English 242 - A HISTORY OF MYSTERY

A study of detective fiction in English, starting with gothic mysteries in the late 18th century and the investigatory puzzles of Edgar Allan Poe in the 1830s. Exploration of how the mystery genre's newly formed conventions reflect issues of class, gender, race and social change, and how in the 20th century those conventions were reinvented, stylized, parodied and transformed-including its extension into the medium of film. Writers discussed include Poe, Wilkie Collins, A. Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, E.C. Bentley, Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. Films include such works as The Third Man, Rear Window, Chinatown, Deathtrap and Gosford Park. Open to non-majors.