English_Extension_Crime_&_Genre_Summary

~Summary~ Extension 1 English Genre- Crime Fiction C.F. Definition- an imagined text that involves a crime. Genre definitions Category or Pigeonhole based on: ▪ Plot/Content ▪ Form ▪ Key Characteristics Crime Fiction is a genre with sub genres: - Thriller - Spy - American Hard Boiled - Forensic - Drawing Room British “Cosy School” - The Whodunit & The Golden Age Whodunit - Spoofs and parodies - Police procedurals - Psycho suspense novel Modern Forerunners: - Ghost stories - Horror stories - Revenge stories Genre Quotes: Recent critical interest in genre has focused on the role that “generic assumptions have played both in shaping the work that an author composes, and in establishing expectations that alter the way that a reader will interpret and respond to a particular work” (Abrams, 1998: 77) “A genre is ultimately an abstract conception rather than something that exists empirically in the world” (Jane Feuer, 1992: 144, cited in Candler, 1997: 1) “Genre cannot be treated in isolation from social realities, nor are they separate from the people who use them. They are not neutral categories.” (Kerry-Anne O’Sullivan, Macquarie University 2000) “Genre is a very lose kind of unity, and it’s constituent elements travel into many places, carrying often the crucial echo of a character type, performance style, visual mode, aspect of tone, or whatever…” (Lasuer 1996: 2) “Genre, a French term, in literary criticism denotes a type species of literature, or as we now call it, a “literary form”. The genre into which literary works have been classed are numerous, and the criteria used for such classifications have been highly variable”(M.H Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms: The Forth Edition, 1981) “Literary compositions run into each other precisely like colours: in their strong tints they are easily distinguished, but are susceptible of so much variety, and take on so many different forms that we never can say where one species ends and another begins.” (Fowler, Kinds of Literature) NOTE: All texts contain: • Conventions- known to composer & Audience beforehand • Inventions- uniquely imagined by the creator- new kinds of characters, ideas, linguistic forms. Text 1- The Murder in the Rue Morgue, By Edgar Allan Poe • Written in 1840- Around the time of Colonisation Criminal- exotic – “Other”- Subtle view of euro centric values of the time. • Detective- Dupin -Observant -Ingenious -More intelligent & successful than the police. -Rational -Eccentric- marginalised -Male- Patriarchal views, women victims- men detectives -Offsider • Conventions: (These cold be the first conventions of crime fiction in the Anglo world) Crime Evidence- Witnesses Clues, Puzzle Suspense Solution Text 2: The Hound of the Baskerville’s - TV production.