Maurizio ASCARI, A Counter-History of Crime Fiction. Supernatural, Gothic, Sensational, New York, Palgrave Macmillan (Crime Files), 2007, 240 p.
ISBN 0-230-52500-8
RÉSUMÉ
A Counter-History of Crime Fiction takes anew look at the evolution of crime fiction, drawing on material fromthe Middle Ages up to the early Twentieth century, when the genre wastheoretically defined as detective fiction. Considering 'criminography'as a system of inter-related, even incestuous, sub-genres, MaurizioAscari explores the connections between modes of literature such asrevenge tragedies and providential fictions, the gothic and the ghoststory, urban mysteries and anarchist fiction, while taking into accountthe influence of pseudo-sciences such as mesmerism and criminalanthropology.
TABLE DES MATIÈRES
Acknowledgements
* Introduction
* Revising the Canonof Crime and Detection
* PART I: SUPERNATURAL AND GOTHIC
* DetectionBefore Detection
* Persecution and Omniscience
* Victorian Ghosts andRevengers
* Pseudo-Sciences and the Occult
* PART II: SENSATIONAL
* TheLanguage of Auguste Dupin
* On the Sensational in Literature
* Londonas a 'Heart of Darkness'
* The Rhetoric of Atavism and Degeneration
*The Age of Formula Fiction
* Bibliography * Index
BIOGRAPHIE
Maurizio Ascari is Senior Lecturer in EnglishLiterature at the University of Bologna, Italy. His publicationsinclude books and essays on anarchist fiction, the formation of theliterary canon and travel writing.