Literature: Crime through Time
Course overview
Course description
For the last century, crime fiction has been the most popular and lucrative of literary subgenres. But this commercial success belies a formal inventiveness and experiment, a constant drive to ‘make it new’, which has long been central to the genre. In this course we will read six crime novels (and three short stories) which chart the development of crime fiction. As well as considering each of these novels in isolation from week to week, we will also use the seven-week course to ask ourselves: how has crime fiction changed through the years, and how has it remained the same? The course will cover the following novels or short stories: Week 1. Three Sherlock Holmes stories: ‘The Red Headed League’, ‘The Five Orange Pips’, ‘The Speckled Band’ (these are collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) Week 2. Agatha Christie, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Week 3. Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep Week 4. Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley Week 5. Ted Lewis, Get Carter Weeks 6 and 7. Donna Tartt, The Secret History Week 8. Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club. No previous knowledge of crime fiction is necessary – everybody is most welcome!
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