ENGL251

Explore "whodunnit" fiction from its nineteenth-century beginnings to the contemporary moment. Why are readers intrigued by the methodical discovery of the exact circumstances of a mysterious event? How does the figure of the eccentric, intelligent, often unofficial investigator take prominence? How does detective fiction emerge from and react to global imperialism, the modern metropolis, forensic science, and the modern legal system? How does the genre represent and respond to gender, class, and racial inequities? Texts may range from the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle, to the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction" in the 1920s and 30s by writers such as Agatha Christie, to late-twentieth century and contemporary novelists such as Chester Himes, P.D. James, and Mia P. Manansala, to film and television adaptations such as Enola Holmes, See How They Run, and Kenneth Branagh's Hercule Poirot films.