Tal

Leor Tal
Jennifer Enoch
Enc1145
17 November 2014

An Exploration into Genre and Detective Fiction

Whether its into different genders, sexes, colors, ethnicities, or types of food,
humans feel a compulsory and incessant urge to categorize their surroundings. In the
literary, and even musical, world, categories, or genres, exist and are most apparent to the
everyday person. But these genres are more than just strict formulas that are characterized
by routine mechanics and utilized by writers abroad. The key term has transformed into a
flexible, almost all-encompassing word that helps shape and guide readers. This fluidity
of genre can be seen within detective fiction over the course of several decades. The
comprehension of both terms and the understanding of genres revolution, as
demonstrated through detective fiction, one particular genre, is important to ones overall
quality of writing.
Hip hop, Rap, R&B, Alternative, Indie, Classic Rock, Post Hardcore, Hardcore,
Country. Depending on who is asked, there are hundreds, even thousands, of music
genres in existence today. Googling the question brings up a myriad of answers that
range from the mid-200s to the high-1600s. When reflecting on the term genre in
relation to literary works, two essential categories come to mind- nonfiction and fiction.
In sharp contrast to the large number of musical genres that come to mind to the average
person are the small number that are readily retrieved of literary genres. However, in line
with the questionable number of music genres are the amount of literary genres available.
The very definition of genre is a Rorschach test - interpreted differently from person to

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person. Nevertheless, the most plausible definition encompasses this growth of number
and helps explain how definitional development shapes works of writing.
Kerry Dirk, in Navigating Genres, fiddles with genre, creating a more personal
essay, to explain exactly what the term includes. Though many automatically think of
formulas when brainstorming the meaning of genre, it goes beyond forms, transforming
into a vehicle that accomplishes the authors goal. Therefore, genre, as a whole, opens up
to include more than just simplistic categories, furthering the concept of genre as a
flexible and fluid entity. When authors attempt to portray some type of dialogue between
two or more individuals, genres, such as emails, text messages, or letters, signal to
readers how to interpret the incoming text and subconsciously leave clues that a
conversation is about to commence. Dirks writing serves as a prime example of how the
rhetoric within a piece of writing elicits a certain response (Dirk 254). Dirk recognized
her audience, college students, and wrote her piece in a less formal manner to hold
interest and allow for easier comprehension. Her purpose, becoming a coach, guided her
genre selection (250). As long as the piece is selected by the author to bring about a
specific emotion or thought from the audience, the form constitutes as genre.
This response from the audience is produced by pattern and repetition over the
years. Because an author created a new genre and others have followed suit, genre
conventions have appeared, allowing for readers to understand context and content easily
or make meaning within a rhetorical situation (Arola, Sheppard, Ball 46). Microsoft
PowerPoint thus becomes a genre based on the first definition- a tool utilized by an
author for a specific purpose. In this case, the purpose revolves around presenting
information to an audience. Left and right arrows to navigate between slides, a repeating

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pattern/tool within PowerPoint, allow presenters to easily work with the program (Arola,
Sheppard, Ball 50). The use of slides and headings within a PowerPoint, another
convention particular to this genre, allow for viewers to understand that different chunks
of information are going to be presented.
Therefore, not only is genre the categorization of works via an authors purpose,
but it also becomes formed through repetition and pattern over time by other authors,
creating genre conventions that make comprehension easier for readers. These genre
conventions, though they exist and make it easier for readers to understand information in
certain contexts, are often fluid and not easily used to distinguish genre from genre. Hip
Hop and R&B, though the two sometimes contain nearly identical rhythms and messages,
remain separated. Lines often become blurred between two different entities if
conventions become the sole definition of genre. Therefore, the combination of authors
purpose and pattern is extremely crucial to its understanding and supports the fluidity and
evolution that genre has faced.
Though this definition is sound, many other theories as to what genre means exist.
Robin Magowan, in A Note on Genre, explains the term using art and space, claiming
that genre provides the space and the sensibility to transform life into art (535). Both
space and sensibility are given vague terms about its own simplicity and emotion paired
with art that elicited the original emotion (Magowan 535-536). Magowans example that
uses a painting of knives and claims that knives is a genre on its own, shows that his
definition of genre is shaped by one motif rather than a deeper purpose or a relation to
others using conventions. The author overlooks the complexity and the resilient
properties of genre that allow it to expand based on purpose and new patterns. To

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reiterate, both concepts of purpose and pattern are extremely important to comprehending
genre.
Moreover, its easier to apply these theories regarding genre to detective fiction.
Detective fiction is a genre that contains five basic elements, or conventions, that are
neither strict nor absolutely necessary in creating this genre. Though there is no
necessity, these five elements are very common and often seen during analysis of the
detective fiction. This particular genre must have a detective who serves as the rationality
within the chaos (Brownson 14). He/she balances intuitiveness with logical thinking,
letting clues and rationality guide his discovery of the killer. Furthermore, the detective is
often outside of society and outside of the immediate danger of the crime; an entity that
cannot be harmed despite his deep involvement in the case (Brownson 15).
Detective Fiction not only has to have a lead detective, but it also has to have a
crime committed - an essential characteristic of the bad-guy capturing, detective-solving
plot. Yet, logic says that in order for there to be a crime committed, a code of law that is
followed by everyone in society must be broken. As James asserts, detective fiction is
unlikely to flourish in societies without an organised system of law enforcement or in
which murder is commonplace (13).
Not only is there a crime, but the crime is generally a murder of passion (Roth
134). An eruption of tension and anxiety within the story line occurs after murder, in
which chaos is at its climax and the need for a detective to come in and bring order is not
only needed, but its crucial to the safety of society. This eruption, caused by fear of
murder, evolves into a scandal (Roth 135). Murder contributes the perfect amount of

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urgency for the detectives presence (Brownson 13) who then comes in quietly to
eradicate this scandal and ease the fear (Roth 135).
The endangerment of society theme brings about the third key characteristic of
detective fiction: the innocent bystanders. These individuals create a sense of urgency
within the plot by giving motivation for the detective to solve the crime (Brownson 13).
Without people being threatened, the detectives purpose would be less essential. He or
she solves crimes to capture a criminal, bring about justice, and protect the innocent.
The fourth characteristic of detective fiction involves the existence of a criminal.
Although both P.D. James and Charles Brownson specifically mention that there will be
a single named (James 9) or a one person (Brownson 13) adversary to the detective,
this definition proves too constrictive. Though a single criminal is ideal to the plot and
the easy capture by the detective, multiple people can work together to commit crimes, as
seen in most detective fiction-based television shows. Nevertheless, at least one criminal
must exist to commit the crime, break the code of law enforced within the society
present, and become captured by the detective at the end of the story. Moreover, the
criminal must be within society, giving the plot additional urgency due to the sense that
the law-breaker is one of us. In summary, this increases the need for the detective to
solve the case before innocent lives become engulfed in complete chaos (Brownson 13).
The criminal, thus, is the insider the detective seeks to exclude and the outsider the
detective seeks to imprison (Roth 8).
The solution reached at the end, or the discovery of the identity of the criminal
due to the rationality and intuition of the detective, marks the final characteristic of
detective fiction. Though many analysts of this genre neglect to include the logical

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solution as an element, it proves an essential, though extremely obvious, property.

Without the detective solving the case, the criminal ceasing his or her law breaking
streak, and innocent bystanders becoming safe once more, the book, television show, or
movie would not be able to end. A solution must be present, even if ambiguous and
variable from interpretation to interpretation. The story must have an ending for each
element to succeed in their individual roles within the plot. If a detective fails to solve the
case, his or her consecutive traits, such as those pertaining to his/her superiority of logic
and intuition or his/her superiority in relation to the criminal, become obsolete and
irrelevant. Urgency from the innocent bystanders will perpetuate until chaos ruins all.
The very makeup of a detective fiction, therefore, supports the notion that, despite the
recognition that violence and crime exist, the audience live(s) in a rational,
comprehensible, and moral universe (James 14).
Creating and comprehending these definitions allow one to easily apply detective
fictions history to genre, ultimately assisting in the understanding of the evolution and
flexibility of the latter term- an understanding that helps authors improve their own
papers. When first developed, though the time of its creation remains ambiguous and
debatable, detective fiction proved merely a plot revolved around investigation with
detectives lacking universal characteristics, as seen with Poes Dupin (Brownson 7). A
set of genre conventions appeared, as seen in Agatha Christies The Mysterious Affair at
Styles, and were thereon out replicated by other authors (Brownson 7). Pattern and
repetition evolved, creating a more solidified genre. Though Christie and her fellow
detective fiction authors, such as Dashiell Hammett and Freeman Wills Crofts, followed
no strict code, the detectives struggle between intuition and rationality, the creation of

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police investigation and their methods of inquiry, and the crimes evolution of urgency
into the realm of murder all emerged and were seen throughout many books in the early
1900s (Brownson 8). These loose, but existent characteristics shaped a Classical period
for detective fiction in which conventions transpired and were utilized by various authors.
Fluidity from a genre that hardly contained conventions to one reaching its
Classical era with a plethora of repeated patterns practiced by various authors continued
its flow throughout the 1940s and the 1980s when hard-boiled detective fiction captured
the attention of readers. Variety replaced the hegemony and normativity of the Classical
era. The blurred lines and the ability of genre to be flexible or fluid, as discussed earlier,
applied as the detective fiction and the Thriller genre bled into one another. Strict
characteristics for the genre became hard to identify due to all of the diversity and
variations from book to book, proving once more than the sole importance and definition
of genre cannot reply solely on conventions, but rather a mixture and culmination of both
the guidelines built on repetition and automatic identity from readers and the purpose of
the original rhetoric. Spy adventures, such as those of Len Deighton, found themselves
containing the classical detective, the stereotypical crime of the detective fiction, and its
characteristic storyline, yet also including extraneous traits generally related to Thrillers
(Brownson 8). Not only was a blend of genres apparent during this time period, but the
genre of detective fiction also showed growth in flexibility with the end of the war as
they became more inclusive to darker, more corrupt societies, as reflected by the
atrocities the population had experienced and seen. As Brownson stated, The
Detectives moral quest has been put in doubt as a result of a degenerating consensus

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concerning right behavior, and the central task of the getting of knowledge has been
made difficult by profound uncertainty over what it means to know something (9).
Though many wrongly see genre as a strict formula fiction devised easily by
authors, it has proven, through analysis of detective fiction, to be one of fluidity,
flexibility, and resilience; one that expands throughout the times to adjust to sociocultural expectations and interests; and one that has grown to include not just change, but
also a variety of mode. one of the criticisms of the detective story is that this imposed
pattern is mere formula writingBut what I find fascinating is the extraordinary variety
of books and writers which this so-called formula has been able to accommodate, and
how many authors have found the constraints and conventions of the detective story
liberating rather than inhibiting of their creative imagination (James 10).
By understanding that genre is both shaped by the patterns or conventions over
time and selected by an author based on the purpose(s) they wish to convey, it is
therefore the job and sole function of an author, when focusing on their use of genre
within their own piece, to understand that flexibility and fluidity, as seen and understood
especially through the lense of detective fiction and its evolution and existence through
time, allows for a more in depth comprehension of the rhetoric they employ in their
papers and a complete mastery of which genres to use in order to portray those statements
and assertions in a logical and rational way.

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Work Cited
Arola, Kristin L., Jennifer Sheppard, and Cheryl E. Ball. "What Are
Multimodal Projects?" Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1-19. Print.
Brownson, Charles. "The Pre-Classical Detective." The Figure of the Detective:
A Literary History and Analysis. Jefferson: McFarland, 2014. 11- 15. Print.
Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Ed. Charles
Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor, 2010. 249-61.
Print.
James, P.D. 1. What Are We Talking About and How Did It All Begin? Talking About
Detective Fiction. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. 326. Print.
Magowan, Robin. College English, Vol. 30, No.7. National Council of
Teachers of English (1969): 534-538. Web. 17 Nov. 2014
Roth, Marty. Foul & Fair Play: Reading Genre in Detective Fiction. Athens, GA:
University of Georgia Press, 1995. Print.