The Golden Age of Crime Fiction has often been dismissed as a period providing cosy murder stories with conventional endings. However, writers from this period transformed crime fiction an developed the classic trope of the clue-puzzle crime novel. We will explore novels which provide us with cases of madness, sexual depravity, serial killers, indecency, unlikely sleuths and controversial endings. Writers from the Golden Age were writing in the aftermath of one world war and through the shadow and eventual reality of another - cosy and comfortable? I think not...
Course aim
This course will look at a selection of novels from the Golden Age of Crime Fiction.
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- This course is for beginners and improvers
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- Understand what is meant by the term Golden Age of Crime Fiction.
- Discuss the literary context of Golden Age Crime Fiction.
- Identify some of the common tropes of crime fiction.
- Compare and contrast different styles of writing from the period.
- Engage in group discussions on this subject.
What else do I need to know?
The novels studied on this course will be: Gladys Mitchell's 'A Speedy Death', Agatha Christie's 'Murder at the Vicarage', Margery Allingham's 'Police at the Funeral', Dorothy L Sayers's 'Busman's Honeymoon'. The books will be studied in this order.
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