Murder Ink: Narratives of Crime, Discovery, and Identity

Catalog description

Examines the narrative of detection, beginning with the great dramatic whodunit (and mystery of identity) Oedipus Rex . Literary texts which follow a trail of knowledge, whether to establish a fact (who killed Laius?) or reveal an identity (who is Oedipus?) follow in Sophocles' footsteps. We read Sophocles' intellectual children. Readings include: Hamlet , The Murders in the Rue Morgue , The Woman in White , and other classic novels and plays. We also analyse seminal films of the genre, including Laura and Vertigo . Will include the twentieth-century detective story, with particular attention to women writers and the genre of the female private eye.