Detective Fiction

Contributors are invited to submit critical works on detective fiction. Papers may focus on the detective across media, whether in literature, film, drama, or other cultural productions. What cultural work does detective fiction fulfill? How is the work of the detective related to cultural or individual crises? What gave rise to detective fiction and narratives of detection in the nineteenth century? How has the figure of the detective changed over time? How does the medium of the detective fiction change the narrating act? How does gender influence the work of detecting? In what ways is detective fiction related to but different from the Gothic or sensation literature? How has postmodernism altered the way we interact with or think about mystery?