The publications of police detectives 1880 - 1930: Genre, identity and the consumption of crime

1880 - 1930 年警探的出版物：犯罪类型、身份和消费

• 批准号: 2426572
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2426572
• 关键词: publications; police; detectives; 1880; 1930

Haia Shpayer-Makov identifies 69 publications authored by retired British police detectives between 1829 and 1981; of these, 56 were released in the period 1880-1930. These decades saw an explosion in crime fiction, and so publications by retired police detectives peaked as they sought to capitalise on the boom.Yet, their works also exhibit a blend of genres and offer a riposte to the figure of the detective forged in contemporary crime fiction. This PhD will address the relationship between the real and fictional police detective by exploring works such as James Bent's Criminal Life: Reminiscences of Forty-Two Years as aPolice Officer (1891) and Basil Thomson's Queer People (1922). My thesis will be shaped by three research questions.First, how do these works enhance our understanding of the consumption of crime literature as entertainment, by expanding on fiction, such as golden age detective novels, and non-fiction, such as the Notable Trials series? For example, how did the texts challenge reader expectations by eschewing the established whodunit format? Second, how does the use of fiction complicate the genre of these outwardly autobiographical works? This will build upon my MA dissertation where I concluded three texts by retired detectives were examples of autobiografiction, a genre defined in 1906 by Stephen Reynolds as one in which the three converging lines [of] autobiography, fiction, and the essay meet. Finally, as these memoirists often offer a direct riposte to the figure of the detective in popular crime fiction, how do they seek to modify this image and efface their own individuality by identifying as part of the police institution? I will examine how the authors construct the image of a quasi-military adventurer operating in a domestic sphere against his enemy, crime. As such, my research will seek to understand how the authors' explicit engagement with wider genres in popular literature further complicates concepts of individuality and interiority in life-writing.

Haia Shpayer-Makov指出了1829年至1981年期间退休的英国警察侦探撰写的69份出版物;其中56份出版于1880年至1930年期间。近几十年来，犯罪小说出现了爆炸式增长，退休警探的作品也因此达到顶峰，他们试图利用这一繁荣。然而，他们的作品也展示了多种类型，并对当代犯罪小说中塑造的侦探形象进行了回击。这个博士学位将通过探索詹姆斯本特的犯罪生活：回忆四十二年的警官（1891年）和巴兹尔汤姆森的酷儿人（1922年）等作品来解决真实的和虚构的警察侦探之间的关系。我的论文将围绕三个研究问题展开：第一，这些作品是如何通过扩展小说（如黄金时代的侦探小说）和非小说（如《著名审判》系列）来增强我们对犯罪文学作为娱乐的消费的理解的？例如，文本如何通过避开既定的侦探小说格式来挑战读者的期望？第二，小说的使用是如何使这些表面上自传体的作品的体裁复杂化的？这将建立在我的硕士论文中，我总结了退休侦探的三个文本是自传体小说的例子，这是斯蒂芬·雷诺兹在1906年定义的一种类型，其中三条汇合线[自传，小说和散文]相遇。最后，由于这些回忆录作者经常直接反驳流行犯罪小说中的侦探形象，他们如何试图通过认同警察机构的一部分来修改这一形象并抹去自己的个性？我将研究作者如何构建一个准军事冒险家的形象，在国内范围内反对他的敌人，犯罪。因此，我的研究将试图了解作者与流行文学中更广泛的体裁的明确接触如何进一步复杂化生活写作中的个性和多样性概念。