THE DETECTIVE STORY Unit 2 2.1

Today’s Agenda DOL Unit 2 handout The history of the detective story The Narrator’s Voice

DOL: the woman who was elected to be the club chairperson has gave many hours of service to the town of cedarburg times three is a poetry book that contains the funny selection lancelot a poem about young love

The origins of the detective story Stories about crimes have been part of literature since Cain killed his brother Able in the Garden of Eden. Edgar Allen Poe is considered the father of the American detective story The golden age of the British detective story was penned by authors like: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ellery Queen, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Dashiell Hammett’s detectives were rough and tumble, work-a-day privet eyes who lived in the corruption of prohibition America when gangsters and mobsters were out to control the streets of the city.

DOL: the woman who was elected to be the club chairperson has gave many hours of service to the town of cedarburg times three is a poetry book that contains the funny selection lancelot a poem about young love

The modern detective The modern detective appeared in literature between World Wars I & II Unlike their gentleman, honor code bound predecessors – the modern detective can be almost as villainous as the bad guy being chased. Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, and Mike Hammer’s detectives are typical of these just before and just post World War II detectives After World War II – the cold war started to heavily influence the stories Many modern authors see the attack on the towers – 9/11 as a game changer for modern fictional detectives

DOL: the woman who was elected to be the club chairperson has gave many hours of service to the town of cedarburg times three is a poetry book that contains the funny selection lancelot a poem about young love

What is the Narrator’s voice?

DOL: the woman who was elected to be the club chairperson has gave many hours of service to the town of cedarburg times three is a poetry book that contains the funny selection lancelot a poem about young love

Pun: A prisoner’s favorite punctuation mark is the period It marks the end of his sentence

DOL: the woman who was elected to be the club chairperson has gave many hours of service to the town of cedarburg times three is a poetry book that contains the funny selection lancelot a poem about young love

DOL Corrections: The woman elected to be the club chairperson has given many hours of service to the town of Cedarburg. Times Three is a poetry book that contains the funny selection “Lancelot,” a poem about young love.

Different types of Narrators Undramatized – speaks in 3 rd person and works as the anonymous voice mediating events – does not appear in the story. Dramatized – speaks in 1 st person and has a conscious identity as the one who mediates the events to the reader. They can be agents of action or not. – Montressor is an agent of action in “The Cask of Amontillado” – Nick from The Great Gatsby is more of an observer and commentator.

Narrators Where drama shows a story – novels tell a story. That telling is through narration. First Person – Nick Caraway from The Great Gatsby – Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes stories Third Person – the story-teller is not part of the story. This story- teller often knows more than the characters do. Omniscient means “knows all” – The third person narrator who is omniscient knows all there is to know about a story

The implied author The person you imagine wrote the literature. This imagined individual is defined by the stylistic devices employed by the narrator – this becomes very important when irony is used and the narrator does not know something which the reader does.

More Types of Narrators Reliable – this narrator type is aligned with the understanding of the implied author with a critical distance from the action of the story. This narrator is not involved in the action and can narrate without prejudice. This allows the reader to trust that the narrator is relating the story as it happened. Often indistinguishable form the implied author.

And finally - The unreliable narrator – this narrator operates against the author’s understanding of reality and thus creates irony. The attitude of the narrator serves to convey the opposite of what the author intends for the reader to understand. This narrator cannot be trusted to tell the story without being influenced by his or her own perception of the action – often this narrator is a part of the action. The Theme (universal meaning) is relayed through the irony created by the difference between the narrator’s POV and what the author would have the reader understand.

1 st person & 3 rd person