This thesis places P. D. James's detective novels within the historical and critical framework of the detective genre, and explores her particular contributions to it. James's awareness of the implications of a police investigation, coupled with her strikingly bleak and moralistic representation of our contemporary world are two of the main reasons she has achieved such widespread critical acclaim. Her novels also have a didactic dimension that ranges from an assertion of morally-correct modes of behaviour in an age without religion, to the constant reminder that, although they provide entertainment, murder mysteries must never be taken too lightly. These signature features of James's fiction have become more pronounced over the years, and reached their apotheosis in such novels as Death of an Expert Witness, A Taste for Death, and Devices and Desires. As a result, these texts are the principal analytic focus of this thesis.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.61066 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Asimakopulos, Anna |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001290838, proquestno: AAIMM74659, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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