Detective Fiction & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Essay -- Literary Analysis

According to the English crime writer P.D. James (1920-) for a book to be exposit as detective fiction there must be a central mystery and one that by the end of the book is sort outd satisfactorily and logically, not by good luck or intuition, but by intelligent deduction from clues honestly if deceptively presented. (James. 2009 16). This is traditionally conducted via a detective a figure deployed within the narrative structure whose occupation is to investigate crimes (Oxford. 2006 202). Therefore detective fiction represents an enigma, a puzzle to be solved through an intriguing series of events and clues presented by the writer to its audience that are taken on a journey through a process of reasoning, elimination and conclusion to solve a mystery. The narrative formula allows the audience to engage on an exploration of ego-discovery as the mysterys solution supplies a temporary sense of self through which the reader is offered an apparatus for negotiating the boundarie s that define identity. (McCracken. 1998 50).Detective fiction can be defined and situated into various different categories one is taxonomicplacing it in relation to other types of popular literatureWesterns, science fiction, spy tales and so on. John G. Caweltis (Adventure) has grouped these types into larger categories called archetypes which are convenient for making an sign distinction between two major kinds of detective fiction, Mystery and Adventure. (Rzepka. 2005 9). This raises the question of how detective fiction appeals to past and present audiences and its position as part of a mass market publication in contemporary society. In order to answer this question it is important to briefly summa explicate the rise o... ...e for Policing and Crime. (2012) History of the Metropolitan Police. On-line acquirable from http//www.met.police.uk/history/definition.htm. Accessed 21st April 2012Penguin Readers, (2008) A Scandal in Bohemia. On-line Available from http// www.penguinreaders.com/pdf/downloads/pr/teachers-notes/9781405879347.pdf. Accessed 21st April 2012Project Gutenberg. (2011) Detective Fiction (Bookshelf). On-line Available from http//www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Detective_Fiction_(Bookshelf). Accessed 20th April 2012Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate. (2000) The Official Website of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate. On-line Available from http//www.sherlockholmesonline.org/. Accessed 20th April 2012The Sherlock Holmes Company, (2010). On-line Available from http//www.sherlockholmes.com/. Accessed 21st April 2012