Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

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Format: 1 online resource

ISBN: 9781442623088

Content: Names such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, and Sam Spade are perhaps better known than the names of the authors who created them. The woman detective has also had worldwide appeal; yet, with the exception of Christie's Miss Marple, the names of female detectives and their authors have only recently gained wide attention through the popularity of Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton, and Sara Paretsky.The essays in this collection grapple with a wide range of issues important to the female sleuth - the most important, perhaps, being the oft-heard challenge to her suitability for the job. Not surprisingly, gender issues are the main focus of all the essays; indeed, in detective novels with a woman protagonist, these issues are often right at the surface.Some of the papers see the female sleuth as an important force in popular fiction, but many also challenge the notion that the woman detective is a positive model for feminists. They argue that fictional female sleuths have lost the `otherness' that a feminine approach to the genre should encourage. Collectively, the essays also reveal the differences between British and American perspectives on the woman detective.

Note: Frontmatter -- , Contents -- , Acknowledgments -- , Introduction: Gender and Genre: The Woman Detective and the Diffusion of Generic Voices -- , 1. Amelia Butterworth: The Spinster Detective -- , 2. The Detective Heroine and the Death of Her Hero: Dorothy Sayers to P.O. James -- , 3. Gray Areas: P.O. James’s Unsuiting of Cordelia -- , 4. Questing Women: The Feminist Mystery after Feminism -- , 5. From Spinster to Hipster: The 'Suitability' of Miss Marple and Anna Lee -- , 6. Nancy Drew: The Once and Future Prom Queen -- , 7. Feminist Murder: Amanda Cross Reinvents Womanhood -- , 8. Murders Academic: Women Professors and the Crimes of Gender -- , 9. Talkin’ Trash and Kickin’ Butt: Sue Grafton's Hard-boiled Feminism -- , 10. The Female Dick and the Crisis of Heterosexuality -- , 11. ‘Friends Is a Weak Word for It’: Female Friendship and the Spectre of Lesbianism in Sara Paretsky -- , 12. Habeas Corpus: Feminism and Detective Fiction -- , Contributors

Language: English

DOI: 10.3138/9781442623088

URL: https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442623088