Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction

ISBN-13: 9783031298486 / Angielski

Lisa Hopkins

Opis

From Sherlock Holmes onwards, fictional detectives use lenses: Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction argues that these visual aids are metaphors for ways of seeing, and that they help us to understand not only individual detectives’ methods but also the kinds of cultural work detective fiction may do.  It is sometimes regarded as a socially conservative form, and certainly the enduring popularity of ‘Golden Age’ writers such as Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh implies a strong element of nostalgia in the appeal of the genre.  The emphasis on visual aids, however, suggests that solving crime is not a simple matter of uncovering truth but a complex, sophisticated and inherently subjective process, and thus challenges any sense of comforting certainties.  Moreover, the value of eye-witness testimony is often troubled in detective fiction by use of the phrase ‘the ocular proof’, whose origin in Shakespeare’s Othello reminds us that Othello is manipulated by Iago into misinterpreting what he sees.  The act of seeing thus comes to seem ideological and provisional, and Lisa Hopkins argues that the kind of visual aid selected by each detective is an index of his particular propensities and biases.

Spis treści

Part I: Through a Glass Darkly
Chapter 1: Introduction: What the Spectacled Detective Sees
Chapter 2: Out of Focus: Ariadne Oliver
Part II: Seeing the Unseen
Chapter 3: Scouting Skills: Max Carrados, Sherlock Holmes’ Blind Rival
Chapter 4: An Unseen Hook and an Invisible Line: Father Brown 
Part III: Seeing Through Glass
Chapter 5: The Man with the Monocle: Lord Peter Wimsey
Chapter 6: An Ass in Horn-Rims: Albert Campion
Part IV: Binocular Vision
Chapter 7: Seeing Double: Inspector Alleyn
Chapter 8: The Double Vision of Dornford Yates
Chapter 9: Conclusion

O autorze

Lisa Hopkins is Professor Emerita of English at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. She has published widely on Renaissance drama (particularly Shakespeare, Marlowe and Ford), adaptation studies, and more recently crime fiction. She is co-editor of Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association, and of the Arden Guides to Early Modern Drama. Her previous books include Shakespearean Allusion in Crime Fiction: DCI Shakespeare (Palgrave, 2016) and Burial Plots in British Detective Fiction (Palgrave, 2021).

Blurb

From Sherlock Holmes onwards, fictional detectives use lenses: Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction argues that these visual aids are metaphors for ways of seeing, and that they help us to understand not only individual detectives’ methods but also the kinds of cultural work detective fiction may do.  It is sometimes regarded as a socially conservative form, and certainly the enduring popularity of ‘Golden Age’ writers such as Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh implies a strong element of nostalgia in the appeal of the genre.  The emphasis on visual aids, however, suggests that solving crime is not a simple matter of uncovering truth but a complex, sophisticated and inherently subjective process, and thus challenges any sense of comforting certainties.  Moreover, the value of eye-witness testimony is often troubled in detective fiction by use of the phrase ‘the ocular proof’, whose origin in Shakespeare’s Othello reminds us that Othello is manipulated by Iago into misinterpreting what he sees.  The act of seeing thus comes to seem ideological and provisional, and Lisa Hopkins argues that the kind of visual aid selected by each detective is an index of his particular propensities and biases.

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Lisa Hopkins is Professor Emerita of English at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. She has published widely on Renaissance drama (particularly Shakespeare, Marlowe and Ford), adaptation studies, and more recently crime fiction. She is co-editor of Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association, and of the Arden Guides to Early Modern Drama. Her previous books include Shakespearean Allusion in Crime Fiction: DCI Shakespeare (Palgrave, 2016) and Burial Plots in British Detective Fiction (Palgrave, 2021).