Detective process. What is a detective story in literature? Characteristics and features of the detective genre. Modern understanding of the detective genre
The detective genre can be called the most popular among all others. People of all ages enjoy being detectives. Intricate plots, investigations and various adventures completely captivate the reader and draw them into a mysterious world. In addition, you can choose a detective story to suit every taste - be it historical, romantic, ironic or political.
Most books in this genre are published in series. For example, stories about Perry Mason, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and many others. They take the reader into a world full of surprises, experiences and new adventures.
Foreign detective stories are represented by such famous authors as Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ioanna Khmelevskaya, Erle Stanley Gardner and many others. Among domestic writers one can name Alexandra Marinina, Daria Dontsova, Boris Akunin, and the Weiner brothers.
The main feature of the detective genre is a mysterious incident, the circumstances of which are unknown, but must be clarified. Basically, the incident described is a crime.
A distinctive feature of a detective story is that the reader does not know the real circumstances of the crime until the investigation is completed. The author guides him through the entire process of solving the incident, giving him the opportunity to make certain conclusions himself. If all the facts are described at the beginning of the book, then the work can be attributed to some related genre, but not to a detective story in its pure form.
Another important property of the described direction of literature is the completeness of facts. The result of the investigation is necessarily based on the information that the reader knows. By the time the work is completed, all information must be provided in full. Thus, the reader can find the solution himself. Only small details that do not affect the outcome of revealing the secret can remain hidden. At the end, all questions must be answered, and all riddles must be solved.
Although detective stories are considered fiction, the stories described are often encountered in life.
Some types of detectives
Closed detective. A subgenre that usually most closely follows the canons of the classic detective story. The plot is based on the investigation of a crime committed in a secluded place, where there is a strictly limited set of characters. There can be no one else in this place, so the crime could only be committed by someone present and the investigation is carried out by someone present at the scene of the crime with the help of the other heroes. Examples of closed detective stories: Agatha Christie “Murder on the Orient Express”, “Ten Little Indians”; Boris Akunin "Leviathan"; Daria Dontsova “The Flying Impostor”; Vladimir Kuzmin “Envelope from Shanghai” (series “The Adventures of Dasha Bestuzheva”).
Psychological detective. This type of detective story may deviate somewhat from the classical canons in terms of the requirement for stereotypical behavior and the typical psychology of the heroes. Usually a crime committed for personal reasons (envy, revenge) is investigated, and the main element of the investigation is the study of the personal characteristics of the suspects, their attachments, pain points, beliefs, prejudices, and clarification of the past. Examples of psychological detective stories: Charles Dickens “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”; Fyodor Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment."
A historical detective story is a historical work with detective intrigue. The action takes place in the past, or an ancient crime is being investigated in the present. Example: Gilbert Keith Chesterton "Father Brown"; Boris Akunin literary project “The Adventures of Erast Fandorin”; Henry Winterfeld "Detectives in Togas"; Elena Artamonova “The Kingdom of the Living Mummy.”
Ironic detective. The detective investigation is described from a humorous point of view. Often, works written in this vein parody and ridicule the cliches of a detective novel.
Examples: Daria Dontsova (all works); Alexander Kazachinsky “Green Van”; Ioanna Khmelevskaya “Haunted House”, “Treasures”, “Special Merits”, etc.; the “Funny Detective” series, which includes works by various authors.
Fantastic detective. Works at the intersection of science fiction and detective fiction. The action may take place in the future, an alternative present or past, in a completely fictional world. Examples: Stanislav Lem “Investigation”, “Inquiry”; Kir Bulychev cycle “Intergalactic Police” (“Intergpol”); The Strugatsky brothers “Hotel “At the Dead Mountaineer””; Kirsten Miller "Kiki Strike Girl Detective".
Political detective. The main intrigue is built around political events and rivalry between various political or business figures and forces. It often happens that the main character is far from politics, however, while investigating a case, he comes across an obstacle from the “powers that be” or uncovers a conspiracy. A distinctive feature of a political detective story is the absence of completely positive characters, except for the main one. This genre is rarely found in its pure form, but can be an integral part of the work. A classic example of this type is the work of Boris Akunin “State Councilor”; Evgenios Trivizas "The Last Black Cat".
Spy detective. Based on the narrative of the activities of intelligence officers, spies and saboteurs both in wartime and in peacetime on the “invisible front”. In terms of stylistic boundaries, it is very close to political and conspiracy detective stories, and is often combined in the same work. The main difference between a spy detective and a political detective is that in a political detective the most important position is occupied by the political basis of the case under investigation, while in a spy detective the attention is focused on intelligence work (surveillance, sabotage, etc.).
A conspiracy detective can be considered a variety of both a spy and a political detective. The authors, moving towards solving the crime, build a narrative line into the historical past, which appears to be criminal, dominated by a certain secret society.
Examples of spy detective stories: Agatha Christie's "Cat Among Pigeons"; Boris Akunin “Turkish Gambit”; Dmitry Medvedev “It was near Rovno”; Yulian Semyonov “Seventeen Moments of Spring”; Valery Ronshin "The Secret of Marshmallows in Chocolate."
Police detective. Describes the work of a team of professionals. In works of this type, the main detective character is either absent or only marginally higher in importance compared to the rest of the team. In terms of the authenticity of the plot, it is closest to reality and, accordingly, deviates to the greatest extent from the canons of the pure detective genre. The professional routine is described in detail with details that are not directly related to the plot, there is a significant proportion of accidents and coincidences, the presence of informants in the criminal environment plays a large role, the criminal often remains unnamed and unknown until the very end of the investigation, and can also evade punishment due to the negligence of the investigation or lack of direct evidence.
Examples: Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" series; Yulian Semenov “Petrovka 38”, “Ogareva 6”.
"Cool" detective. Most often it is described as a lone detective, a man of 35-40 years old, or a small detective agency. In works of this type, the main character confronts almost the entire world: organized crime, corrupt politicians, corrupt police. The main features are the maximum action of the hero, his “coolness”, the vile world around him and the honesty of the main character. Examples: Dashiell Hammett's series about the Continental Detective Agency - considered the founder of the genre; Raymond Chandler "Farewell, Sweetheart", "High Window", "The Woman in the Lake"; James Hadley Chase “There Will Be No Witnesses”, “The Whole World in Your Pocket”, etc.
The detective story is a recognized leader among the genres of modern children's literature. And although he is pressed on all sides by fantasy and “virtual” adventures, the children’s detective story continues to live and develop rapidly, despite its advanced age.
Among the creators of children's detective stories there are also quite venerable writers. For example, Erich Kästner, author of the story “Emil and the Detectives”, Astrid Lindgren, who wrote books about the super detective Kalle Blomkvist, Anatoly Rybakov with his famous “Dirk”.
Among the authors of modern children's detective stories are Valery Ronshin, Ekaterina Vilmont, Elena Matveeva, Anton Ivanov, Anna Ustinova, Alexey Birger, Sergey Silin, Valery Gusev, Vladimir Averin, Galina Gordienko, Andrey Grushkin, and this list is far from complete. To the authors of children's detective stories we can add the master of this genre, Boris Akunin, who published the detective story "Children's Book" and adapted his "adult" novels for children.
There are many varieties of children's detective stories: everyday and historical detective stories, mystical (“horror stories”) and fairy tales (their heroes are characters from Russian folklore).
For example, we can cite the series: “Black Kitten” (Elena Artamonova “Fun from the Stone Age”, Valery Gusev “Agent Number One”, etc.); “Detective Agency” (Anton Ivanov, Anna Ustinova “The Mystery of the Black Widow”, “The Mystery of the Missing Academician”, etc.); “Abbey Mysteries” (Cherith Baldry “The Spell of the Monastery Cauldron”, “The Secret of the Royal Sword”, “The Cross of King Arthur”); “Detective + Love” (Ekaterina Vilmont “It’s Hard to Be Brave”, “In Search of Treasures”, etc.), etc.
detective fiction translation
Before proceeding to a direct examination of the features of the detective genre, it is necessary to quite clearly define the subject of analysis - the detective story.
Detective<#"justify">a) Immersion in familiar life
It is difficult to build a detective story on material that is exotic for the reader. The reader must have a good understanding of the “norm” (the setting, the motives of the characters’ behavior, the set of habits and conventions that are associated with the social roles of the heroes of the detective story, the rules of decency, etc.), and, consequently, deviations from it - strangeness, incongruity.
b) Stereotypical behavior of characters
The psychology and emotions of the characters are standard, their individuality is not emphasized, it is erased. The characters are largely devoid of originality - they are not so much individuals as social roles. The same applies to the motives of the characters’ actions (in particular the motives of the crime); the more impersonal the motive, the more suitable it is for a detective. Therefore, the predominant motive for the crime is money, since any individuality in this motive is erased: everyone needs money, it is the equivalent of any human need.
c) The presence of special rules for constructing a plot - the unwritten “laws of the detective genre”
Although they are not declared in the works, but after reading several “good” ones, i.e. properly constructed detective stories, the reader intuitively knows them and considers any violation of them to be fraud on the part of the author, a failure to comply with the rules of the game. An example of such a law is the ban on certain characters being a criminal. The murderer cannot be the narrator, the investigator, close relatives of the victim, priests, or high-ranking government officials. For the narrator and detective, this prohibition is unconditional; for other characters, the author can remove it, but then he must openly state this during the narrative, directing the reader’s suspicions to this character.
These three characteristics characteristic of the detective genre can be combined into one; they all serve as a manifestation of the hyper-determinism of the world described in the detective story in comparison with the world in which we live. In the real world, we may encounter exotic personalities and situations whose meaning we do not understand, the motives of real crimes are often irrational, a priest may turn out to be the leader of a gang, but in a detective story such plot decisions would be perceived as a violation of the laws of the genre. The world of a detective is much more orderly than the life around us. To construct a detective mystery, a rigid network of undoubted, unshakable patterns is required, on which the reader can rely with complete confidence in their truth. Since in the real world there are fewer solid patterns than is usually required for constructing a detective plot, they are introduced from the outside by mutual agreement between the authors and the readers, as well-known rules of the game.
Another feature of the detective genre is that the true circumstances of the incident are not communicated to the reader, at least in its entirety, until the investigation is completed. The reader is led by the author through the process of unraveling, having the opportunity at each stage to build his own versions based on known facts.
Typical elements of the genre structure that most fully express the features of a detective story:
Three questions
In the detective genre, a certain standard for plotting has developed. At the very beginning, a crime is committed. The first victim appears. (In a few deviations from this option, the compositional functions of the victim are performed by the loss of something important and valuable, sabotage, forgery, disappearance of someone, etc.) Next, three questions arise: who? How? Why? These questions form the composition. In a standard detective scheme, the question "who?" - the main and most dynamic, because the search for an answer to it takes up the greatest space and time of action, determines the action itself with its deceptive moves, the process of investigation, the system of suspicions and evidence, the play of hints, details, the logical construction of the course of thought of the Great Detective (WD).
Thus, "who killed?" - the mainspring of the detective. The other two questions - “how did the murder happen?” “Why?” - are essentially derivatives of the first. These are like the underground waters of a detective story, coming to the surface only at the very end, in the denouement. In the book this happens on the last pages, in the film - in the final monologues of the Great Detective or in dialogues with the assistant, friend or adversary of the protagonist, personifying the slow-witted reader. As a rule, in the process of guessing the VD, hidden from the reader, the questions “how” and “why” have an instrumental meaning, because with them. with his help, he identifies the criminal. It is curious that the predominance of “how” over “why” (and vice versa) determines to some extent the nature of the narrative. For the famous Englishwoman, “the queen of detective stories” Agatha Christie, the most interesting thing is the mechanics of crime and detective work (“how”). ?), and her favorite hero Hercule Poirot works tirelessly to study the circumstances of the murder, collect evidence to recreate the picture of the crime, etc. Georges Simenon’s hero, Commissioner Maigret, getting used to the psychology of his characters, “entering the image” of each of them, tries First of all, understand “why” the murder happened, what motives led to it. The search for a motive is the most important thing for him.
In one of the first detective stories of world literature - the short story "Murder in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe, amateur detective Auguste Dupin, faced with a mysterious crime, the victims of which were the mother and daughter of L'Espana, begins by studying the circumstances. How the murder could have happened in locked in a room from the inside? How to explain the lack of motivation for the monstrous murder? Having found the answer to the last question (a mechanically slamming window), Dupin also finds the answer to all the others.
Compositional structures
The famous English detective author Richard Austin Freeman, who tried not only to formulate the laws of the genre, but also to give it some literary weight, in his work “The Craft of the Detective Story” names four main compositional stages: 1) statement of the problem (crime); 2) investigation (solo detective party); 3) decision (answer to the question “who?”; 4) proof, analysis of facts (answers to “how?” and “why?”).
The main theme of the detective stories is formulated as a “situation S - D” (from the English words Security - safety and Danger - danger), in which the homeliness of civilized life is contrasted with the terrible world outside this security. “Situation S - D” appeals to the psychology of the average reader, since it makes him feel a kind of pleasant nostalgia in relation to his home and meets his desires to escape from dangers, observe them from cover, as if through a window, and entrust the care of his fate to a strong personality . The development of the plot leads to an increase in danger, the impact of which is enhanced by instilling fear, emphasizing the strength and composure of the criminal and the helpless loneliness of the client. However, Yu. Shcheglov in his work “Towards a description of the structure of a detective story” argues that such a situation is a description of only one semantic plan.
Detective stories almost always have a happy ending. In a detective story, this is a complete return to safety, through victory over danger. The detective administers justice, evil is punished, everything has returned to normal.
Intrigue, plot, plot
Detective intrigue comes down to the simplest scheme: crime, investigation, solution to the mystery. This diagram constructs a chain of events that form a dramatic action. The variability here is minimal. The plot looks different. The choice of vital material, the specific character of the detective, the location of the action, the method of investigation, and the determination of the motives for the crime create a multiplicity of plot constructions within the boundaries of one genre. If intrigue itself is non-ideological, then plot is not only a formal concept, but is necessarily associated with the author’s position, with the system that determines this position.
The detective story is characterized by the closest blending of all three of these concepts - intrigue, plot, plot. Hence the narrowing of its plot possibilities, and, consequently, the limited life content. In many detective stories, the plot coincides with the plot and is reduced to the logical-formal construction of a dramatized criminal charade. But even in this case, which is extremely important to understand, the form is not independent of the ideological content, it is subordinate to it, for it arose as a protective idea of the bourgeois world order, morality, and social relations.
4. Suspense (suspense). Voltage
The structural and compositional features of a detective story are a special mechanism of influence. Closely related to all these questions is the problem of suspense, without which the genre under consideration is unthinkable. One of the main tasks of a detective story is to create tension in the perceiver, which should be followed by release, “liberation.” Tension can be of the nature of emotional arousal, but it can also have a purely intellectual nature, similar to what a person experiences when solving a mathematical problem, a complex puzzle, or playing chess. It depends on the choice of elements of influence, on the nature and method of the story. Often both functions are combined - mental stress is fueled by a system of emotional stimuli that cause fear, curiosity, compassion, and nervous shock. However, this does not mean that the two systems cannot appear in an almost purified form. It is enough, again, to look at the comparison of the structures of the stories of Agatha Christie and Georges Simenon. In the first case, we are dealing with a detective rebus, with its almost mathematical coldness of plot construction, precise schemes, and bareness of plot action. Simenon's stories, on the contrary, are characterized by the emotional involvement of the reader, caused by the psychological and social authenticity of the limited living space in which the human dramas described by Simenon are played out.
It would be a grave mistake to consider suspense as only a negative category. It all depends on the content of the technique, on the purposes of its use. Suspense is one of the elements of entertainment; through emotional tension, the intensity of the impression and the spontaneity of reactions are also achieved.
Mystery, mystery, so characteristic of detectives, are composed not only of “questioning” (who? how? why?), but also of a special system of action of these questions-riddles. Hints, riddles, evidence, understatement in the behavior of the characters, the mysterious hiddenness of VD's thoughts from us, the total possibility of suspecting all participants - all this excites our imagination.
Mystery is designed to cause a special kind of irritation in a person. Its nature is dual - it is a natural reaction to the fact of violent human death, but it is also an artificial irritation achieved by mechanical stimuli. One of them is the technique of inhibition, when the reader’s attention is directed along the wrong trail. In Conan Doyle's novels, this function belongs to Watson, who always misunderstands the meaning of evidence, puts forward false motivations and plays "the role of the boy serving the ball for the game." His reasoning is not devoid of logic, they are always plausible, but the reader, following him, finds himself in a dead end. This is the process of inhibition, without which a detective cannot do.
Great detective.
The French scientist Roger Caillois, who wrote one of the most interesting works on this topic - the essay “Detective Tale”, argues that this genre “emerged thanks to new life circumstances that began to dominate at the beginning of the 19th century. Fouché, creating a political police, thereby replaced force and speed - with cunning and secrecy. Until this time, the uniform gave away the representative of the authorities in pursuit of the criminal and tried to capture him. The secret agent replaced the chase with investigation, speed with intelligence, violence with secrecy."
Catalog of techniques and characters.
No literary genre has such a precisely and detailed set of laws that defines the “rules of the game,” establishes the boundaries of what is permissible, etc. The more the detective story turned into a puzzle game, the more often and more persistently rules-constraints, rules-guidelines, etc. were proposed. The iconic nature of the mystery novella fit into a stable system in which not only situations and methods of deduction, but also characters became signs. For example, the victim of a crime has undergone a serious revolution. It turned into a neutral prop, the corpse simply became the primary condition for starting the game. This is especially pronounced in the English version of the detective story. Some authors tried to “compromise” the murdered man, as if removing the moral problem: justifying the author’s indifference to the “corpse”.
In a more detailed form, the “rules of the game” were proposed by Austin Freeman in the article “The Craft of the Detective Story.” He establishes four compositional stages - problem statement, consequence, solution, evidence - and characterizes each of them.
Even more significant were “20 rules for writing detective stories” by S. Van Dyne. The most interesting of these rules: 1) the reader must have equal chances with the detective in solving the riddle; 2) love should play the most insignificant role. The goal is to put a criminal behind bars, not to bring a couple of lovers to the altar; 3) a detective or other representative of an official investigation cannot be a criminal; 4) the criminal can only be detected by logical-deductive means, but not by chance; 5) there must be a corpse in a detective story. A crime less than murder has no right to occupy the reader's attention. Three hundred pages is too much for this; 6) investigative methods must have a real basis; the detective has no right to resort to the help of spirits, spiritualism, or reading thoughts at a distance; 7) there must be one detective - the Great Detective; 8) the criminal must be a person who under normal conditions cannot be suspected. Therefore, it is not recommended to discover the villain among the servants; 9) all literary beauties and digressions not related to the investigation should be omitted; 10) international diplomacy, as well as political struggle, belong to other prose genres, etc.
Ambivalence.
One more feature of the detective story should be isolated in order to understand its special place in the literary series. We are talking about ambivalence, compositional and semantic duality, the purpose of which is the double specificity of perception. The plot of the crime is constructed according to the laws of a dramatic narrative, in the center of which the event is murder. It has its own actors, its action is determined by the usual cause-and-effect relationship. This is a crime novel. The plot of the investigation is constructed as a rebus, a task, a puzzle, a mathematical equation and is clearly of a playful nature. Everything related to crime has a bright emotional coloring; this material appeals to our psyche and senses. The waves of mystery emitted by the narrative influence a person through a system of emotional signals, which are the message about the murder, the mysterious and exotic decorum, the atmosphere of the involvement of all the characters in the murder, understatement, the mystical incomprehensibility of what is happening, fear of danger, etc.
The ambivalence of the detective story explains the popularity of the genre, the traditional attitude towards it as self-indulgence, and the eternal debate about what it should be, what functions it should perform (didactic or entertaining) and whether it contains more harm or benefit. Hence the traditional confusion of views, points of view, and requirements.
To summarize, it should be noted that the detective genre, despite its general entertainment orientation, is quite serious and self-sufficient. It forces a person not only to think logically, but also to understand the psychology of people. A distinctive feature of the classic detective story is the moral idea embedded in it, or morality, which marks, to varying degrees, all works of this genre.
Every good detective story is built in “two lines”: one line is formed by the mystery and what is connected with it, the other by special “non-mysterious” elements of the plot. If you remove the riddle, the work ceases to be a detective story, but if you remove the second line, the detective story turns from a full-fledged work of art into a bare plot, a rebus. Both of these lines are in a certain ratio and balance in the detective story. When translating works of this genre, it is important to first familiarize yourself with the entire text, do a pre-translation analysis, isolate sections of the text that contain key information that helps reveal the secrets, and pay the greatest attention to these sections.
Georginova N. Yu. Detective genre: reasons for popularity / N. Yu. Georginova // Scientific dialogue. - 2013. - No. 5 (17): Philology. - pp. 173-186.
UDC 82-312.4+82-1/-9+821.161.1’06
Detective genre: reasons for popularity
N. Yu. Georginova
An overview of existing opinions regarding the place occupied by the detective story in literature and culture as a whole is offered. Based on an analysis of the points of view of specialists involved in understanding the genre uniqueness of such works, the problem of identifying the reasons for the popularity of detective stories among readers is solved. In addition, it is noted that interest in the study of the detective genre in the scientific community of literary scholars and linguists is not only not weakening, but also increasing.
Key words: detective; genre; popularity.
In the course of the development of literary thought, there is a constant reassessment of values, a change in methods and techniques for organizing works of art. In other words, there is a continuous process of enrichment through constant changes and modifications. Literary genres, being necessary components of literature, are also subject to change and revaluation. A striking example of this is the history of the development of the detective genre. Throughout the history of its formation, the detective genre has raised a lot of questions and debates among literary scholars. In particular, the question of the place occupied by the detective story in literature and culture as a whole remains ambiguous.
In the afterword to the collection “How to Make a Detective,” G. Andzhaparidze concludes that “the detective story occupies its own place in culture and nothing else has any chance of replacing it.”
place" [Andzhaparidze, 1990, p. 280]. In other words, the detective story is full-fledged and full-fledged in the world literary process. Proof of this is this collection, which includes works by such authors as A. Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, D. Hemmet, R. O. Freeman, S. S. Van Dyne, D. Sayers, R. Knox , M. Leblanc, C. Aveline, D. D. Carr, F. Glauser, E. S. Gardner, M. Allen, S. Maugham, R. Stout, E. Quinn, R. Chandler, J. Simenon, Boileau -Narsezhak, A. Christie, H. L. Borges, G. Andjaparidze.
Thus, the English thinker and writer, author of a number of detective stories, Gilbert K. Chesterton, in the essay “In Defense of Detective Literature,” writes: “Not only is the detective novel or story a completely legitimate literary genre, it also has very definite and real advantages as an instrument of the common good" [Chesterton, 1990, p. 16]. Moreover, the author insists that the appearance of the detective story is a natural historical move that meets the social and cultural needs of people: “Sooner or later, rough, popular literature should have appeared, revealing the romantic possibilities of the modern city. And it arose in the form of popular detective stories, as rough and blood-hot as the ballads of Robin Hood" [Chesterton, 1990, p. 18]. Argentine novelist, poet and publicist Jorge Louis Borges also emphasizes the need to distinguish the detective story as a separate genre: “In defense of the detective genre, I would say that it does not need protection: read today with a sense of superiority, it preserves order in an era of disorder. Such fidelity to the model is worthy of praise, and well deserved” [Borges, 1990, p. 271-272].
We also find defensive speech in R. Chandler: “It is hardly necessary to prove that the detective story is an important and viable form of art” [Chandler, 1990, p. 165].
In R. O. Freeman we find: “There is no genre more popular than the detective story... After all, it is quite obvious that a genre that has attracted the attention of people of culture and intellect cannot contain anything inherently bad” [Freeman, 1990, p. 29]. The fact that the detective
tive literature has been repeatedly opposed to genuine literature as “something unworthy,” which is explained by literary scholars by the existence, along with the real geniuses of their genre, of unscrupulous authors. According to R. O. Freeman, “a detective story, capable of fully embodying all the characteristic properties of the genre, while remaining a work of good language, with a skillfully recreated background and interesting characters, corresponding to the strictest literary canons, remains perhaps the most a rare phenomenon in fiction" [Freeman, 1990, p. 29]. We find a similar thought in R. Chanler: “Nevertheless, a detective story - even in its most traditional form is extremely difficult to write... A good detective writer (it’s impossible that we don’t have them) is forced to compete not only with all the unburied dead, but also with legions of their living colleagues" [Chandler, 1990, p. 166]. The author accurately defines the complexity of writing a good detective story: “It seems to me that the main difficulty that arises in front of a traditional, or classical, or detective novel based on logic and analysis is that in order to achieve even relative perfection it requires qualities that are rarely collectively present in one person. The imperturbable logic-designer usually does not produce lively characters, his dialogues are boring, there is no plot dynamics, and there is a complete lack of bright, accurately seen details. A rationalist pedant is as emotional as a drawing board. His scientist detective works in a shiny new laboratory, but it is impossible to remember the faces of his heroes. Well, a person who knows how to write dashing, bright prose will never undertake the hard labor of composing an iron-clad alibi” [Chandler, 1990, p. 167].
According to S. Eisenstein, the detective story has always attracted the reader “because it is the most effective genre of literature. You can't tear yourself away from him. It is constructed using such means and techniques that maximally rivet a person into reading. Detective
The most powerful remedy, the most purified, sharpened structure in a number of other literatures. This is the genre where the average
properties of influence are exposed to the limit" [Eisenstein, 1968, p. 107]. The detective story is distinguished as an independent literary genre based on its unique features. Thus, A. Vulis notes: “Detective is a genre. But this is also a topic. More precisely, a combination of both. The genre itself contains such a clear event program that we know in advance some of the main episodes of a work that has not yet been read” [Vulis, 1978, p. 246].
Thus, the detective story has a special place in literature due to the presence of compositional forms unique to it, the concept of characters, forms of influence, and even due to the presence of its reader. “There is such a type of modern reader - a lover of detective stories. This reader - and he has proliferated all over the world, and is counted in the millions - was created by Edgar Allan Poe,” we meet in Jorge Louis Borges [Borges, 1990, p. 264]. Who is the detective addressed to? “Genuine connoisseurs of the genre, who strongly prefer it to all others, who read detective stories meticulously and carefully, are mainly representatives of intellectual circles: theologians, humanities scholars, lawyers, and also, perhaps to a lesser extent, doctors and representatives of the exact sciences,” - Freeman concludes [Freeman, 1990, p. 32].
The interest of scientists - representatives of the scientific community - in reading detective literature is explained by the similarity of methods and techniques used in detective fiction and science. Thus, B. Brecht believes: “The scheme of a good detective novel resembles the method of work of our physicists: first, certain facts are written down, working hypotheses are put forward that could correspond to the facts. The addition of new facts and the rejection of known facts forces us to look for a new working hypothesis. Then the working hypothesis is tested: an experiment. If it is correct, the killer must appear somewhere as a result of the measures taken” [Brecht, 1988, p. 281]. “In general,” notes V.V. Melnik, “the process of creative thinking in science and detective fiction proceeds according to the same scenario even after overcoming cognitive and psychological barriers.”
the ditch ends with the comprehension of a paradoxical truth-discovery" [Melnik, 1992, p. 5]. This “invasion of science into literature” that occurs in a detective story makes it possible for the coexistence of two forms of thinking - artistic and conceptual-logical. The first, as we remember, operates with images, the second with concepts. In addition, the artistic form of the detective story is ideally suited for the active assimilation of scientific knowledge by the reader at the level of his own “discoveries” due to the fact that the detective scheme, as noted by a passionate admirer of the detective genre, S. M. Eisenstein, “reproduces the historical path of human consciousness from the pre-logical, figuratively -sensual thinking to logical and further to their synthesis, dialectical thinking" [Eisenstein, 1980, p. 133]. These views are shared by N. N. Volsky: “I assume that a detective story gives the reader a rare opportunity to use his abilities for dialectical thinking, to put into practice (albeit in artificial conditions of intellectual fun) that part of his spiritual potential, which Hegel calls “speculative reason.” “and which, being inherent in every reasonable person, finds almost no application in our everyday life” [Volsky, 2006, p. 6].
Thus, reading detective literature is correlated with the process of personality formation, progressively moving from the stage of sensory-imaginative thinking to the maturity of consciousness and the synthesis of both in the most perfect examples of the inner life of creative personalities.
N. Ilyina, analyzing the features and reasons for the popularity of the detective genre, comes to the conclusion that the detective story is literature and a game. We are talking about a game that is “useful, develops observation, intelligence, and develops in the participant of the game the ability to think analytically and understand strategy” [Ilyina, 1989, p. 320]. In her opinion, literature in the detective genre is “the ability to build a plot without sacrificing persuasiveness for the sake of the game, clearly defined characters, lively dialogues and, of course, a reflection of life” [Ilyina, 1989, p. 328]
Julian Simons speaks about several other reasons that force the reader to turn to the detective genre. Exploring psychoanalytic connections, the author cites an article by Charles Rycroft in Psychology Quarterly for 1957, which continues the hypothesis of J. Pedersen-Krogg, according to which the peculiarities of perception of a detective are determined by impressions and fears from early childhood. The detective reader, according to Pedersen-Krogg, satisfies childhood curiosity by turning into an “investigator,” and thus “fully compensates for the helplessness, fear and guilt that have existed in the subconscious since childhood” [Simons, 1990, p. 230]. Julian Symons gives another version, proposed by W. H. Auden, which has a religious overtones: “Detectives have a magical property of alleviating our feelings of guilt. We live obeying and, in fact, fully accepting the dictates of the law. We turn to a detective story in which a person whose guilt was considered beyond doubt turns out to be innocent, and the real criminal is one who was completely above suspicion, and we find in it a way to escape from everyday life and return to an imaginary world of sinlessness, where “we can know love.” as love, and not as a punitive law” [Simons, 1990, p. 231-232].
In addition, the author proposes to develop the ideas of Auden and Fuller, “linking the pleasure we get from reading detective stories with the custom adopted among primitive peoples, according to which a tribe achieves purification by transferring its sins and misfortunes to some specific animal or person,” and connects the reasons for the detective’s decline precisely with the “weakening of the sense of sin”: “Where the awareness of one’s sinfulness in the religious sense of the word does not exist, the detective as an exorcist has nothing to do” [Simons, 1990, p. 233].
Interest in reading detective literature is associated with his ability to embody the “path of movement from darkness to light.” This means, first of all, solving a crime, solving a mystery. Edgar Allan Poe believed that the artistic joy and usefulness of the detective story lie precisely in this gradual movement from darkness to light, from
confusion to clarity. S. M. Eisenstein speaks of the situation of “coming into the light of God.” Moreover, a situation is understood as a case through which the attacker managed to escape from an impossible situation. And the detective brings the truth to the light of God, “for every detective boils down to the fact that from the “labyrinth” of misconceptions, false interpretations and dead ends, the true picture of the crime is finally brought “to the light of God” [Eisenstein, 1997, p. 100]. In this case, the detective, according to the author, appeals to the myth of the Minotaur and the primary complexes associated with it.
Thus, the detective story takes its rightful place in literature. “Over the past ten years, significantly more detective novels have appeared in Russia than in the previous period,” notes journalist and literary translator G. A. Tolstyakov. “The change in censorship policy gave literary space and made it possible to expand the range of translated and published authors, perhaps the most widely read genre of popular literature” [Tolstyakov, 2000, p. 73].
Attempts to comprehend the role and significance of the detective genre are inseparable from the search for the reasons for its wide recognition. The undying popularity of this genre is explained by a number of reasons that force the reader to turn to the detective story again and again: the need to compensate for helplessness, to overcome fears, to alleviate feelings of guilt, to experience a feeling of cleansing from one’s sinfulness, in emotions; interest in play and competition, response to challenges to intellectual abilities; the need to read and observe curious characters; the desire to discern romance in everyday city life; the desire to participate in an intellectual game, guessing the event program, applying one’s abilities to dialectical thinking, solving a mystery. As you can see, we are talking about needs of two types: psychological and socio-cultural (Fig. 1). Note that the distinction between types is conditional, since upon closer examination almost all needs are of a psychological nature.
Rice. 1. Readers’ needs as the reasons for the popularity of the detective genre
The popularity of the detective genre - the growing interest on the part of readers, the constant attention of literary scholars and practitioners to it - has led to the appearance of an increasing number of linguistic works devoted to its study. The subject of attention is the cognitive, pragmatic, discursive and other parameters of a detective text [Vatolina, 2011; Dudina, 2008; Kryukova, 2012; Leskov, 2005; Merkulova, 2012; Teplykh, 2007, etc.]. The need for scientific research in this area is dictated by
an anthropocentric paradigm relevant in modern literary criticism and linguistics. The attention of scientists who recognize that it is important to take into account the human factor in language is drawn to the study of the cognitive structures of human consciousness involved in the representation, acquisition and processing of knowledge about the world, contained, in particular, in a literary text. Language is understood as a way of representing human knowledge about the world.
T. G. Vatolina devotes her research to the cognitive analysis of English-language detective works. Projecting the concept of “discourse” onto a detective text, the author proceeds from the interpretation of discourse in the cognitive aspect as a “special mentality” [Stepanov, 1995, p. 38] and in the communicative aspect as “a message - continuously renewed or complete, fragmented or integral, oral or written, sent and received in the process of communication” [Plotnikova, 2011, p. 7]. T. G. Vatolina proves that every detective work is created according to a standard cognitive model, the same for all detectives. The general cognitive model of detective discourse is, at the internal deep level, “a complete holistic construct consisting of interconnected fragments.”
Cognitive contours" [Vatolina, 2011, p. 20]. To describe the cognitive model of a detective, the author uses the technique of assigning generalized metanominations to characters, which was developed by Y. Kristeva when conducting a structural analysis of a literary text [Kristeva, 2004]. The deepest contour of the cognitive model of detective discourse is formed, according to the author, by five characters: detective, killer, witness, assistant, victim. Deepening the cognitive model of the detective, the author derives, on the basis of speech-act analysis, a separate human quality of each character, abstracted and elevated to the level of a concept. Thus, the basic concept of speech acts of the Detective is the concept “Truth”, for the Murderer - “Lie”, for the Witness, Helper and Victim - the concept “Misunderstanding”. In addition, using the concept of “conceptual standard of the genre”, introduced
put into scientific use by S. N. Plotnikova and understood as a deep cognitive genre-forming basis, an invariant concept, compliance with which is mandatory for assigning a text to any genre, T. G. Vatolina defines the conceptual system of the detective story: “Murder” - “Investigation” -"Explanation".
I. A. Dudina devotes her research to the study of detective discourse in the light of the cognitive-communicative-pragmatic approach. Using the material of detective works by English and American writers, she identifies the status characteristics of detective discourse among other literary discourses, derives elements and identifies models on the basis of which the discursive space of a detective text is formed. The author distinguishes between the concepts of “detective text” as “a linguistic formation that has a certain structure and is characterized by coherence and integrity” and “detective discourse” as “the scheme “writer - artistic investigation - reader”
Entertainment”, thereby pointing to the functional, dynamic nature of discourse, where text is an element of communication connecting the author and the reader [Dudina, 2008, p. 10]. The proposed approach to the interpretation of a literary text is based on the thesis that the human mind stores samples, mental models, i.e., specially structured knowledge representation systems that form the basis of our linguistic ability and speech behavior. The author identifies two cognitive models of detective discourse in the form of the structure of an object-referent situation and the structure of a procedural situation. The subject-referential situation in detective discourse is “a clear event program” that the author of a detective text plans according to certain rules of the detective genre. A procedural situation is “a situation in which the author of a detective text influences the reader, resorting to a certain tone, the nature of the narrative, which evokes a corresponding emotional mood in the reader in response” [Dudina, 2008, p. 12].
L. S. Kryukova explores the plot perspective in stories of the detective genre. The plot perspective is understood by the author as “a unit of structural organization of the text of the detective genre in revealing the intrigue embedded by the writer in the code-schematic content of the plot” [Kryukova, 2012, p. 3]. The distinctive features of the plot perspective of the detective genre are revealed, the nature of the refraction of the plot perspective in four types of speech situations (microthematic, thematic, macrothematic and textological) is described.
D. A. Shigonov analyzes the recurrent center as a coding unit of the text using the material of English detective stories. The recurrent center is understood as “a unit of text that represents a repetition of a thought that violates the linear presentation of the content to update what was previously stated,” as a result of which it acts as “a mechanism on the basis of which the connection between distant parts of the text that have a common semantic basis is carried out” [Shigonov, 2005, p. . 5]. Thus, in the text of a detective work, a coding structure, represented by a recurrent center, and a decoding structure are distinguished. The recurrent center contains the mystery of a detective work, explicated through distantly located sections of text that have a common semantic content. Recurrent centers are closely related to the plot perspective: “The plot perspective in the text of a detective work forms the content through an inconsistent connection of unfolding events” and “acts precisely as a way of integrating the work, which is based on distantly located recurrent centers” [Shigonov, 2005, p. eleven].
Please note that all of this is work from recent years. Thus, the detective genre is increasingly becoming the subject of research by literary scholars, linguists, theorists and practitioners of the genre. The continuing scientific interest in the genre features of these texts is largely a consequence of the undiminished popularity of detective stories among the modern readership.
Literature
1. Andzhaparidze G. The cruelty of the canon and eternal novelty / G. Andzhaparidze // How to make a detective story / trans. from English, French, German, Spanish ; comp. A. Stroev; ed. N. Portugimova - Moscow: Raduga, 1990. - P. 279-292.
2. Borges X. L. Detective / L. H. Borges // How to make a detective / trans. from English, French, German, Spanish ; comp. A. Stroev; ed. N. Portugimova - Moscow: Raduga, 1990. - P. 236-272.
3. Brecht B. On literature: collection: translation from German / B. Brecht; comp., trans. and note E. Katseva; entry Art. E. Knipovich. - 2nd edition, expanded. - Moscow: Fiction, 1988. - 524 p.
4. Vatolina T. G. Cognitive model of detective discourse: based on the material of English detective works of the 18-20 centuries. : abstract of the dissertation... candidate of philological sciences / T. G. Vatolina. - Irkutsk, 2011. - 22 p.
5. Volsky N.N. Easy reading: works on the theory and history of the detective genre / N.N. Volsky; Federal Agency for Education, State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education “Novosibirsk State. Pedagogical University. - Novosibirsk: [b. i.], 2006. - 277 p.
6. Vulis A. Poetics of the detective / A. Vulis // New world. - No. 1. - 1978. -S. 244-258.
7. Dudina I. A. Discursive space of a detective text: based on the material of English-language fiction of the 19-20 centuries. : abstract of the dissertation. candidate of philological sciences / I. A. Dudina. - Krasnodar, 2008. - 24 p.
8. Ilyina N. What is a detective? / N. Ilyina // Ilyina N. Belogorsk fortress: satirical prose: 1955-1985 / N. Ilyina. -Moscow: Soviet writer, 1989. - pp. 320-330.
9. KristevaYu. Selected works: destruction of poetics: trans. from French / Yu. Kristeva. - Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2004. - 656 p.
10. Kryukova L. S. Plot perspective in stories of the detective genre: abstract of the dissertation. candidate of philological sciences / L. S. Kryukova. - Moscow, 2012. - 26 p.
11. Leskov S.V. Lexical and structural-compositional features of psychological detective work: abstract of the dissertation. candidate of philological sciences: 02.10.04 / S. V. Leskov. - St. Petersburg, 2005. - 23 p.
12. Melnik V.V. Cognitive and heuristic potential of fiction of the detective genre / V.V. Melnik // Psychological journal. - 1992. - T. 13. - No. 3. - P. 94-101.
13. Merkulova E. N. Pragmatic features of the actualization of the semi-sphere “Confidence” in English detective discourse: based on the works of A. Christie and A. Conan Doyle: abstract of the dissertation... candidate of philological sciences: 02.10.04 I E. N. Merkulova. - Barnaul, 2012. - 22 p.
14. Plotnikova N. S. Discursive space: to the problem of defining the concept I N. S. Plotnikova II Magister Dixit. - 2011. - No. 2 (06). -WITH. 21.
15. Simons J. From the book “Bloody Murder” I J. Simons II How to make a detective story I trans. from English, French, German, Spanish ; comp. A. Stroev; ed. N. Portugimova - Moscow: Raduga, 1990. - P. 225-246.
16. Stepanov Yu. S. Alternative world, discourse, fact and principles of causality I Yu. S. Stepanov II Language and science of the late twentieth century. - Moscow: Languages of Russian Culture, 1995. - P. 35-73.
17. Teplykh R.R. Conceptospheres of English and Russian detective texts and their linguistic representation: abstract of the dissertation. Candidate of Philological Sciences: 02/10/20 I R. R. Teplykh. - Ufa, 2007. - 180 p.
18. Tolstyakov G. A. Detective: genre categories I G. A. Tolstyakov II World of bibliography. - 2000. - No. 3. - P. 73-78.
19. Freeman R. O. The art of detective I R. O. Freeman II How to make a detective story I per. from English, French, German, Spanish ; comp. A. Stroev; ed. N. Portugimova - Moscow: Raduga, 1990. - P. 28-37.
20. Chandler R. The simple art of killing I R. Chandler II How to make a detective story I trans. from English, French, German, Spanish ; comp. A. Stroev; ed. N. Portugimova - Moscow: Raduga, 1990. - P. 164-180.
21. Chesterton G. K. In Defense of Detective Literature I G. Chesterton II How to Make a Detective I per. from English, French, German, Spanish ; comp. A. Stroev; ed. N. Portugimova - Moscow: Raduga, 1990. - P. 16-24.
22. Shigonov D. A. Recurrent center as a coding unit of text: based on the material of English detective stories: abstract of the dissertation. Candidate of Philological Sciences I D. A. Shigonov. - Moscow, 2005. - 20 p.
23. Eisenstein S. About the detective I S. Eisenstein II Adventure film: Paths and quests: a collection of scientific works I rep. ed. A. S. Troshin. -Moscow: VNIIK, 1980. - P. 132-160.
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© Georginova N. Yu., 2013
Crime Fiction: Causes of Popularity
The article reviews current opinions on the position held by crime fiction in literature and culture in general. Based on the analysis of viewpoints of the specialists addressing the issues of evaluating such works" genre peculiarities, the author identifies the reasons for the crime fiction popularity with readers. Furthermore, it is noted that the interest in studying the crime fiction genre has been growing lately rather than weakening in the academic society of literary scholars and linguists.
Key words: crime fiction; genre; popularity.
Georginova Natalya Yurievna, teacher of the department of specialized training in foreign languages, Murmansk State Technical University (Murmansk), [email protected].
Georginova, N., lecturer, Department of Specialized Training in Foreign Languages, Murmansk State Technical University (Murmansk), georna@mail. ru.
Movie genres
Detective
The detective story rightfully occupies an honorable place among the genres of literature and cinema. The exciting intricacies of the plot and the intrigue that persists until the final scenes make his fans, with bated breath, follow the adventures of the heroes and try to unravel all the mysteries with him. The eternal struggle between good and evil in the form of confrontation between the criminal and representatives of the law is revealed here in a more picturesque way.
History of the detective genre
Interest in investigating crimes and finding the perpetrators arose in society from the moment the criminal prosecution of lawbreakers became public. Even at the dawn of the development of civilization, thieves, murderers, swindlers and the like were subjected to persecution and punishment. Solving a crime, finding those who committed it and proving their guilt has always been not easy and required analytical thinking, ingenuity and observation inherent in the chosen few.
The first attempts to write a literary work in detective genre took place back in the 18th century in the works of William Godwin, who described the adventures of an enthusiastic lover of revealing intrigues. However, only from the pen of Edgar Poe in 1840 did they really come out detective stories, telling about the enterprising Dupin, deftly unraveling the most cunning puzzles. It was then that the favorite hero of the genre became a loner who, unlike the police, finds answers to all questions and achieves the triumph of justice.
Home of the detective England is considered to be where Agatha Christie, Doyle, Collins, Beeding and other masters of the pen worked, whose works are still relevant and interesting to millions of readers around the world. The Frenchman Fanu, the Americans Sheldon, Cheikh and Haley and many others wrote no less brilliantly. In Russian literature there is a full-fledged detective appeared only at the end of the 19th century after the lifting of censorship and the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Distinctive features of the detective genre
The detective story is characterized by a vivid plot based on the commission of a crime when it was not possible to identify the culprit. As a rule, the investigation, hot on its trail, ends up in a dead end or an innocent person is detained. A desperate detective-intellectual enters the fight against lawlessness, who quickly finds the true criminal and looks for sufficient evidence of his guilt.
The specificity of such works is that the reader, simultaneously with the main character, studies the evidence, receives information and gets to know the suspects, trying to guess which of them really committed the crime and for what reasons they acted. If good detective, then the truth becomes clear in the last pages of the book, and the poignancy of the plot is maintained until the final point.
As for the main characters, in addition to the villain and his antipode, there is certainly a victim, several alternative suspects, or, as an option, unfairly accused persons, as well as lazy, lack of initiative or simply corrupt representatives of official investigative authorities. And finally, it is impossible for oneself introduce detective, deprived of the triumph of justice and bringing clarity to all mysteries.
Laws of the Detective genre
Detective genre, like no other, is subject to immutable laws and stereotypes. So, firstly, the main character conducting the investigation, be it a journalist, a policeman or a female student, will never turn out to be the true culprit of the incident, while in life this may well happen. Secondly, the most likely criminal usually turns out to be innocent, and the collected evidence ultimately points to someone who was not at all suspicious in the first place.
Secondly, in detective stories there are no unnecessary elements. The example of the notorious gun, which must fire since it is hanging on the wall, is appropriate here. Each character plays a role, and every little detail is intended to guide the reader to the correct answer. Only a very insightful person, who is truly close to detectives, will be able to recognize the clue in the intricate coincidences.
Thirdly, the crime committed and attempts to solve it are the main thing in the storyline, even if it is diluted with comical situations, mysticism or love stories. The environment and behavior of the participants in the action are invariably understandable and close to everyone to such an extent that it is not difficult to imagine oneself among the heroes.
Types of detectives
Despite the subordination of the genre to clear rules, there is a wide variety of detective stories. Thus, today, action-packed books and films are very popular, where the detective shows not only subtle analytical thinking and insight, but is quite successful in martial arts, skillfully drives a car and shoots all types of weapons.
Such detective stories with elements of action and sometimes thriller are appreciated by men, while representatives of the fairer sex prefer the classic and leisurely flow of the plot. No less in demand are humorous detective stories, the main characters of which are housewives who constantly find themselves in a series of troubles or absent-minded and good-natured investigators.
Detectives with a mystical tinge, where crimes are committed by otherworldly forces or people possessed by psychosis, deserve special attention. The most common theme in this type of genre is the story of the capture of a maniac. Love adventures and detective stories with erotic overtones are no less interesting to viewers and readers of any gender and age, since, in addition to the opportunity to follow the search for a criminal, you can enjoy romantic moments.
Detective in cinema
The detective story has inspired many directors to create brilliant films, and today this genre is the basis for millions of scripts. It is noteworthy that filming a classic detective story does not require a large film budget, but, with an intriguing and vivid plot, virtuoso acting and high quality production, it inevitably brings huge box office receipts.
Screen adaptations of films and TV series about the most famous detectives, be they real people or fictional characters like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, attract the attention of millions of viewers. Modern interpretations of classic works are distinguished by originality and freshness, and current heroes of domestic and foreign cinema also gather crowds of fans and bring fame to the actors who played them.
The earliest works of the detective genre are generally considered to be stories written in the 1840s, but detective elements have been used by many authors before.
For example, in the novel “The Adventures of Caleb Williams” (1794) by William Godwin (1756 – 1836), one of the central characters is an amateur detective. The “Notes” of E. Vidocq, published in 1828, also had a great influence on the development of detective literature. However, it was Edgar Poe who created the first Great Detective - the amateur detective Dupin from the story "Murder in the Rue Morgue." Then Sherlock Holmes (K. Doyle) and Father Brown (Chesterton), Lecoq (Gaborio) and Mr. Cuff (Wilkie Collins) appeared. It was Edgar Poe who introduced into the detective story the idea of rivalry in solving a crime between a private detective and the official police, in which the private detective, as a rule, gains the upper hand.
The detective genre became popular in England after the release of W. Collins's novels "The Woman in White" (1860) and "The Moonstone" (1868). In the novels "The Hand of Wilder" (1869) and "Checkmate" (1871) by the Irish writer C. Le Fanu, a detective story is combined with a Gothic novel.
The founder of the French detective story is E. Gaboriau, the author of a series of novels about the detective Lecoq. Stevenson imitated Gaboriau in his detective stories (especially in "The Rajah's Diamond").
Usually, the incident in a detective story is a crime, the author describes its investigation and determination of those responsible, and the conflict is built on the clash of justice with lawlessness, ending in the victory of justice.
The main feature of a detective story as a genre is the presence in the work of a certain mysterious incident, the circumstances of which are unknown and must be clarified. The most frequently described incident is a crime, although there are detective stories in which non-criminal events are investigated (for example, in The Sherlock Holmes Papers, which belongs to the detective genre, five of the eighteen stories do not contain crimes).
An essential feature of the detective story is that the actual circumstances of the incident are not communicated to the reader in full until the investigation is completed. The reader is led by the author through the investigative process, gaining the opportunity at each stage to build his own versions and evaluate known facts.
The detective story contains three main plot-forming elements: crime, investigation and solution.
Features of the classic detective genre:
– completeness of facts (by the time the investigation is completed, the reader should have enough information to independently find a solution based on it)
– the ordinariness of the situation (the conditions in which events occur are generally ordinary and well known to the reader)
– stereotypical behavior of the characters (the actions are predictable, and if the characters have any distinctive features, then these become known to the reader)
– the existence of a priori rules for constructing a plot (the narrator and detective cannot turn out to be criminals)
A distinctive feature of the classic detective story is the inherent moral idea, or morality, which marks to varying degrees all works of this genre. The detective story ends with the punishment of the criminal and the triumph of justice.
