French Crime FictionFR405

Dr Georgina Collins

10 January 2012

Today’s session• The practicalities of the module

• An overview of what we will be studying

• The history and development of French Crime Fiction

• Some of the theoretical background to the texts we will be studying

• Introduction to key themes

• Key figures in development of the genre

This module

One hour lecture:–Historical and theoretical background

One hour seminar–Discussion of text in light of lecture

– Interactive Office hours: Thursday 3-5Email: georgina.collins@warwick.ac.uk

Website

AssessmentFormative assessment:•Essay (questions online now)•around 1,500 words in length•by Tuesday of week 23

Summative assessment options: •100% essay (4000-5000 words)•100% exam•50% of each (essay – 2000-2500 words)

Assessed essay questions (online now)•12.00 noon on Tuesday of week 25•100% essay – can devise own title – speak to me

Intro to French Crime Fiction

• La Belle Époque to present day• Evolution of the genre• Codification• French history• Critique of social order• Youth culture• Challenging traditional codes• Relating writers to these themes

The genre

• Le roman policier

• A lesser genre?

- Littérature populaire

- Littérature de gare

- Genre mineur

• Divide between so-called low culture and high culture

The novel

• Mid-19th C – French crime fiction became a legitimate genre

• Novel:

- popular form of entertainment

- exploring limits of representation

• Exploratory novels – synonymous with high culture

From romanticism to realism

• Romanticism:

- produced many novels

- exotic or historical settings

• Eg. Hugo’s Notre-Dame de

Paris

- medieval Paris

Nationalism

•Romanticism - 1825-1850- linked to nationalism

•Emphasis on:- national culture (history, geography)- folklore

•Strengthened mythological basis of nation

Romantic novels

• Issues of justice and law and order• Culprits, victims and investigators• Le Comte de Monte Cristo (Dumas)• Les Misérables (Hugo)

Balzac

• Famous character – Vautrin

• Based upon Eugène François Vidocq:

- Head of French Sûreté

- Formerly on other side

of the law

- Recruited as informer

- Memoires were very

popular

Capturing the public’s imagination

• Dual nature of Vidocq

• Emphasis on adventurous, lurid nature of profession

• Police methods – provocations, disguise, incitement to betrayal

• Chevalier Dupin (Poe) – a

rational approach

Glamour, romance and adventure

• Memoirs brought these factors to otherwise uninspiring police world

• Glorified criminal activities• Success – indicator of public discontent• Balzac:

- Le Père Goriot- Les Illusions perdues - Splendeurs et misères

des courtisanes

The birth of the genre

1.Emergence of popular press

2.New trends in the book market

3.New approach to time, space and work

Factor one

• Gradual emergence of popular press

• Daily newspapers mixing:

- currents affairs

- ‘faits divers’

- serialised short

stories / novels

Emile Gaboriau

• Founding father of French Crime Fiction

• Petit Journal and Le Soleil

• Created Commissaire Lecoq

• 1st recurrent detective

• Name from Vidocq

• Influenced Arthur Conan

Doyle

Judicial procedures

• Gaboriau

- translated into English

- novels recommended to British

lawyers

• Lecoq is a mixture of:

- Vidocq: adventure,

glamour, romance

- Dupin: ratiocination

Knowledge of police procedures

• Lecoq – recognisable techniques• Demonstrate author’s knowledge• Combination of:

- reasoning, tracking techniques, disguises, forensic methods- Vidocq’s sportsmanship,

knowledge of underworld

Artistic flair

• Gaboriau’s investigators:- marginal figures- work according to instinct- like an artist

• Stand for law and order, but also talent and inspiration• Justice needs imaginative genius• But police – also fallible

Serialisation

• Reader’s satisfaction – main objective

• Survival depended on sales

• To maintain profit – art of suspense became a major ingredient

Factor 2

Development of a distinctive crime genre linked to:

Set of new trends in the book market

The Industrial revolution

• Middle of the 19th century

• Revolution influenced:

- reading habits

- relations to cultural goods

• Birth of middle class and notion of leisure

• Reading associated with leisure

• Increasingly demanding readers

Mass consumption

• Sentimental novels, children’s literature, adventure novels and crime / detective novels

• Serialisation (feuilletons) led to:

- mass consumption

- demanding readers

The quest for the ultimate answer: the genre’s driving

force

Factor 3

Development of a distinctive crime genre linked to:

A new approach to time, space and work

The genre’s modernity

• Modern life divided between work and leisure• Work: its own rhythm, rationality in labour division, timing• Leisure: needed to be effective• Crime fiction:

- easily adapted to modern life- quickly consumed- reproducable

Individualism

• Literary production heralded in the

rise of individualism

• Male detective either:

- police officer (rep of state)

- private detective (rep of

discourse of law and order)

• But he stands outside the system

• A solitary figure

On the periphery

• To deal with justice – needs to observe

• In-spector: looking into (from outside)

• Seeks to protect anonymous mass

• Not unlike the artist:- requires isolation and

reflection- sets himself apart from

the populace

The flâneur

• The inspector – le flâneur (Constantin Guys)

• Described by Baudelaire:

- artistic modernity

- new way of being

• Constantin Guy:

- embodiment of a rupture

- ‘homme du monde’

Curiosity

• A key characteristic of the in-spector

• Hermeneutic quest requires

- proximity of the crowd

- to draw inspiration (artist) /

clues (detective) from it

The investigator

• A product of new approach to the world

• Both in the world and on the periphery

• Voyeur of the anecdotal

• Society – spectacle from which to collect clues / intelligence

• Crime fiction captures epistemological shift in West (around 1860)

Summary

• Development from low culture to high culture

• Romantic texts – Dumas and Hugo• Birth of genre down to 3 key facts:

- Emergence of popular press- New trends in the book market

- New approach to time, space and work• Detective – individual, on the periphery

of society, looking in, hermeneutic quest

Questions and Comments?

Seminar: Round the room

What have you learnt from this lecture?

Seminar: Group work

1.What are the characteristics of the detective described in the lecture?

2.How can you relate these characteristics to a classic literary / tv detective you know?

3.Read the article:- summarise the key points- can you relate any of these to

today’s lecture? - be ready to give a 1 minute overview

Don’t forget to prepare for next

week!

Seminar questions will be posted online after today’s session