The Typology of Detective Fiction

DETECTIVE FICTION43 Fiction of Detectiue The TypologY 64 i::;:;', e ;:r:,,, H':I:TTIT'.H:Iy, If I use this observation as the epigraph to an article dealing p,"",s"lywith'.kinds''of..detectivefiction,,'itiSnottoemphawith the authors in question' butbecause size my"disagreement w.e their attitud" i, u"ry widespread; hence it is the first thing this with must confront. Deiective fiction has nothing to do has been a powerful-relu".,iott' for nearly two centuries,there genre' We action in Iiterary studies against the very no[ion of write either about literature in general or about a single work' a and it is a tacit convention ttrat to classify several works-in explanagood hisrorical ;;;r; is to devalue them. There is a of the classical period' reflection literary attitude: this iion for a which concerned genres more than works' also manifested not sufp""tfiri"g tendenc"y-a work was judged poor if it did criticism ficiently ibey the rules of its genre' Hence such .lugfr,""o, o.tly to describe genres but also to prescribe-them; tf,e"gria of genie preceded Iiierary creation instead of following it. The reaction was radical: the romantics and their present-day have refusednot only to conform to the rules of the descendants g"nr", (which was indeed their privilege) but also to recognize genres Ih" u"ry existence of such a notion' Hence the theory of Yet has remained singularly undeveloped until very recently' the between intermediary an seek now there is a tendency to Detective fiction cannot be subdivided into kinds' too-general notion of literature and those individual objects which are works. The delay doubtlesscomes from the fact that typology implies and is implied by the description of these individual works; yet this task of description is still far from having received satisfactorysolutions. so long as we cannot describe the structure of works, we must be content to compare certain measurableelements,such as meter. Despite the immediate interest in an investigation of genres (as Albert Thibaudet remarked, such an investigation concerns the problem of universals), we cannot undertake it without first elaboratingshuctural description: only the criticism of the classical period could permit itself to deduce genresfrom abstractlogical schemas. An additional difficulty besets the study of genres, one which has to do with the specific character of every Jsthetic norm. The major work creates,in a sense, a new genre and at the same time ftansgresses the previously valid rules of the genre. The genre of The Chqrterhouseof Parma, that is, the norm to which this novel refers, is not the French novel of the early nineteenth century; it is the genre "stendhalian novel" which is created by precisely this work and a few others. One might say that every great book establishes the existenceof two genres,tire reality of two norms: that of the genre it transgresses, which dominated the preceding literature, and that of the genre it creates. Yet there is a happy realm where this dialectical contradiction between the work and its genre does not edst: that of popular literature. As a rule, the literary masterpiece does not "ni"i liteigenre saveperhapsits own; but the masterpieceof popular ".v ature is precisely the book which best fits its genre. Detective fiction has its nonns; to "develop" them is alio to disappoint them: to "improve upon" detective fiction is to write "literature." not detectivefiction. The whodunit par excellenceis not the one which transgresses the rules of the,genre, but the one which conforms to them: No orchids for Miss Blandish is an incarnation of its genre, not a transcendence. If we had properly de_ scribed the genres of popular literature, there would no longer be an occasion to speak of its masterpieces. They are orr" J'd the same ftirgr the best novel will be the one about which there is nothing to say. This is a generally unnoticed phenome- til that of the crime.. and again twelve inierrogauons. i'' . i" how this very book came to bs written. ."th" . but it is precisely the story of that very book. actions follow their natural o.."iir" i. S.44 THE POETICS OF PROSE DETECTIVEFICTION non. GeorgeBurton. but also two aspects of every fir". These two notions ao . Nothing can happen to them: a rule of the genre postulates the detective's immunity.l.e Taqnaty character of the story. attacked. in detective fiction." At the base of the whodunit we find a duality. It is no accident that iiis often told by a friend of the detective. Murder:Strangled r84 W.J"r. characterize two parts of the story or two different works. But what happensin the second?Not much. in fact. Here are the first lines of a "pure" whodunit: on which is typed: a small greenindex-card Odel.. l. Seventy-first r r r. they learn. lead after lead.but two.y i. The whodunit tirus tends towara p*ay geometricarchitecture: Agatha christie's Murder on thi" oii*. even killed. The articulation of genres within detective fiction therefore promises to be relatively easy. for example. Van Drne.. They dis_ tinguished. about Street. ends before the second begins. the book itself.. maid. thefable. the secondstoryconsists." which also means with their delimitation.ror". the story of the investigation.(story) from ihl .o irrai"l. narrative: the story is what has happened in life. which the Russian Formalists isolated forty years ago. Jewelsstolen.to.We are today in the presence of a discrepancybetween two essential manifestations.rory'ig. the author can present results before their causes.i. We might further characterize these two stories by saying that the first-the story of the crime_tells . "[i"i"i"g The firsi . [S.. Irx". and it is this duality which will guide our description. thereby enjoys a particular status.""Uu fr"o_ pened.o.o explicitly acknowl"ag"r ir. do not act. ffr" nr. a prologue. whose consequences affect every esthetic category.oy *orf.lit_ erature"). In their purest form.h" lo literary devices the author employs. . to events similar t6 those which take'ptace in our lives. The characters of this second story.t notion corresponds to the reality evoked." and that "the na:Tative poral series: the days of the investigation which begin with the crime. but the best general characterization I know is the one Butor gives in his own novel Passing Time (L'Emploi du temps). there is no inversion in time.But we must begin with the description of "kinds."UirZt (pii) of'. the second . S.. "f has come to know about it. the book completely. in which he is the victim of the pure and unpunishable murderer. iJi. as it happens in . the end be_ fore th9 beginning. himserf .no longer is there one single esthetic norm in our society. but two aspects of one . Express.rv(Apartmentrobbed.rf"rr". the book consists of twelve ghapters. committed by the murderer. the second. We cannot imagine Her- cule Poirot or philo yT:" threatened by some danger. offeis twelve suspects." But these definitions concernnoi only the two . it never its literary i"*r" (no author of detective fiction can permit "l. the author of many murder mysteries.The The first story. The hundred anj fffty pages which sepa_ rate the discovery of the crime from the r"u"i"ior. ah. are devoted to a slow apprenticeship: we "f clue examine after clue.. Several attempts have already been made to specify the rules of this genre (we shall return below to S. Van Dine's twenty rules).Margaret. these two stories have no point in common. and an epilogue (that is. the story of the investigation. wf. the same measurementsdo not apply to "high" art and "populat" art. rn ihe story. on the other hand. to the narraUve.Bodyfound by "Canary"MurderCasel Amy Gibson. the discovery of the crim" th"?ir_ covery of the killer). "rra This second story. and the days of the drama which Iead up to it.. writing a book.. the desuperimposestwo temtective." whereas the second_the story tfr" i"""rlgJti"'rrl explains "how the rgader (or the narrator..what .rr'G_ posed to take the reality of the book into account. that is. wounded." airectly th.i" yay th: author presents it to us.. explains to the narrator that "all detective fiction is based on two murders of which the first. We shall take as our point of departure the classic detective fiction which reached its peak between the two world wars and is often called the whodunit. is merely the occasion for the second. in fact. This novel contains not one but two stories: the story of the crime and the story of the investigation. We are no longer told about a crime anterior to the moment of the nanative. a sealedenvelope. is in fact the story of an absence:its most accurate characteristicis that it cannot be immediately present in the book. suppresses the first and vitalizes the second. be omniscient as he was in the classical novel.and there is no mystery. and the detec_ tive risks his health. the author must explain that he is writing a book! And to keep this second story from becoming opaqrre. photographs.46 THE POETICS OF PROSE DETECTM FICTION 47 and the same work. We are concerned then in the whodunit with two stories of which one is absentbut real. These devices are. no observation exists without an observer.it is a story which has no importance in itself. as we have seen. There is no story to be guessed. we must first recall the special status of the two stories. Prospection takes the place of retrospection. temporal inversions and individual "points of view": the tenor of each piece of information is determined by the person who transmits it. by definition. the words heard or the actions observed. Theoreticians of detective fiction have always agreed that style. imperceptible. if not his life. in the sensethat it was present in the whodunit. the narrator cannot transmit directly the conversationsof the characters who are implicated. even iocks of hair. genres are )D . just as excessive. The first can be called czriosity. to put them side by side? To explain this paradox. for its chief characters (the detective and his friend the na:rator) were. in this type of literature. The second story then appears as a place where all these devices are justified and "naturalized": to give them a "natural" quality. the initial donn!es (gangsters preparing a heist). it proceedsfrom effect to cause: starting from a certain effect (a corpse and certain clues) we must find its cause (the culprit and his motive). we may note. immunized: nothing could happen to them. the judge's verdict). of essentially two types. Unfortunately for logic. we realize here that two en_ tirely different forms of interest exist. we do not even know if he will reach the end of the story alive. But the reaier's interest is not thereby diminished. The first. crimes. the genre created in the United States just before and particularly after World War II. must be perfectly transparent. to the point where it is rendered imperceptible. fingerprints.The status of the second story is. the author cannot. this kind of detective fiction fuses the two stories or. and here the movement is from cause to effect: we are first shown the causes. direct' It has even been atsuppress this second story altempted-significantly-to together. the other present but insignificant' This presenceand this absenceexplain the edstence of the two in the continuity of the narrative. that of the crime. the style is io be liept neuhal and plain. In other words. interrogations. clear. certain effects (corpses. these "authentic" documents were to lead the reader to the discovery of the criminal (in case of failure. but this is a logical. The thriller did not need to perform this specific transformarion in order to appear on the scene. No thriller is presented in the form of memoirs: there is no point reached where the narrator comprehends all past events. the only requirement it obeys is to be simple. nor describe their actions: to do so. and our interest is sustained by the expectation of what will happen. in other words. he must necessarily employ the intermediary of another (or the same) character who will report. which serves only as a mediator between the reader and the story of the crime. the narrative coincides with the action. Now let us examine another genre within detective fiction. This type oi interest was inconceivable in the whodunit. not a historical classification. by definition. I have presented the opposition between the whodunit and' the thriller as an opposition between two stories and a single one. in the second story. fights). from casting a uselessshadow on the first. The second form is suspense. How does it happen then that detective fiction manages to make both of them present. The situation is reversed in the thriller: everythingjs possible.pastedon the last page' gave the answer to the puzzle: for example. One publisher put out real dossiers' consisting of police repofts. and which is published in France under the rubric "s!rie noire" (the thriller). they are two points of view about the same thing. The first involves so many conventions and literary devices (which are in fact the "plot" aspects-ofthe narrative) that the author cannot leave them unexplained. that is. t". 945. In their original form.i thriller's the its replacement by the spy-novel.. 3. they are quite prolix and may be readily summarized by the eight following points.. Everything must be explained rationally.. its constitutive Duhamel' by r in This is how it was described. 7. ""* i?r1i. pursuit.i.r"h at home here as it *-rftty -' ' t Jh.. description to to contemporary science fiction.. curiouslv. character is in its behavior. vile-violent passion' implacable.iUer from the adventure story. A portion of Van Dine's rules apparently refers to all detective fiction.oiaor. ment.-the and no longer ttrat it now has a secondaryfunction. the following homology must be observed: "author : reader : criminal : detective.. The criminal is almost pti"l a central occupies i"g pf^"" in thepresent.. Marcel themes. With regard to information about the story. subordinate central as in the whodunit' Thisrestrictionrn-themilieudescribedalsodistinguishesthe limit is not very tfr. particularly dogmatic author of detective which any selfVan Dine.tituted specific atound around the milieu represented.'.ere -Jro'fou"-preferably ". a tendency whichremains"ntirelyalientothedetectivenovel'Thedifbe added to ference in the miUeu *d b"h"uior described must has perthese other distinctions. combat-are also to be found the thrlller keeps its autonomy' We must distinguish .". the life represented (the 'Jfirst story").I*the most shameful-beatings' and "speci"Uy feelings' noble m. 6.. twenty rules to I . These rules have been frequently reproduced since then (see for instance the book.". though this up to nowdistinct. Indeed in the thriller there is often more than one detective (Chester Himes's For Loue of lmabelle) and more than one criminal (James Hadley Chase's The Fast Buck). . pr". last. those which refer to discourse. must not be the detective. we will discover an interesting phenomenon. adventure reasonsfor this: the relative effacement of the . We can see that the properties listed in an adventure danger. 4."*.. This distribution coincides. Love has no place in detectivefiction.. we may profitably consider theie rules a mc.must kill for personalreasons." Indeed it is around these few constants the amorality of constituted: violence' generally sordid crime' the one takstory"' "second the charact"rr' n". its forms' all "violence-in in France: in it we find irc pt"-** killings' ' ':.. that the thriller is tred. and at least one victim (a corpse)..f::^11feature: t"^:artY nression of the first story is not an obligatory Ravmond-chanand Hammett dashiell . The culprit must not be a professional criminal. If we compare this list with the description of the thriller. (b) in the book: must be one of the main characters. 5. Banal situations and solutions must be avoided 0y'an Dine Iists ten). z.."." 8. are limited the whodunit (rules r-4a). and precisely this difference the thriller to be constituted as a genre' mitted -fiction' S' S' O. a not constituted in conformity with structural obligag""* it created around an element which was not For this elements. L 1928.:ki="F^1 its time. The culprit must have a certain importance: (a) in life: not be a butler or a chambermaid. waswasting of classicism the poetics respecting author of detective fiction must conform. to the book (to the "second story").48 THE POETICS OF PROSE DETECTM FICTION 4s descriptions. hai. the t9. thruer nas Iogical clasiification of genres' The contemporary but presentation of method a not aiound t"'"n and characters "orr.. the two encode different ffi . Iaid down. too. rule 8 is of a much broader generality). The novel must have at most one detectiveand one criminal."rri. another portion to the whodunit.h" important thing is a[r. Since we are not concerned with prescribing procedures for the writer but with describing the genres of detective fiction. l1rt."*e the element of mystery.. then . There is no place for descriptions nor for psychological analyses. in other words.r"ty which bring's it ... r. by Boileau and Narcejac) and frequently contested. with the field of application of the rules: those which "on""* to the themes. are equally valid for the thriller (rules 4b-7.'.rtti'".ily."y""a toward the marvelous and the exotic' the other th" orr" n*J io the travel narrative' and on . the fantastic is not admitted.. already quoted from. dy. he happen will "*i. second type of suspense novel has in fact sought to get Jhe rid of the conventional milieu of professional crime irra to i"turn to the personal crime on the whodunit." is integrated into the universe of the other characters.. The two types of interest are thus united here-there is the curiosity to learn how past events are to be explained."In this case.i. it is this not only by interested is the central place.i. From it has resulted a noveiw" *igrri "the story of the suspect-as-detective. this character is at the same time the detective.. and Charles Williams are con_ structed on this model.g "t" .. instead of a1 independent observer as the reader (we'recall is Van lefnq Dine's detective-as-readeranalogy). parrick euentin.. the criminal must still be with..ir. hlre'd killer"). *ttrch legalizes the Iiterary convention chapter by a pU"iii" i t "seclnd story.I so THE POETICS OF PROSE DETECTIVE FICTION sr i personal reaobliged to be a professional and does not kill for policeman' a often is he. whereas the ii. but that past and the also the two stodes."tptit"t it by making exJ""it. coldly' even if dreadful iio* ("Joe-wasbleed.escribed.sgrinstylistic features in things made without rhetoric. remain banished. " hands "uIi -y Chase.ti" in eiapparently insignificant features can be codified loparticularities ther type oi^detective fiction: a genre unites to thriller' the different levels of generality' Hence reserve not ""."a'"" which any accent on literary devices-is alien' does who for the last lines of the chapter. whod:l]11nd li .".-a'rh" the other On here' place vile"-also has its 1"""-"pr"f"rably psychological and trrna. one might say "cynically" bleed so much"' ing lik" i pig' Incredible thal ut' old man could comparisons ft8o"" M"6oy. though conforming to the new structure. which might be called "the story of the vulnerable det""tive" is mainly illusnated by the noveis of Hammett and chandler' Its chief feature is that the detective loses his immunity.F ""r. even if he risks.5"t necesthe note ture of the discourseitself (Van Dine does not doubtless .his -Me in doing . in the thriller. Kiss Tomorrow Goodba)' T\" "I felt that if hands: of (description brutality . M"ny novels by William lrish. frJfrf". in this case... this form of detective fiction appeared at two moments: it served as transition between the whodunit and the thriller and it existed at the same time as the latter."in got around thtoat' they would make the f. To these 1wonelods correspond two subtypes of the suspensenovel.that of detection of the simple a to it refuses to r"drrce the second which here ocstory second irurt.W" might say that. constantfy.ot of The Murder of RogerAckroyd)' specifical{t it to " belong thriller the fe. but we see that their composition brings them clbser to suspense novels." Ui""a such a passageto be sure one has r"ad Women). These novels are habitually classified as thrillers becauseof the milieu they describe.the pertinence is main characters'As for rule 7.It is enough io a thriller in hand' forms It is not surprising that between two such different properties: their combines which there has deveioped ttita.. f"ttr"stic Lxplanations. Mystery has a func_ tion different from the one it had in the whodunitiit is actually a point of departure. You Neuer Know with g"tn out k my ears. Historically. . The first. in the whodunif here they constantly risk their lives. oi*vtrery and consequently of the double story' this self-evident)' considering --C"t...the real culprit." will often terminate the says to revelation ("You are the murderer"' Poirot p"t*"f^t Further' certain it tr"tt". it will be recalled. and there is alsoihe suspense: what will happen to the main characters? These characters enjoyed an immunity.. e. the culprit (in the eyes of the police). The reader next... badly hurt.. and the victim (potential victim of the real murder"rr. one of the . It is quite difficult to say whether the forms we have just de_ I I . the main interest deriving from the second story.-i" . further.. this person must himself l"D: find... descriptions. the one taking place in the present. gets beaten_up.i.irf. . a c"rime ""u is committed in the first pages and all the evidence in the hands of the police points to a certain person (who is the main characI-" order to prove his innocence.. " t e"pt the mvsterv of tfe..*p*.-. of the plesent. it has lost developthe that proves ce of the double itory' This ai*fp"rt"t structhe not part' and chiefly affected the ttrematic .e nouet..t what what has happened but also by wonders as much about the future as about the past. Novels which have tried to do without both mystery and the milieu proper to the thriller-for example. and the thriller which succeededthe whodunit got rid of it. prefabricated for the needs of an argument. The suspense novel. Yet if this forrn-(or some other) becomes the germ of a new genre of detective fiction. Present-day novelists are said to have snayed from the good old ways and no longer follow the rules. would make us tend to the second solution. the new genre is not necessarily constituted by the negation of the main feature of the old. not by necessity logically harmonious with the first form. r966 4 Primitiae l'larratiue Now and then critics invoke a narrative that is simple. healthy. an intermediary form between detective fiction and the novel itself. &is will not in itself constitute an argument against the classification proposed. and natural-a primitive nanative untainted by the vices of modern versions. But it is remarkable that the evolution of detective fiction in its broad outlines has followed precisely the succession of these forms. or a futile pursuit of originality. or a blind submission to fashion? One wonders about the real narratives which have permitted such an induction. and retained only the suspenseitself. and worse still. and to concentrate on the description of a milieu. correspond best to the image of primitive n!rrrative. experienced this milieu as a uselessattribute. It is as implicit in certain judgments on contemporary literatuJe as in certain scholarly remarks on works of the past. a priori." so many methods and devices which make this work anything and everything but a simple narrative.52 THE POETICS OF PROSE scribed correspond to the stagesofan evolution or else can exist simultaneously. But it has been necessaryat the same time to reinforce the plot and to re-establish the former mystery. Yet it is precisely in the case of tJn. such as Arthur Conan Doyle or Maurice Leblanc. In any case. particularly since these three forms coexist today. The image of primitive narrative is not a fictive one. The rule of the genre is perceived as a constraint once it becomespure form and is no longer justified by the structure of the whole. that this . where we have no historical certainty. Francis lles's Premeditations and Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr Ripley-are too few to be considered a separategenre. mystery had become a pure pretext. The fact that we can encounter several types by the same author. they believe themselves to be referring to no pafticular esthetic. it is instructive from this perspective to reread the Odyssey. for reasons not yet entirely agreed upon: innate perversity on their part. as I have already said. Here we reach a final question: what is to be done with the novels which do not fit our classification? It is no accident. that the reader habitually considers novels such as those I have just mentioned marginal to the genre. commentators on early narrative declare one or another of its parts alien to the body of the work. but from a different complex of properties. suspense. Few contemporary works reveal such an accumulation of "perversities. Adopting a position based on an esthetic proper to primitive narrative. Hence in novels by Hammett and Chandler. We might say that at a certain point detective fiction experiences as an unjustified burden the constraints of this or that genre and gets rid of them in order to constitute a new code. in order to elaborate a new form of interest. which appeared after the great years of the thriller.e Odyssey. preceding the great flowering of detective fiction. it seemsto me. that first narrative which should. 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