University of Waterloo
Department of English Language and Literature
English 208K (Fall 2021): Detective Fiction
Tuesdays, 2:30-3:50, EV3 3412
Dr Ken Hirschkop
Office: Hagey Hall 245
Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:00-12:00 and Thursdays 3:00-4:00 (or by appointment): come to whereby.com/kenhirschkop
Email: khirschk@uwaterloo.ca
Territorial Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are living and working on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (also known as Neutral), Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River.
Course Aims and Objectives
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to introduce students to the genre of detective fiction, with emphasis on the historical range and variety of the genre
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to examine how detective fiction reflects the social and cultural history of its time
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to understand the various literary techniques used in detective fiction and their evolution over time
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to use detective fiction to introduce students to some basic ideas in narrative theory and analysis
Classes and Course Organization
Fall courses start on Wednesday, September 8 and our first in-person class is on the following Tuesday, September 14. So each ‘week’ of the class will begin on a Wednesday, when you will be assigned reading to do, and conclude with discussion of that reading in the in-person class on the next Tuesday. Then there will be a new text to read on the Wednesday after that, and so forth. Most of the texts will be made available on Perusall, software which allows us to insert comments on texts. You will be expected to comment on the texts in Perusall – in response to my questions – during the week, and be ready to talk about them in class on the Tuesday. On a couple of occasions, you’ll be asked to listen to a recorded lecture in addition to the above.
The material is mostly short detective fiction. There is one short detective novel to read, a film, and two TV serials. There will also be a couple of theory/criticism readings, which will help you become acquainted with some central technical features of detective fiction.
Readings and Viewings
Most of the material you need to read will be on the Perusall course website, which you can access from a link in LEARN. The exception, reading-wise, is the Agatha Christie novel, which you should purchase or borrow (a local library might have it). The Maltese Falcon can be viewed through Waterloo University Media Services (a link will be provided). Prime Suspect and True Detective are a bit more complicated: the former is available in Canada through the Britbox streaming service (which can be accessed through Amazon Prime) and the latter through Crave. If you don’t have a subscription to these, you can sign up for their free trial periods (7 days for Britbox, 30 for Crave) and watch them there, but don’t forget to cancel the subscriptions afterwards.
Detective fiction is about crime, which means, in practice, it is usually about awful people doing awful, very often violent, awful things (and I don’t mean just the criminals – in many cases it is the people pursuing the criminals who do the awful things). Accordingly, there is a good deal of explicit violence in the readings and the viewings, although it is not, by current standards, terribly gruesome. There is also a good deal of sexism and some racism in the readings and viewings, partly because, again, the topic is awful people and partly because the writers themselves – Raymond Chandler, I’m looking at you – were awful people (however talented they may have been as writers). We can, of course, discuss these matters in class.
Assessment
There are four forms of assessment: class attendance and participation, weekly commentary on the texts, a short take-home midterm, and a final essay. They are weighted as follows:
Class attendance and participation 20%
Weekly commentary 30%
Take-home midterm 15%
Final essay 35%
Class attendance and participation
Form: You are expected to attend every class and to participate in class discussion.
Submission methods and dates: Attendance will be taken for every class and class participation noted. If you have an excuse for missing a class, please email me or leave me a note. You can miss classes for medical reasons and for unforeseeable personal difficulties. Every excused absence must be documented.
Grading criteria: If you attend every class but say nothing, you will receive a 70 for this part of the assessment. If you have more than three unexcused absences, you lose 20% from this part of your grade; more than six classes, 40%, and so on (which means 2% off your cumulative mark for the course for 4 absences, 4% for 7 absences, and so on). Class participation is graded on how well and how often you contribute. Contributions to discussion should demonstrate that you have read the material carefully and will be assessed on their relevance, interest, and originality. But: be bold. I’d rather people talked a lot, even if it isn’t all brilliant, then have them wait around until they think of something remarkable to say. And saying you don’t understand something counts as a very positive contribution to discussion.
Commentary and discussion
Form: Each week there will be a text on for discussion, usually on Perusall (when the text is not on Perusall, there will be a dedicated Discussion Board on LEARN for commentary). I will pose certain questions about the text, and you should address them in 3-5 comments each week. Comments should be at least two sentences long, but can be longer.
Submission methods: Comment function on Perusall, postings on Discussion Board. These will be due by the Monday before each class at 2 pm.
Grading criteria: Comments will be assessed on the basis of their thoughtfulness, their relevance, and their contribution to the discussion. They can be casual in tone and style! If you think something through, make an interesting and independent comment, and I think your view is nevertheless wrong, you’ll get a very good mark. There will be 12 opportunities for commentary; the three lowest marks will be dropped from the average.
Take-home midterm
Form: A short exam, which you’ll be asked to complete within a 24-hour period on October 28th.
Submission method: Dropbox on LEARN
Grading criteria: Knowledge of material covered in course.
Final essay:
Form: An analysis of a single work of detective fiction, using the critical terms and methods we have studied on the course. You will be given a choice of texts on which to write. The final essay should be 2000-2500 words long (excluding bibliography and/or notes). If you want preliminary feedback, please send me a list of points you wish to make (in bullet point form) at least one week before the final deadline.
Submission method and dates: The essay is to submitted electronically, in the appropriate dropbox on the website by 5 pm on December 21st. The choice of works will be given to you in the penultimate week of the term.
Grading criteria: Intelligence with which you use the tools we’ve studied; the sophistication, inventiveness and persuasiveness of the analysis; the lucidity and elegance of the writing; the organization and presentation of the argument. I won’t expect any secondary reading, but you are welcome to support your analysis with some historical background if that’s appropriate. Final essays than are late will be penalised 3% for the first day and 1% each additional day.
Contingency Plans
If we need to suspend live classes at any point we will conduct classes, at the scheduled time on Tuesdays (2.30-3.50), via Zoom.
Week-by-week Classes
Origins
Week 1 (ends September 14):
Edgar Allen Poe, ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ (1841), in The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales (New York: The Modern Library 2006)
Week 2 (ends September 21):
Arthur Conan Doyle, ‘The Red-Headed League’, ‘The Speckled Band’, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (London: George Newnes, 1892); ‘The Musgrave Ritual’ in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (London: George Newnes, 1894).
Week 3 (ends September 28):
Gerard Genette Lecture (and Website) on Narrative and Time
Agatha Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage [1930] (Harper Collins, 2011).
Film Noir and Hard-boiled fiction
Week 4 (ends October 5)
Film: The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941)
Tzvetan Todorov, ‘The Typology of Detective Fiction’, in The Poetics of Prose, trans. Richard Howard (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977).
Week 5 (ends October 19)
Franco Moretti, ‘The Slaughterhouse of Literature’, Modern Language Quarterly 61:1 (2000), 207-27.
Week 6 (ends October 26)
Raymond Chandler, ‘Mountain’, in Patricia Craig (ed.), The Oxford Book of Detective Stories (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
Take-home examination on October 28th.
Riffs on an established genre
Week 7 (ends November 2)
Walter Mosley, ‘Smoke’, in Six Easy Pieces (New York: Atra Books, 2003).
Week 8 (ends November 9):
Prime Suspect, Series 1 (Granada, 1991). Available via Britbox
Week 9 (ends November 16):
Jorge Luis Borges, ‘Death and the Compass’, in Collected Fictions, trans. Andrew Hurley (London: Penguin, 1997)
Week 10 (ends November 23)
Magnus Montelius, ‘An Alibi for Señor Banegas’ and Katarina Wennstam, ‘Too Late Shall the Sinner Awaken’, in John-Henri Holmberg, A Darker Shade of Sweden (London: Head of Zeus, 2013)
Week 11 (ends November 30)
True Detective, Series 3 (HBO, 2019), Episodes 1-4. Available on Crave.
Week 12 (ends December 7)
True Detective, Series 3, Episodes 5-8.
Additional Bibliography
Joan Copjec (ed.), Shades of Noir (London: Verso, 1993).
Fredric Jameson, Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality (London: Verso, 2016)
Stephen Knight, Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction (London: Palgrave, 1980)
Ernest Mandel, Delightful Murder: A Social History of Crime Fiction
James Meek, ‘Refugees from the Past’, London Review of Books 39: 1 (2016).
Additional Information
Academic integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.]
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of their university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for theiractions. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.] A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.
Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes they have aground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.
Note for students with disabilities: AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.
Mental Health Support
All of us need a support system. The faculty and staff in Arts encourage students to seek out mental health support if they are needed.
On Campus
Due to COVID-19 and campus closures, services are available only online or by phone.
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Counselling Services: counselling.services@uwaterloo.ca / 519-888-4567 ext. 32655
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MATES: one-to-one peer support program offered by the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) and Counselling Services
Off campus, 24/7
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Good2Talk: Free confidential help line for post-secondary students. Phone: 1-866-925-5454
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Grand River Hospital: Emergency care for mental health crisis. Phone: 519-749-4300 ext. 6880
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Here 24/7: Mental Health and Crisis Service Team. Phone: 1-844-437-3247
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OK2BME: set of support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning teens in Waterloo. Phone: 519-884-0000 extension 213
Full details can be found online on the Faculty of Arts website
Download UWaterloo and regional mental health resources (PDF)
Download the WatSafe app to your phone to quickly access mental health support information.
Academic freedom at the University of Waterloo
Policy 33, Ethical Behaviour states, as one of its general principles (Section 1), “The University supports academic freedom for all members of the University community. Academic freedom carries with it the duty to use that freedom in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base teaching and research on an honest and ethical quest for knowledge. In the context of this policy, 'academic freedom' refers to academic activities, including teaching and scholarship, as is articulated in the principles set out in the Memorandum of Agreement between the FAUW and the University of Waterloo, 1998 (Article 6). The academic environment which fosters free debate may from time to time include the presentation or discussion of unpopular opinions or controversial material. Such material shall be dealt with as openly, respectfully and sensitively as possible.” This definition is repeated in Policies 70 and 71, and in the Memorandum of Agreement, Section 6