Title Detecting the nation : fictions of detection and the imperial venture. / Caroline Reitz

Published Columbus : Ohio State University Press, ©2004

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Description 1 online resource (xxv, 123 pages) Series Victorian critical interventions Victorian critical interventions. Contents Introduction : imperial detection -- Bad cop/good cop : Godwin, Mill, and the imperial origins of the English detective -- Thuggee and the "discovery" of the English detective -- Making an English virtue of necessity : Dickens and Collins bring it home -- Separated at birth : Doyle, Kipling, and the partition of English detective fiction -- Conclusion Summary In Detecting the Nation Reitz argues that detective fiction was essential both to public acceptance of the newly organized police force in early Victorian Britain and to acclimating the population to the larger venture of the British Empire. In doing so, Reitz challenges literary-historical assumptions that detective fiction is a minor domestic genre that reinforces a distinction between metropolitan center and imperial periphery. Rather, Reitz argues, nineteenth-century detective fiction helped transform the concept of an island kingdom into that of a sprawling empire; detective fiction placed imperialism at the center of English identity by recasting what had been the suspiciously un-English figure of the turn-of-the-century detective as the very embodiment of both English principles and imperial authority. She supports this claim through reading such masters of the genre as Godwin, Dickens, Collins, and Doyle in relation to narratives of crime and empire such as James Mill's History of British India, narratives about Thuggee, and selected writings of Kipling and Buchan. Reitz also shows how detective fiction and writings more specifically related to the imperial project, such as political tracts and adventure stories, were inextricably interrelated during this time. --Back cover Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 109-118) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Print version record Subject Detective and mystery stories, English -- History and criticism English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism Imperialism in literature. Colonies in literature. Police in literature. LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. British colonies Colonies in literature Detective and mystery stories, English English fiction Imperialism in literature Literature Police in literature Misdaadromans. Misdaadverhalen. Engels. Politie. Koloniale literatuur. Detective and mystery stories, English -- History and criticism. English fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism. Imperialism in literature. Colonies in literature. Police in literature. SUBJECT Great Britain -- Colonies -- In literature Subject Great Britain -- Colonies -- In literature. Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. Form Electronic book LC no. 2004009551 ISBN 9780814273104 0814273106

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