The primary objective of this M.A. thesis is to examine the portrayal of Switzerland and the role of the Swiss detective in the modern Swiss crime novel, with special focus on the works of three modern Swiss authors of different social status: Friedrich Glauser, Friedrich Durrenmatt and Hansjorg Schneider. While the crime novel is generally considered trivial entertainment for mass audiences within the realm of German literature, the case is somewhat different in Switzerland, a country with a small state mentality. The forthcoming analysis will demonstrate how these authors employ the crime novel as an educational device to convey a very important message to their fellow countrymen about the society in which they live. In their portrayal of Switzerland, the authors cover a wide range of circumstances relevant to their respective time periods, often dealing with controversial issues. Consequently, the Swiss detective plays a major role, as he must often solve difficult cases while faced with tremendous pressure from society. By focusing exclusively on Switzerland, this analysis will ultimately prove that the modern Swiss crime novel contains not only an entertainment aspect, but also important political, sociological and historical elements that distinguish the phenomenon from its international counterparts.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Literary and Cultural Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 338-348)

This master's thesis is a study of how librarians are depicted in crime fiction. 12 American and English mysterynovels featuring librarians in a central role were studied and analysed using character theory. Recurring traitswere identified and organised into themes. A number of prominent traits and themes emerged that show librariansas orderly and organised bibliophiles, but with a taste for adventure and excitement. They are keen problem solverswho enjoy a challenge, at work, or in the form of crime detection. These traits show fairly different sides ofthe characters, and hint of librarians having something of a dubble nature. Some of the traits resonate with findings in earlier studies in the field, but the old stereotype was only parti -ally confirmed. In general the image of librarians presented in the mystery novels is a positive one, which inmany respects also rings true against the background of actual librarians and library work. This is a two years master's thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

The character of the detective in Victorian literature and entertainment seems to be a paradox: tasked with surveillance but enacting it via disguise and other performative and even theatrical hallmarks. Scholars have often read the detective as an extension of the panoptic state, as a policing figure whose investigative work is undertaken through surveillance. How, then, are we to explain why Victorian detectives are so performative, which seems hardly compatible with surveillance? In this dissertation, I look beyond surveillance as the detective’s main function, towards the process of detection overall—which I demonstrate is completed through the detective’s use of performance and involves the manipulation of spectacle and evaluation of audience expectations. In redefining detection as a performative practice, I look at four different cases in which Victorian fictional detectives rely on a specific performance practice, style, or tradition to complete their detective work. The first two chapters establish the embeddedness of performance within the practice of detection, focusing on feats of non-theatrical performance by detectives who rely on and cultivate spectacle around them. In Chapter One, I analyze Dickens’s detectives, Mr. Nadgett of Martin Chuzzlewit and Inspector Bucket of Bleak House: conjuror figures who rely on controlled concealment, illusionistic demonstrations, and enthralling revelations to crime-solve, in a way that will win the favor of the Victorian public. In Chapter Two, I detail how Sherlock Holmes borrows the spectacular conventions of Victorian scientific performance to legitimize his own “Science of Deduction” as a discipline. The third and fourth chapters examine cases in which the feats of performance undertaken by detectives demonstrate the ways that detection is essential to the practice of performance—and that performance itself is not only a logical act, but also an interactively educational one. In Chapter Three, I analyze the practices of “lady detective” characters who have had prior careers as professional actresses and use the acting skills they cultivated on the stage to un-spectacularize themselves, achieving a level of invisibility that allows them mobility, access, and information. In Chapter Four, I look at two stage detective characters who are themselves performing roles: Hawkshaw in Tom Taylor’s The Ticket-of-Leave Man and Gripper in W.S. Gilbert’s A Sensation Novel. I analyze how these plays showcase the detective’s acting to refocus the ways that the actor is doing detection—that is, the ways in which, through performance, the theater is able to disseminate news and critique institutions of power, like the police itself.

Detective fiction highlights those qualities of masculinity that are most valuable to a contemporary culture. In mysteries a cultural context is more thoroughly revealed than in any other genre of literature. Through the crimes, an audience can understand not only the fears of a particular society but also the level of calumny that society assigns to a crime. As each generation has needed a particular set of qualities in its defense, so the detective has provided them. Through the detective's response to particular crimes, the reader can learn the delineation of forgivable and unforgivable acts. These detectives illustrate positive masculinity, proving that fiction has more uses than mere entertainment. In this paper, I trace four detectives, each from a different era. Sherlock Holmes lives to solve problems. His primary function is to solve a riddle. Lord Peter Wimsey takes on the moral question of why anyone should detect at all. His stories involve the difficulty of justifying putting oneself in the morally superior position of judge. The Mike Hammer stories treat the difficulty of dealing with criminals who use the law to protect themselves. They have perverted the protections of society, and Hammer must find a way to bring them to justice outside of the law. The Kate Martinelli stories focus more on the victims of crime than on the criminals. Martinelli discovers the motivations that draw a criminal toward a specific victim and explains what it is about certain victims that makes villains want to harm them. All of these detectives display the traditional traits of the Western male. They are hunters; they protect society as a whole. Yet each detective fulfills a certain cultural role that speaks to the specific problems of his or her era, proving that masculinity is a more fluid role than many have previously credited.