Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Publisher

University of Delhi

Abstract

Detective novels, while generally considered to be pulp fiction and therefore worthy of less academic attention, nonetheless lay bare the reader’s interest in getting to the so-called truth. Even the inclusion of “red herrings” and false leads serves to entice a deeper commitment to proving the existence of what “really” happened. They are, therefore, escapist in the sense that they tease readers to reject the underpinnings of deconstruction and poststructuralism and allow, at least for the limited duration of the reading, a comforting illusion that there are larger truths that an actual “self” can discern and pin down. This need for structural stability and personal agency carries over into more literary works, though the desire there is generally expressed in the dramatic arc of Freytag’s Pyramid: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and dénouement.

Comments

The Delhi University Journal of the Humanities and the Social Sciences is an open access and peer reviewed annual journal that provides an intellectual platform to address issues in humanities and social sciences in a comprehensive manner.

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