Making new: an analysis into the growth of detective fiction

• Main Author: Lee, Jun Hiang
• Other Authors: Neil Murphy
• Format: Thesis-Master by Research
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Humanities::Literature
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169781
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Detective fiction is a broad-ranging genre that encompasses the three key subgenres of classic, hard-boiled and postmodern detective fiction. While the genre has often been regarded as formulaic in nature, where the writing is required to adhere to strict rules, a clear sense of what those rules are has yet to be articulated. This thesis seeks to address that by detailing the conventions that belong to each corresponding subgenre of classic, hard-boiled and postmodern detective fiction in its delineation of the trajectory of detective fiction’s growth as a genre over the years. In tracing the growth of the genre, this thesis also aims to highlight the spirit of innovation that contemporary detective fiction writers inherit from their predecessors in inciting change in the genre as a means of promoting further growth. Through an analysis of Seth Fried’s The Municipalists and John Banville’s Snow, this thesis argues that selected contemporary detective fiction writers strive towards developing the genre of detective fiction via the integration of classic, hard-boiled and postmodern detective fiction’s conventions to create a new type of detective story. This thesis concludes with an examination into how detective fiction’s room for growth is not only appealing to writers but could also serve as a new method of evaluation in assessing and justifying the genre’s value.