The British Mystery Novel
This course examines British novels in the classic “mystery” genre. Students will enjoy fascinating, often hard-to-put down tales of human intrigue and murder, going back to the eighteenth-century Gothic, with the aim of discovering how and to what effect these novels are put together. The British mystery novel can be distinguished from classic American detective fiction in its characteristic emphasis on complex character development and social and political themes. The mystery at the heart of the British novel, then, often serves as an elaborate plot device to explore psychology in the context of outside issues, such as history, gender, literature, and culture; our job will be to examine how it does that.
This is a Writing Intensive class. As such, it will also focus on how to develop confidence, ease, and skill in writing analytically and in articulating reasoned interpretive arguments about the material that is read.
Required Texts (Available in UH Bookstore)
Ann Radcliffe. The Italian (1797)
Arthur Conan Doyle. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902-2)
Agatha Christie. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
Dorothy Sayer. Gaudy Night (1935)
Josephine Tey. The Daughter of Time(1951)
Graham Greene. Our Man in Havana (1958)
P. D. James. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman(1972)
Anne Perry. The Cater Street Hangman(1985)
Ruth Rendell. A Demon in My View (2000)
Kuzuo Ishiguru. Never Let Me Go (2010)
Course Requirements
Four 4-page papers
Final Exam