The Queens of Crime Fiction
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| ENGL4417 | English | 4 | N/A | April Full Year UK, Full Year UK, January Full Year UK |
- Code
- ENGL4417
- School
- English
- Level
- 4
- Credits
- N/A
- Semesters
- April Full Year UK, Full Year UK, January Full Year UK
Summary
This pod explores the detective novels of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham. It opens up the social and cultural world of interwar detective fiction, examining how these books handle questions of gender, Empire and class whilst unravelling their mysteries. It enables students to read detective fiction critically, uncovering the ideologies encoded into famous figures like Poirot, Peter Wimsey and Miss Marple – and how those ideologies are transformed when the books are adapted for TV and film.
Target Students
Students registered on the School of English online masters scheme.
Assessment
- 100% PARTICIPATION: STUDENT PARTICIPATION
Assessed by end of designated period
Educational Aims
This module comprises an optional component in the following pathways: Applied English, English Literature, and Modern and Contemporary Literature. As such, it contributes in its specific aims to the programme-level coverage of these pathways.Learning Outcomes
Analyse detective fiction as literature, engaging with questions of technique, genre and symbolism.
Demonstrate critical understanding of detective fiction in its social and cultural contexts, showing how it engages with the world beyond the text.
Discuss the ideological freight of detective fiction, how a genre contains moral and social visions of the world.
Demonstrate knowledge and skills acquired to the appropriate disciplinary and professional standard.
Assimilate and present subject-specific material in an appropriate format (assessed within the ‘Assessment Portfolio’ 1, 2 or 3).