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

Haia Shpayer-Makov指出，英国退休警探在1829至1981年间出版了69本出版物，其中56本是在1880-1930年间出版的。在这几十年里，犯罪小说呈爆炸式增长，退休警探的出版物也达到了顶峰，他们试图利用这股热潮。然而，他们的作品也展示了多种类型的作品，并对当代犯罪小说中锻造的侦探形象进行了反击。这位博士将通过探索詹姆斯·本特的《犯罪生活：作为警察42年的回忆》(1891)和巴兹尔·汤姆森的《酷儿们》(1922)等作品来探讨真实和虚构的警探之间的关系。我的论文将受到三个研究问题的影响。首先，这些作品如何通过扩展小说(如黄金时代侦探小说)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消费的理解？例如，这些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？其次，小说的使用如何使这些表面上的自传体作品的体裁复杂化？这将建立在我的硕士论文的基础上，我得出结论，退休侦探的三篇文章是自传小说的例子，这是斯蒂芬·雷诺兹在1906年定义的一种体裁，自传、小说和论文的三条交汇线在其中相遇。最后，由于这些回忆录作家经常对流行犯罪小说中的侦探形象进行直接反击，他们如何寻求改变这一形象，并通过认同为警察机构的一部分来抹去自己的个性？我将考察作者如何构建一个准军事冒险家的形象，他在国内范围内打击他的敌人犯罪。因此，我的研究将试图理解作者对通俗文学中更广泛的体裁的明确接触如何使生活写作中的个性和内在性概念进一步复杂化。

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.