According to the general catalog, English 242 is designed to develop practices of “critical interpretation” around the question of “meaning” in fiction. In this class we will train that critical lens towards the various historically and geographically specific meanings of one of popular fiction’s most resilient genres: the detective narrative. From Sherlock Holmes, to Batman, to Veronica Mars, detective stories are a ubiquitous cultural force. As a genre, these fictions are primarily concerned with the discovery of a necessary truth (the criminal act) and the various means and methods by which that truth may be brought to light (the investigation). Critically locating this genre within history, then, means investigating the cultural pre-conditions for both criminal guilt and justice. How can the criminal be identified according to these texts? How does the rise of sciences like psychology and genetics aid or complicate this investigation? How do social structures built around gender and race politics inform the knowledge and authority of the detective? In working within these fields, we will also ask how these texts implicitly critique detective fictions’ reliance on truth and certainty. Our mode of “critical interpretation” will hopefully allow us to see these fictions as both emerging from specific contexts and responding to those contexts in complex ways.

Reading for this class will be heavy, and composed of both “literary” and “popular” examples of the genre. Required texts will include short stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Edgar Allen Poe, novels by Joseph Conrad, Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley and Paul Auster, and films such as Roman Polanski’s Chinatown and Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner. Short readings in cultural history and genre theory will also be included.

English 242 is also a “W” credit course that requires a set amount of writing and a series of required revisions. In this class, the writing will take the form of two required, 5-7 page analysis papers (with three optional due dates) and a mandatory set of revisions due at the end of the course. Additional course assignments may include weekly journal entries and a comprehensive final exam.