TOPIC 60: AMERICAN AMERICAN DETECTIVE FICTION: D. HAMMETT H AMMETT AND AND R. CHANDLER. ENGLISH DETECTIVE NOVEL: P. D. JAMES.
INTRODUCTION Detective fiction is a branch of crime fiction in which the detective either professional or amateur, investigate a crime, usually a murder. Detective fiction flourished in the early 20th century, although although it is more often considered to have begun in 1841 with the publication of “he !urders in the "ue !orgue#, by $dgar %llan &oe who is 'nown as “the (ather of Detective (iction#. &oe was also a literary critic and he created a rationale for the detective story. he he unity of effect of impression is a point of the greatest importance. he Detective Novel has Novel has always been related to public interest in the problems of modern, urban life, particularly in crime. )ut crime as a feature of *estern social life was not generally recogni+ed until the rise of large cities in the early 1800s, a period that corresponds to the creation of a mass reading public. itydwellers, fascinated by and afraid of crime, vilified and romantici+ed criminals, as well as those who fought them. .! DETECTIVE FICTION: "EGINNINGS he idea of detection and the figure of the detective that would eventually stand at the centre of the genre were introduced in the early 1tn century by a (renchman, (ran/ois-$ugene idoc. aving served as a soldier, privateer, smuggler, inmate and secret police spy, idoc at age 24 credited himself with a duel for every year of his life. e established his own department, he 3urete, which became the (rench euivalent of the %merican (.).. *hen idoc5s !emoirs were published in (rance in 1828, they were immediately popular and translated into $nglish. nterest in $ngland in “crime stories# blended with a strong, e6isting genre called the 7othic ovel. !ost scholars attribute this genre to orace *alpole, whose “astle of 9tranto#, published in 1:;<, established the horror story, to which !ary 3helley added scientific aspects with F#$%&e%'tei%. F#$%&e%'tei%.
n the =nited 3tates, $dgar %llan &oe read Dic'ens, and he read and reread idoc. n five stories between 1840 and 184<, &oe laid out the basics of the detective story, which underlie much hard-boiled fiction. >ater detectives, notably %rthur onan Doyle5s Sherlock
Holmes,
became even more eccentric
and &oe5s nameless narrator had his counterpart in the amiable Dr. Watson. n “"ue !orgue#, &oe introduced three common motifs of detective fiction? the wrongly suspected man, the crime in the loc'ed room, and the solution by une6pected means. (.! CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GENRE (. He#o!He#oi% he first protagonists were usually detectives. %s the genre evolved, he or she became a policeman, an insurance salesman, a politician, a reporter, a croo', etc. he protagonist embar's on a @ourney of discovery in order to attain a goal or to recover something lost. hese figures faced dangers, challenges, and temptations that were physical, moral, material and se6ual. 3uccess depended on the acuisition of special 'nowledge. Detectives answer to a higher authority, whether 7od or "easonA they have special powers. (.( Detective Co)e *hen the protagonist is a detective, she or he is presumed to have a set of ethics or moral values. hese are called “the detective code#, or simply “the code#. he detective should be anonymous, avoid publicity, publicity, be close-mouthed, and secretive. e or she protects good people from bad people, who do not live by the rulesA thus, one may brea' the rules in dealing with them. he detective ignores rules and conventions of behaviour, behaviour, because the client pays for this. >oyalty to the client is very important, but may be superseded by a personal sense of @ustice or the rule of law.
(.* Co++o% Plot' 3ome of the more common apparent plots involve? - %n apparent crime that the revealed plot shows to be a repetition of an earlier crime. - he wealthy family with a problem or secret. - he antagonist who is a double of the detective or the author. - leaning up a corrupt town. (., Fe+$le F$t$le he female
fatale ,
defined simply, is an irresistibly irr esistibly attractive woman, especially
one who leads men into danger. 3he is usually the protagonist5s romantic interest. he protagonist5s involvement with her may range from mild flirtation to passionate se6, but in the denouement, he must re@ect or leave her, for the revealed plot shows her to be one of the causes of the crime. *.! THE GOLDEN AGE OF DETECTIVE FICTION T-e Gol)e% A/e o1 Detective Fictio% refers Fictio% refers to the years between the two *orld *ars, and 7olden %ge %ge detective fiction writers are those who were wor'ing in $ngland at that time, ti me, including among others, Dorothy >. 3ayers B18C-1<: and %gatha hristie B180-1:;. )oth authors wrote beyond those years, of course, as did many other writers of the period, and numerous later writers adopted 7olden %ge conventions. -A/$t-$ C-#i'tie C-#i'ti e 2340!456 2 340!456? ? !s. hristie is one of the best 'nown mystery writers in the world. 3he was born in Devon, $ngland, and educated at home. 3he was married to olonel %rchibald hristie @ust after the start of *orld *ar . 3he wor'ed in the dispensary of a hospital during the war which contributed to her 'nowledge of poisons. 3he wrote her first fi rst boo', “he !ysterious %ffair at 3tyles# during time off from wor'. he boo' was re@ected by several publishers before being accepted. 3he was divorced from hristie in 128. n 1C0 she met and married the archaeologist !a6 !allowan. 3he was prolific writer, and several of her boo's are classics of the mystery genre.
,.! AMERICAN AUTHORS ,. D$'-iell H$++ett 234,!46 Dashiell ammett wrote his first fiction under the pseudonym &eter ollison. his %merican %merican novelist also wor'ed as a screenwriter in ollywood. During *orld *ar ammett served a sergeant in an ambulance corps. %t %t that time the worldwide 3panish influen+a epidemic spread fast, and especially in military installations. ammett contracted tuberculosis. e spent the rest of the war in hospital, and for much of his life suffered from ill health. ammett5s best 'nown boo's include “he !altese (alcon# B1C0, filmed three times. t introduced detective 3am 3pade who is investigating the murder of his colleague, detective %rcher. %rcher. ammett5s first short story appeared in the maga+ine “Black
#. Mask #.
n this maga+ine, ammett became one of its most
popular writers. =nder the pseudonym &eter ollinson, ammett introduced a short, overweight, unnamed detective employed by the 3an (rancisco branch of the ontinental Detective %gency, %gency, who became 'nown as the ontinental 9p. n the three do+en stories between 12 and 1C0, featuring the tough and dedicated 9p, ammett gave shape to the first fi rst believable detective hero in %merican fiction. ammett5s language was unsentimental, @ournalisticA moral @udgments were left to the reader. he first-person narration of the 9p stories is left behind and ammett views the detective protagonist in the boo' from the outside. his philosophy also mar'ed ammett5s attitudes when he was uestioned about his ommunist contacts which he did not reveal them. “he 7lass Eey# B1C0 was apparently ammett5s favourite among his novels. he central character, ed )eaumont, was partly a self-portrait? a tall, thin, tuberculosis-ridden gambler and heavy drin'er. n 1C4 ammett began wor'ing as a scriptwriter for the comic strip “3ecret %gent F-#. n the 1C0s ammett became politically active. e @oined the ommunist &arty and was a fierce opponent of a+ism. ammett himself was drin'ing heavily and had problems with his writing. n 148 he was vice-chairman of the ivil "ights ongress, an organi+ation that the %ttorney 7eneral and (.). (.). deemed
subversive. (or his communist beliefs ammett became a target during !carthy5s anti-ommunist crusade. e was blac'listed and when nternal "evenue 3ervice claimed that he owed a huge amount in ta6 deficiencies, the federal government attac'ed his income. he rest of his life ammett lived in and around ew Gor', Gor', teaching creative writing in Hefferson 3chool of 3ocial 3cience from 14; to 1<;. ammett died penniless of lung cancer on Hanuary 10, 1;1. ,.( R$7+o%) C-$%)le# 2333!484 e was born in hicago 1888. is father was a railroad engineer, an alcoholic, and an unfaithful husband who abandoned his family after he divorced "aymond5s mother in 18<. hough handler resented his father greatly, in later years, it would become evident, in marriage to a much older woman that handler came to ta'e on many of the characteristics he had so disli'ed in his hi s father. %fter %fter receiving a strong, classical education, handler tried his hand in freelance wor'. n %merica, handler settled in >os %ngeles, a city whose people he did not li'e and never grew to li'e. e soon fell right into the hands of alifornia5s oil boom of the 120s. %t the age of C2, he was given a @ob in the oil business, and before he 'new it, he had risen to the top of the industry. t is this e6perience in the oil industry that led handler to critici+e the corruption of such industries, as he does in “he )ig 3leep# through the character of 7eneral 3ternwood. t was at this point, during his involvement in the oil business, that handler fell to the vice of his father? drin'ing. handler was fired from his @ob, and, as the 7reat Depression of the 1C0s had set in, he set his mind against the corporate world and began to once again dedicate his time to writing. handler began to write for the Black Mask , a maga+ine that published detective fiction and mysteries. e wrote his first novel, “he )ig 3leep#, in 1C, in a time frame of only three months. he novel carries with it much of the cynicism of 1C0s %merica. he catchy dialogue of the main character, &hilip !arlowe, is the epitome of what came to be 'nown as “hard-boiled# style, the racy, clever, tough tough street tal' of the detective narrative. “he )ig 3leep# bro'e away from the previous style of detective fiction, which includes narratives such as the 3herloc' olmes tales
and the novels of %gatha hristie. e was also unconventional in plotting, in his play with order, and in the addition of more than one plotline. 8.! "RITISH AUTHORS 8. P-7lli' Do#ot-7 J$+e' &. D. Hames B120 who started writing in the 1;0s, is generally regarded as one of the most interesting of contemporary )ritish crime writers, and is often located “in the line of their 7olden %ge predecessors#? predecessors#? “the ew *ave Iueens of rime#. he eldest daughter of an nland "evenue 9fficial, &.D. &.D. Hames moved with her family to ambridge, where she attended the ambridge igh 3chool for 7irls. 3he wor'ed for the ational ealth 3ervice B14-;8 and the ivil 3ervice until 1: when she began to wor' as a full-time writer. 3he was a 7overnor for the )), and hairman of the >iterature %dvisory %dvisory &anel at both the %rts ouncil of $ngland. Hames5 wor's date bac' to %gatha hristie5s ingenious plotting and evocative settings. % Hames plot is a well-oiled machine, efficient and balanced in a style many modern detective-fiction writers hardly aspire to attain. er settings reflect an impressive variety of interests, often esoteric and sometimes obscure. 3he spea's for a certain social class and way of life. 3he wrote “over her face#, that was followed during this period by “% mind to !urder# and “=nnatural auses#. 3he co-authored with homas %. %. ritchley “he !aul and the &ear ree#, a recounting of a real life murder from the annals of 1th century >ondon. he settings of four of her mysteries are in medicine-related facilities? a psychiatric clinic in “% !ind to !urder#, a nurses5 training school in “3hroud for a ightingale#, a private home for the disabled in “he )lac' ower#, ower#, and a forensic science laboratory in “Death of an $6pert *itness#. &. D. Hames has been awarded ma@or pri+es for her crime writing in 7reat )ritain, %merica, taly, taly, and 3candinavia. n 1 she received the !ystery *riters of %merica 7randmaster %ward %ward for long term achievement. 3he is published widely overseas including the =.3.%, anada, (rance, 7ermany, &ortugal, (inland, ungary, Denmar', 3weden, Hapan, 3pain, etc.
