Profiling the American Detective

Firmly anchored in literary and psychoanalytic theory, yet also combining an ironically essayistic style with scholarly profundity, this book reinserts the «mystery genre» in its framework of Western history and tradition. Exemplifying the arguments by systematic references to the «American Detective» par excellence, Robert B. Parker's Spenser, vistas are opened up to a remarkable uvre, while, at the same time, a whole popular genre is reevaluated. In addition, major Western ideals and notions are discussed which are arguably more clearly discernable in detective fiction than anywhere else, yet reach far beyond a mere genre and are of general relevance. The analysis of the delicacy and eminently entertaining qualities of detective fiction is nicely balanced with reflections on what literature means to us existentially.

Autorentext

The Author: Georg Schmid, a native of Vienna, has taught at universities in the USA, in France and mainly at the University of Salzburg. He has published half a dozen novels, about as many scholarly books and numerous articles on such diverse topics as contemporary history, literary theory, semiotics, film, urbanistics and transportation systems.

Zusammenfassung
"...Schmid's book offers interesting philosophical ideas, information about Robert B. Parker and his work, and some frequently discussed questions relating to detective fiction." (Carmen Birkle, Amst Amerikastudien)

Inhalt
Contents: The American detective since Chandler and Hammett Themes, players, motives and morality in Robert B. Parker's novelistic universe The novel as dramatic art «Literaturescape»: The dialectics of realism and the ideal.