
Detective Fiction and the Problem of Knowledge
Perspectives on the Metacognitive Mystery Tale
Antoine Dechêne(Author)
Palgrave Macmillan (Publisher)
Published on 21. December 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
XII, 347 pages
978-3-030-06858-5 (ISBN)
Description
This book establishes the genealogy of a subgenre of crime fiction that Antoine Dechêne calls the metacognitive mystery tale. It delineates a corpus of texts presenting 'unreadable' mysteries which, under the deceptively monolithic appearance of subverting traditional detective story conventions, offer a multiplicity of motifs - the overwhelming presence of chance, the unfulfilled quest for knowledge, the urban stroller lost in a labyrinthine text - that generate a vast array of epistemological and ontological uncertainties. Analysing the works of a wide variety of authors, including Edgar Allan Poe, Jorge Luis Borges, and Henry James, this book is vital reading for scholars of detective fiction.
More details
Series
Edition
Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2018
Language
English
Place of publication
Cham
Switzerland
Publishing group
Springer International Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1
1 farbige Tabelle, 1 s/w Abbildung
1 Tables, color; 1 Illustrations, black and white; XII, 347 p. 1 illus.
Dimensions
Height: 21 cm
Width: 14.8 cm
Weight
470 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-030-06858-5 (9783030068585)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-94469-2
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Antoine Dechêne
Detective Fiction and the Problem of Knowledge
Perspectives on the Metacognitive Mystery Tale
Book
09/2018
Palgrave Macmillan
€106.99
Shipment within 10-15 days
Person
Antoine Dechêne holds a PhD from the Université de Liège, Belgium. His research deals with all aspects of the metaphysical detective story in the USA and in France. He is co-editor with Michel Delville of the first volume dedicated to the genre in French: Le Thriller métaphysique d'Edgar Allan Poe à nos jours (2016).
Content
I. The Problem of Knowledge.- 1. From the Metaphysical Detective Story to the Metacognitive Mystery Tale.- 2. Enigmas of the Sublime and the Grotesque.- II. From the flâneur to the Stalker.- 3. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Man of the Crowd".- 4. Jorge Luis Borges's Textual Labyrinths.- 5. Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy.- III The Grotesque.- 6. Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street".- 7. Samuel Beckett's Molloy.- 8. Roberto Bolaño's Monsieur Pain.- IV. The Sublime.- 9. Henry James's "The Figure in the Carpet".-10. Horacio Quiroga's "The Pursued".- V. In Lieu of a Conclusion: Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wakefield".