Bohemia," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," "A Jury of Her Peers," The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Gaudy Night, Maltese Falcon, Skinwalkers, Blanche on the Lam, Devil in a Blue Dress.
 

12. Lesbian detective author Elizabeth Pincus, has said that "detective fiction almost always deals with marginal characters. Those of us outside the mainstream can feel a keen affinity with the rebel PI bumping up against the status quo." Discuss the ways in which the conventions of the detective novel are used characterize marginality (the detective's or not) in one or two works on the course. Suggested texts: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," "A Scandal in Bohemia," "A Jury of Her Peers," Gaudy Night, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Bitter Medicine, Skinwalkers, Blanche on the Lam, Devil in a Blue Dress, Gaudí Afternoon.
 

13. Barbara Wilson says that "The power of the crime novel is invested in the role of the investigator: she who asks questions and demands or puzzles out answers; she who is philosopher, detective, prosecutor and judge; she who is neither victim nor bystander; she who rejects the role of passive observer in favour of speech and action. The investigator takes an active role concerning death." In fact, the detective novel is so obsessed with death that one might say that the it was created in order to allow readers a sense of power over death. Examine the ways one or two works negotiate the fear death itself. Suggested texts: any.
 

14. Discuss the detective novel's dramatization of voyeuristic fantasies of violence, sex and death in one or two works on the course. Suggested texts: "Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Purloined Letter," "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," "A Scandal in Bohemia," Gaudy Night, Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Devil in a Blue Dress.
 

15. Detective fiction is not known for its characterizations of happy, well-adjusted families. Examine the role of family/families in one or two works on the course. Suggested texts: "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," "A Jury of Her Peers," The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Big Sleep, Bitter Medicine, Blanche on the Lam, Devil in a Blue Dress, Gaudí Afternoon.