Detective Fiction and the Problem of Knowledge

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. The Problem of Knowledge

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 3-11

   3. From the Metaphysical Detective Story to the Metacognitive Mystery Tale

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 13-44

   4. Enigmas of the Sublime and the Grotesque

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 45-86

3. From the flâneur to the Stalker

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

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   2. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Man of the Crowd”

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 89-106

   3. Jorge Luis Borges’s Textual Labyrinths

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 107-147

   4. Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 149-190

4. The Grotesque

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 191-191

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   2. Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street”

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 193-218

   3. Samuel Beckett’s Molloy

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 219-245

   4. Roberto Bolaño’s Monsieur Pain

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 247-272

5. The Sublime

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 273-273

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   2. Henry James’s “The Figure in the Carpet”

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 275-302

   3. Horacio Quiroga’s “The Pursued”

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 303-323

6. In Lieu of a Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 325-325

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   2. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Wakefield”

      • Antoine Dechêne

      Pages 327-337

7. Back Matter

   Pages 339-347

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This book establishes the genealogy of a subgenre of crime fiction that Antoine Dechêne calls the metacognitive mystery tale. It delineates a corpus of texts presenting 'unreadable' mysteries which, under the deceptively monolithic appearance of subverting traditional detective story conventions, offer a multiplicity of motifs – the overwhelming presence of chance, the unfulfilled quest for knowledge, the urban stroller lost in a labyrinthine text – that generate a vast array of epistemological and ontological uncertainties. Analysing the works of a wide variety of authors, including Edgar Allan Poe, Jorge Luis Borges, and Henry James, this book is vital reading for scholars of detective fiction. 

• Detective
• Flaneur
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Herman Melville
• Henry James
• Mystery tale
• City
• Urban
• Iain Sinclair
• Paul Auster
• Roberto Bolaño
• Franz Kafka
• Samuel Beckett
• Jorge Luis Borges
• British and Irish Literature

  “Using examples from the works of writers and artists as diverse as Poe, Melville, Beckett, Borges, Bolaño, and Auster and confronting them with old and recent theories about the goals and methods of governing "mainstream" detective fiction, Antoine Dechêne's impressive volume takes us beyond a consideration of the detective genre per se into a reconsideration of neglected domains of thinking which only a full confrontation with the genre’s diversity and plasticity can reveal.” (Michel Delville, Université de Liège, Belgium)

“Daring and ambitious in its approach, up to date and cutting edge in its scholarship, and always solid and frequently brilliant in its analysis, Detective Fiction and the Problem of Knowledge will make a significant contribution to popular culture studies generally and crime fiction studies in particular, as it convincingly argues for the superiority of the term metacognitive mystery tale over metaphysical detective story.” (John Gruesser, Sam Houston State University, USA) 

• University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

  Antoine Dechêne

Antoine Dechêne holds a PhD from the Université de Liège, Belgium. His research deals with all aspects of the metaphysical detective story in the USA and in France. He is co-editor with Michel Delville of the first volume dedicated to the genre in French: Le Thriller métaphysique d'Edgar Allan Poe à nos jours (2016). 

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