This essay traces the principal currents in scholarship on Victorian detective fiction over the last century. Starting with a survey of the key critical perspectives established in the first half of the twentieth century, it moves into a more detailed discussion of prominent trends since the turn of the millennium. It suggests a number of directions in which future work might go and draws attention to the Victorian detective narrative's diversity in terms of form and subject matter, indicating that the genre is not as straightforward to label as it first seems. Charting lines of influence between distinctive theoretical and historical approaches to this genre reveals key scholarly trends and areas of recurrent formal and thematic interest in detective fiction studies. Through the discussion of these interlinking approaches I will argue that recent critical modes afford a productive new language with which to comprehend this immensely popular genre. Each grappling in various ways with the problem of how to locate and specify this genre, commentators address the detective narrative as, for example, a cryptic commentary on the nature of discipline; an expose of imperialism and its discontents; and as a fraught reaction to the teeming profusion of the modern metropolis.

Victorian Detective Fiction

The Hounds of Fortune: Dog Detection in the Nineteenth Century

Inti: Revista de literatura hispánica

Traditionally, the protagonists of detective novels and la novela negra have been "hard-boiled" men of the "strong, silent" type. They are self assured and possess an inalterable identity, regardless of their position in society (which is rarely high, in the case of the Latin American novela negra). More often than not, Chandler and Hammett's characters are cited as the models to follow: they are hard drinking loners, heroes; they have no allegiances, especially with women. As Suzanne Young has noted, there is no room for women in their lives, other than an occasional fling. (Young, 314). In the novelas negras and detective novels written by Luis Sepulveda, however, we see the emergence of a different kind of hero. They are almost always exiles, political or otherwise, which is partly responsible for their vulnerable nature. Because their place in society is no longer certain, their sense of identity is in a state of flux. Additionally, some are separated, others divorced, and they may be unemployed as well; they have been stripped of the traits by which they previously defined themselves. In Sepulveda's work, we see characters who question their identity and others who will risk it all for the love of a woman. In his latest novel, Hot Line, we even see a female character that is central to the plot; without her, our hero would be lost. This article will explore the qualities of this new kind of hero, or anti hero, in the works of Luis Sepulveda. Raymond Chandler was one of the masters of the genre, and perhaps the North American mystery writer most often read by Latin American writers. In addition to his many novels, he wrote "Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story", in which he described what the perfect detective should be like.

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Luis Sepúlveda: a new sensibility

In many respects, the detective novel represents sensation fiction’s most successful and enduring legacy, as well as its most persistent ongoing engagement with popular culture.

Suzanne Young

Papers

The Simple Art of Detection: The Female Detective in Victorian and Contemporary Mystery Novels