Upon completion of this course students will have gained an understanding of the generic conventions and constant innovations of the popular genre of crime and detective fiction. They will have practiced their interpretative skills on both short stories and novels from different historical and cultural contexts and will have learnt to apply different theoretical frameworks such as postcolonial theory, gender studies, and ecocriticism.

in-depth discussion of textsshort lecture inputsexpert groups/ student-led tasks

The genre of crime and detective fiction warrants academic interest not despite the fact that it is popular literature, but precisely because it is popular literature. It is widely received by a heterogeneous readership and both contributes to as well as critically investigates contemporary discourses. This class will explore anglophone crime and detective fiction in different historical and cultural contexts. Students will be introduced to generic conventions and subgeneric distinctions such as that of the ‘whodunit’ and the ‘hardboiled’. We will start in the 19th century with one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s prototypical detective stories, move on to early 20th century ‘Golden Age’ crime fiction by Agatha Christie and will then go on to examine 21st century varieties within the cultural contexts of Wales, India, and South Africa.

Principles of literary analysis

Please purchase the novels A Rising Man (2016) by Abir Mukherjee and Of Cops and Robbers (2013) by Mike Nicol. All other material will be made available by the instructor on Moodle.

Participation: 25%Short in-class presentation: 25%Term paper: 50% (5000w)If a student fails one pillar of assessment (participation, presentation or term paper), they fail the entire course!

Students are free to choose their own topics for the final paper, as long as it relates to the context of the class.

Active participation, level of preparation for class.Quality and quantity of information, precision and depth of analysis, structure and quality of argument, quality and quantity of secondary sources used.