French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.
-
Upload
samuel-melton -
Category
Documents
-
view
222 -
download
0
Transcript of French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.
![Page 1: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
French Crime FictionFR405
Dr Georgina Collins
10 January 2012
![Page 2: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
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
![Page 3: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
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: [email protected]
![Page 4: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
Website
![Page 5: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
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
![Page 6: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
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
![Page 7: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
The genre
• Le roman policier
• A lesser genre?
- Littérature populaire
- Littérature de gare
- Genre mineur
• Divide between so-called low culture and high culture
![Page 8: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
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
![Page 9: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
From romanticism to realism
• Romanticism:
- produced many novels
- exotic or historical settings
• Eg. Hugo’s Notre-Dame de
Paris
- medieval Paris
![Page 10: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Nationalism
•Romanticism - 1825-1850- linked to nationalism
•Emphasis on:- national culture (history, geography)- folklore
•Strengthened mythological basis of nation
![Page 11: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Romantic novels
• Issues of justice and law and order• Culprits, victims and investigators• Le Comte de Monte Cristo (Dumas)• Les Misérables (Hugo)
![Page 12: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
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
![Page 13: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
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
![Page 14: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
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
![Page 15: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
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
![Page 16: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Factor one
• Gradual emergence of popular press
• Daily newspapers mixing:
- currents affairs
- ‘faits divers’
- serialised short
stories / novels
![Page 17: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
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
![Page 18: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Judicial procedures
• Gaboriau
- translated into English
- novels recommended to British
lawyers
• Lecoq is a mixture of:
- Vidocq: adventure,
glamour, romance
- Dupin: ratiocination
![Page 19: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
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
![Page 20: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
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
![Page 21: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Serialisation
• Reader’s satisfaction – main objective
• Survival depended on sales
• To maintain profit – art of suspense became a major ingredient
![Page 22: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Factor 2
Development of a distinctive crime genre linked to:
Set of new trends in the book market
![Page 23: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
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
![Page 24: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
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
![Page 25: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Factor 3
Development of a distinctive crime genre linked to:
A new approach to time, space and work
![Page 26: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
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
![Page 27: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
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
![Page 28: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
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
![Page 29: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
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’
![Page 30: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/30.jpg)
Curiosity
• A key characteristic of the in-spector
• Hermeneutic quest requires
- proximity of the crowd
- to draw inspiration (artist) /
clues (detective) from it
![Page 31: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/31.jpg)
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)
![Page 32: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/32.jpg)
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
![Page 33: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/33.jpg)
Questions and Comments?
![Page 34: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/34.jpg)
Seminar: Round the room
What have you learnt from this lecture?
![Page 35: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/35.jpg)
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
![Page 36: French Crime Fiction FR405 Dr Georgina Collins 10 January 2012.](https://reader035.fdocuments.net/reader035/viewer/2022081515/56649ea85503460f94bac54f/html5/thumbnails/36.jpg)
Don’t forget to prepare for next
week!
Seminar questions will be posted online after today’s session