Subject Area: English

“To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s” writes Dostoyevsky in Crime & Punishment. Taking Dostoyevsky’s observation as a starting point this course explores crime as an idea and as a fiction – of reinvention, resistance, alternative worlds, and subjectivities. Why are we so compelled by maverick detectives, violent crimes, elicit schemes, deception and betrayal? From its beginnings in the late 18th Century, crime fictions of various kinds have captivated readers and challenged literary, cultural and moral conventions. This course will trace the historical emergence and circulation of this genre from Edgar Allan Poe and Conan Doyle through to its contemporary global proponents. You will explore key issues that have shaped the history of consuming crime fictions – the emergence of mass culture, taste and 'the art of murder', sensationalism, violence, the nexus of literary and cinematic storytelling, horror, and the grotesque.