Over the past twenty years, scholars have increasingly acknowledged the permeable nature of crime fiction, mapping those hybrid zones where its conventions mingle with those of other literary forms such as the Gothic novel and the ghost story. Nonetheless, Golden Age detective fiction – identified between the 1920s and the early 1950s – continues to be seen as a purely cerebral sub-genre, in which the power of the Gothic was profoundly overshadowed by the rationalist act of detection. This essay aims to reassess this deep-rooted critical prejudice, showing that, despite increasing codification, supernatural and Gothic imagery, themes, and atmospheres played a surprisingly pervasive role in the evolution of detective fiction between and shortly after the two world wars.
The Gothic Side of Golden Age Detective Fiction
Stefano Serafini
2019
Abstract
Over the past twenty years, scholars have increasingly acknowledged the permeable nature of crime fiction, mapping those hybrid zones where its conventions mingle with those of other literary forms such as the Gothic novel and the ghost story. Nonetheless, Golden Age detective fiction – identified between the 1920s and the early 1950s – continues to be seen as a purely cerebral sub-genre, in which the power of the Gothic was profoundly overshadowed by the rationalist act of detection. This essay aims to reassess this deep-rooted critical prejudice, showing that, despite increasing codification, supernatural and Gothic imagery, themes, and atmospheres played a surprisingly pervasive role in the evolution of detective fiction between and shortly after the two world wars.Pubblicazioni consigliate
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