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French Crime FictionFR405
Dr Georgina Collins
10 January 2012
Today’s session• The practicalities of the module
• An overview of what we will be studying
• The history and development of French Crime Fiction
• Some of the theoretical background to the texts we will be studying
• Introduction to key themes
• Key figures in development of the genre
This module
One hour lecture:–Historical and theoretical background
One hour seminar–Discussion of text in light of lecture
– Interactive Office hours: Thursday 3-5Email: georgina.collins@warwick.ac.uk
Website
AssessmentFormative assessment:•Essay (questions online now)•around 1,500 words in length•by Tuesday of week 23
Summative assessment options: •100% essay (4000-5000 words)•100% exam•50% of each (essay – 2000-2500 words)
Assessed essay questions (online now)•12.00 noon on Tuesday of week 25•100% essay – can devise own title – speak to me
Intro to French Crime Fiction
• La Belle Époque to present day• Evolution of the genre• Codification• French history• Critique of social order• Youth culture• Challenging traditional codes• Relating writers to these themes
The genre
• Le roman policier
• A lesser genre?
- Littérature populaire
- Littérature de gare
- Genre mineur
• Divide between so-called low culture and high culture
The novel
• Mid-19th C – French crime fiction became a legitimate genre
• Novel:
- popular form of entertainment
- exploring limits of representation
• Exploratory novels – synonymous with high culture
From romanticism to realism
• Romanticism:
- produced many novels
- exotic or historical settings
• Eg. Hugo’s Notre-Dame de
Paris
- medieval Paris
Nationalism
•Romanticism - 1825-1850- linked to nationalism
•Emphasis on:- national culture (history, geography)- folklore
•Strengthened mythological basis of nation
Romantic novels
• Issues of justice and law and order• Culprits, victims and investigators• Le Comte de Monte Cristo (Dumas)• Les Misérables (Hugo)
Balzac
• Famous character – Vautrin
• Based upon Eugène François Vidocq:
- Head of French Sûreté
- Formerly on other side
of the law
- Recruited as informer
- Memoires were very
popular
Capturing the public’s imagination
• Dual nature of Vidocq
• Emphasis on adventurous, lurid nature of profession
• Police methods – provocations, disguise, incitement to betrayal
• Chevalier Dupin (Poe) – a
rational approach
Glamour, romance and adventure
• Memoirs brought these factors to otherwise uninspiring police world
• Glorified criminal activities• Success – indicator of public discontent• Balzac:
- Le Père Goriot- Les Illusions perdues - Splendeurs et misères
des courtisanes
The birth of the genre
1.Emergence of popular press
2.New trends in the book market
3.New approach to time, space and work
Factor one
• Gradual emergence of popular press
• Daily newspapers mixing:
- currents affairs
- ‘faits divers’
- serialised short
stories / novels
Emile Gaboriau
• Founding father of French Crime Fiction
• Petit Journal and Le Soleil
• Created Commissaire Lecoq
• 1st recurrent detective
• Name from Vidocq
• Influenced Arthur Conan
Doyle
Judicial procedures
• Gaboriau
- translated into English
- novels recommended to British
lawyers
• Lecoq is a mixture of:
- Vidocq: adventure,
glamour, romance
- Dupin: ratiocination
Knowledge of police procedures
• Lecoq – recognisable techniques• Demonstrate author’s knowledge• Combination of:
- reasoning, tracking techniques, disguises, forensic methods- Vidocq’s sportsmanship,
knowledge of underworld
Artistic flair
• Gaboriau’s investigators:- marginal figures- work according to instinct- like an artist
• Stand for law and order, but also talent and inspiration• Justice needs imaginative genius• But police – also fallible
Serialisation
• Reader’s satisfaction – main objective
• Survival depended on sales
• To maintain profit – art of suspense became a major ingredient
Factor 2
Development of a distinctive crime genre linked to:
Set of new trends in the book market
The Industrial revolution
• Middle of the 19th century
• Revolution influenced:
- reading habits
- relations to cultural goods
• Birth of middle class and notion of leisure
• Reading associated with leisure
• Increasingly demanding readers
Mass consumption
• Sentimental novels, children’s literature, adventure novels and crime / detective novels
• Serialisation (feuilletons) led to:
- mass consumption
- demanding readers
The quest for the ultimate answer: the genre’s driving
force
Factor 3
Development of a distinctive crime genre linked to:
A new approach to time, space and work
The genre’s modernity
• Modern life divided between work and leisure• Work: its own rhythm, rationality in labour division, timing• Leisure: needed to be effective• Crime fiction:
- easily adapted to modern life- quickly consumed- reproducable
Individualism
• Literary production heralded in the
rise of individualism
• Male detective either:
- police officer (rep of state)
- private detective (rep of
discourse of law and order)
• But he stands outside the system
• A solitary figure
On the periphery
• To deal with justice – needs to observe
• In-spector: looking into (from outside)
• Seeks to protect anonymous mass
• Not unlike the artist:- requires isolation and
reflection- sets himself apart from
the populace
The flâneur
• The inspector – le flâneur (Constantin Guys)
• Described by Baudelaire:
- artistic modernity
- new way of being
• Constantin Guy:
- embodiment of a rupture
- ‘homme du monde’
Curiosity
• A key characteristic of the in-spector
• Hermeneutic quest requires
- proximity of the crowd
- to draw inspiration (artist) /
clues (detective) from it
The investigator
• A product of new approach to the world
• Both in the world and on the periphery
• Voyeur of the anecdotal
• Society – spectacle from which to collect clues / intelligence
• Crime fiction captures epistemological shift in West (around 1860)
Summary
• Development from low culture to high culture
• Romantic texts – Dumas and Hugo• Birth of genre down to 3 key facts:
- Emergence of popular press- New trends in the book market
- New approach to time, space and work• Detective – individual, on the periphery
of society, looking in, hermeneutic quest
Questions and Comments?
Seminar: Round the room
What have you learnt from this lecture?
Seminar: Group work
1.What are the characteristics of the detective described in the lecture?
2.How can you relate these characteristics to a classic literary / tv detective you know?
3.Read the article:- summarise the key points- can you relate any of these to
today’s lecture? - be ready to give a 1 minute overview
Don’t forget to prepare for next
week!
Seminar questions will be posted online after today’s session
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