Detecting Texts: The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 1999

Detecting Texts

The Metaphysical Detective Story from Poe to Postmodernism

Edited by: Patricia Merivale and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812205459

Overview
Contents

About this book

"No currently available anthology addresses the topic of the metaphysical detective story so directly, so fully, or so relevantly."—Brian McHale, West Virginia University

Author / Editor information

Patricia Merivale is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of British Columbia. Susan Elizabeth Sweeney is Associate Professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross.

Reviews

"No currently available anthology addresses the topic of the metaphysical detective story so directly, so fully, or so relevantly."—Brian McHale, West Virginia University

"Metaphysical detective stories reveal much about the relation of modernism to postmodernism and of high to low literary culture. Detecting Texts makes an excellent case for the coherence and breadth of the genre. Its broad scope, clear writing, and notable contributions to a number of literary subfields are among its many virtues."—Shawn Rosenheim, Williams College

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
The Games Afoot On the Trail of the Metaphysical Detective Story Patricia Merivale and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Armchair Detecting, or the Corpus in the Library
Chapter 1. Mysteries We Reread, Mysteries of Rereading Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story John T. Irwin Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
Chapter 2. Borgess Library of Forking Paths Robert L. Chibka Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
Chapter 3. (De)feats of Detection The Spurious Key Text from Poe to Eco Joel Black Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Hard-Boiling Metaphysics
Chapter 4. Gumshoe Gothics Poe’s “The Man of the Crowd” and His Followers Patricia Merivale Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
Chapter 5. Work of the Detective, Work of the Writer Auster’s City of Glass Jeffrey T. Nealon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Chapter 6. “The Question Is the Story Itself” Postmodernism and Intertextuality in Auster’s New York Trilogy Stephen Bernstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
Postmortem: Modern and Postmodern
Chapter 7. Reader-Investigators in the Post-Nouveau Roman Lahougue, Peeters, and Perec Michel Sirvent Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Chapter 8. “A Thousand Other Mysteries” Jeanne C. Ewert Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Chapter 9. Postmodernism and the Monstrous Criminal In Robbe-Grillet’s Investigative Cell Raylene Ramsay Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Forging Identities
Chapter 10. Detecting Identity in Time and Space Modiano’s Rue des Boutiques Obscures and Tabucchi’s II Filo dell’orizzonte Anna Botta Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Chapter 11. ”Premeditated Crimes” The Dis-Solution of Detective Fiction in Gombrowicz’s Works Hanjo Berressem Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Chapter 12. “Subject-Cases” and “Book-Cases” Impostures and Forgeries from Poe to Auster Susan Elizabeth Sweeney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
In Place of an Ending
Suggestions for Further Reading Patricia Merivale and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 320
Keywords: Literature; Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 9780812205459