Class Description
Sherlock Holmes is firmly lodged in the popular imagination of the world as the Great Detective, but British and American female detectives, created by women authors, appeared at about the same time and have a history of their own. Reading examples of this genre will allow us to explore the rise of detective fiction and the popular Victorian fascination with crime and detection, as well as the situation of women in Victorian Britain and America. We will also discuss two famous twentieth-century fictional female detectives illustrating the bifurcation of detective fiction in general. Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple serves as an example of a gifted amateur in the “cozy” or soft-boiled murder mystery genre, while Sara Paretsky’s private detective V.I Warshawski provides a feminine example of the hard-boiled protagonists of noir thrillers.
Elżbieta Foeller-Pituch is the Assistant Director of the Chabraja Center for Historical Studies at Northwestern University, where she also teaches literature classes.
Materials List
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Required
- Agatha Christie, The Body in the Library. William Morrow, 2022. ISBN: 978-0063214019
- Sara Paretsky, Indemnity Only. Hodder, 2007. ISBN: 978-0340935125
- Other Instructor-Distributed Materials
First Reading
Please read the following, all available online.
- Edgar Allan Poe, two short stories from his Tales (1845): “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841)—available online from Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2147 and “The Purloined Letter” (1844) at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2148
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, selected Sherlock Holmes stories: “A Scandal in Bohemia,” “The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor,” “The Adventure of the Crooked Man” (1890s)—available online at Project Gutenberg from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1661 and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/834
- C.L. Pirkis, The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective (1894), available online at https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/pirkis/brooke/brooke.html
Cost and Registration
4 sessions, $200 ($180 for Newberry members, seniors, and students). Learn about becoming a member.
To register multiple people for this class, please go through the course calendar in Learning Stream, our registration platform. When you select the course and register, you’ll be prompted to add another registrant.
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