Literature: The story of the detective story

Over the six weeks you’ll take part in lively discussions, analysing and interpreting great works of detective fiction. To understand literature, we need to engage with it on three levels: our own personal response to it as a work of art; an attempt to understand the preoccupations, aims and agenda of the writer, as illuminated by their biography; and an enquiry into what it can tell us the wider culture and society that produced it. Each class starts with a short lecture from the tutor, putting the work in its historical and cultural context; we then read selected passages and explore all three levels. Be prepared for plenty of (good-natured) disagreement. The stories and novels under discussion are: ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ by Poe; ‘Silver Blaze’ by Conan Doyle; The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie; Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers; The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler; Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter; and Little Face by Sophie Hannah. The earliest of these texts are available free online, and selected passages will be posted on Canvas before each session. A course for everyone who loves detectives, literature and talking about detectives and literature. And of course tea and biscuits feature in every class.