Wow! eBook
Race, Gender and Empire in American Detective Fiction
Author(s): John Cullen Gruesser (Author)
- Publisher: McFarland & Co
- Publication Date: 30 Sept. 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 216 pages
- ISBN-10: 0786465360
- ISBN-13: 9780786465361
Book Description
This book highlights detection’s malleability by analyzing the works of particular groups of authors from specific time periods written in response to other texts.
It traces the roles that gender, race and empire have played in American detective fiction from Edgar Allan Poe’s works through the myriad variations upon them published before 1920 to hard-boiled fiction (the origins of which derive in part from turn-of-the-20th-century notions about gender, race and nationality), and it concludes with a discussion of contemporary mystery series with inner-city settings that address black male and female heroism.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“a distinctive and valuable analysis of cross-cultural currents within American crime writing, shedding new light on the genre’s representations of gender, race and empire”―CrimeCulture; “essential read”―The Edgar Allan Poe Review; “recommended…Gruesser is one of the most readable and stimulating professorial writers on crime fiction, and he has fresh insights to offer on race and gender”―Mystery Scene; “Combining historical breadth and detailed textual analysis, this ambitious and original examination of the importance of gender, race and empire in American detective fiction is indispensable for scholars and fans of the genre alike.”―David Schmid, author of Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture; “An astutely connective and yet wide-ranging study of the genre, showing it to have been from its inception a reader’s path to incisive critiques of gender, race, and American empire-building.”―Norlisha F. Crawford, editor, Clues special issue on Chester Himes (2010).
About the Author
John Cullen Gruesser is a Senior Research Scholar at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
