Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

The intensive study of a selection of literary works in English, mainly from regions other than Canada, Britain and the United States. The course may focus on one or several literatures or individual authors, and will be organized according to specific critical methodologies. The course may be repeated for credit if a different topic is taught though students who obtained credit for ENGL 492W prior to Summer 2015 may not take this course for further credit. Students with credit for ENGL 492 may not take this course for further credit. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

International Crime Fiction
Although its roots can be found in the mid nineteenth century – in the novels of Wilkie Collins and the stories of Edgar Allen Poe – crime fiction has established itself as one of the most popular forms of literature in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In this course we start by establishing the genre’s conventions from its classic drawing room origins, through the emergence of hard-boiled detective fiction, and on to the contemporary procedural/medical drama. We will then look at how the genre travels – how do crime fiction conventions hold up when the crimes they detail are committed, and investigated, in countries far from the genre’s English and American birthplaces? And how do the national, cultural, political, and ethnic realities of contemporary South Africa, Botswana, New Zealand and Australia reshape the genre? These are some of the questions this course will explore.

Please be aware that some of these texts deal with explicit material that some students may find troubling.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: