Sublime Gaps
This essay examines the ways in which metaphysical detective stories subvert one of detective fiction’s most emblematic features: the investigation’s resolution and the subsequent narrative closure. In the “The Man of the Crowd” (1840), the father of the genre, Edgar Allan Poe, already introduced my...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2018-07-01
|
| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/5875 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832578527306711040 |
|---|---|
| author | Antoine Dechêne |
| author_facet | Antoine Dechêne |
| author_sort | Antoine Dechêne |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay examines the ways in which metaphysical detective stories subvert one of detective fiction’s most emblematic features: the investigation’s resolution and the subsequent narrative closure. In the “The Man of the Crowd” (1840), the father of the genre, Edgar Allan Poe, already introduced mysteries that “[did] not permit [themselves] to be read.” Such texts enact quests for knowledge that cannot reach any kind of intellectual or emotional closure and are, instead, rewarded with more unfathomable questions. The sublime appears as a relevant concept to describe the “gaps” left open in the cognitive process of looking for answers, which will hopelessly remain beyond the detective’s — and the reader’s — reach. Including close readings of Henry James’s “The Figure in the Carpet” (1896) and Samuel Beckett’s Molloy (1951), this essay proceeds to show that the “metaphysical” character of these texts lies predominantly in their lack of faith in language as a reliable tool to convey the multiple and shifting identities of the unsuccessful sleuth confronted with the meaninglessness of his investigation. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-28286b9614c043709a8f6a87602267e5 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sillages Critiques |
| spelling | doaj-art-28286b9614c043709a8f6a87602267e52025-01-30T13:46:58ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022018-07-012410.4000/sillagescritiques.5875Sublime GapsAntoine DechêneThis essay examines the ways in which metaphysical detective stories subvert one of detective fiction’s most emblematic features: the investigation’s resolution and the subsequent narrative closure. In the “The Man of the Crowd” (1840), the father of the genre, Edgar Allan Poe, already introduced mysteries that “[did] not permit [themselves] to be read.” Such texts enact quests for knowledge that cannot reach any kind of intellectual or emotional closure and are, instead, rewarded with more unfathomable questions. The sublime appears as a relevant concept to describe the “gaps” left open in the cognitive process of looking for answers, which will hopelessly remain beyond the detective’s — and the reader’s — reach. Including close readings of Henry James’s “The Figure in the Carpet” (1896) and Samuel Beckett’s Molloy (1951), this essay proceeds to show that the “metaphysical” character of these texts lies predominantly in their lack of faith in language as a reliable tool to convey the multiple and shifting identities of the unsuccessful sleuth confronted with the meaninglessness of his investigation.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/5875Metaphysical detective fictionthe sublimeclosurePoeJamesBeckett |
| spellingShingle | Antoine Dechêne Sublime Gaps Sillages Critiques Metaphysical detective fiction the sublime closure Poe James Beckett |
| title | Sublime Gaps |
| title_full | Sublime Gaps |
| title_fullStr | Sublime Gaps |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sublime Gaps |
| title_short | Sublime Gaps |
| title_sort | sublime gaps |
| topic | Metaphysical detective fiction the sublime closure Poe James Beckett |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/5875 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT antoinedechene sublimegaps |