Dime Novels and the Roots of American Detective Fiction / by P. Bedore.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bedore, P., Author.

Series:

Crime Files, 2947-8359

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex.

America--Literatures.

America.

Literature.

Crime--Sociological aspects.

Crime.

Literature--Philosophy.

Culture--Study and teaching.

Culture.

Gender Studies.

North American Literature.

Crime and Society.

Literary Theory.

Cultural Theory.

Local Subjects:

Gender Studies.

North American Literature.

Literature.

Crime and Society.

Literary Theory.

Cultural Theory.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (221 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2013.

Place of Publication:

London : Palgrave Macmillan UK : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book reveals subversive representations of gender, race and class in detective dime novels (1860-1915), arguing that inherent tensions between subversive and conservative impulses-theorized as contamination and containment-explain detective fiction's ongoing popular appeal to readers and to writers such as Twain and Faulkner.

Contents:

Cover; Half-Title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Appendix Tables; Acknowledgments; 1 The Case of the Missing Detectives; or, Reassessing the American Contribution to Detective Fiction; Introduction; Construing the absence of the dime novel detective; Who is the American dime novel detective?; Disrupting existing narratives about detective fiction; Some organizing principles; 2 The Happy-Ending Deception; or, Uncovering the Subversive Potential of Detective Dime Novels; Introduction; The primacy of endings: a theoretical excursion

Methods and trends: (de)coding the dime novel detectiveA shadowy detective and a police captain: gender bending and genre blending; Forced marriages, faked weddings, and gendered problems of closure; The detectives that don't work out: death and corruption in the detective position; A Terrible Ending: an unambiguous antidote to happy endings; In conclusion ...; 3 The Case of the Contaminated Icon; or, Allan Pinkerton's Dangerous Detective Doubles; Introduction; Allan Pinkerton's iconography: all-seeing eyes, Civil War spies, and the Underground Railroad

Pinkerton's generic breadth: classical, hardboiled, police, and diverse detectivesContamination and the problems of deep cover; Outlaw doubling lite: the humorous logic of bodily substitution; Outlaw doubling darkened through the prism of graphic torture; Conclusion; 4 Playing with the Ace of Hearts; or, Mentorship, Sportsmanship, and Nick Carter's Epistemological Dilemmas; Introduction; Nick Carter's school for detectives: mentorship and fair play; The mediating power of games; The ethical and erotic mediations of the femme fatale; Proto-postmodern epistemological investigations; Conclusion

5 Faulkner, Twain, and the Legacy of Dime Novel DetectivesIntroduction; White elephants, doubled barrels, and Mark Twain's detective obsessions; Chasing the unknown gambit; or, mentorship and games in Nick Carter and Gavin Stevens; Conclusion; 6 Conclusions and Directions for Future Research; Appendix Tables; Notes; References; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781349449934

1349449938

9781137288653

1137288655

OCLC:

863996911