Course

Worlds of Crime: Reading Crime Fiction in a Global Context - ARTS3045

Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

School: School of the Arts and Media

Course Outline: School of the Arts and Media

Campus: Sydney

Career: Undergraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3

Enrolment Requirements:

Prerequisite: 48 UOC overall, including 6 UOC at level 1 and 6 UOC at level 2 in one of the following streams, English

CSS Contribution Charge: 1 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

Subject Area: English

“To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s” writes Dostoyevsky in Crime & Punishment. Taking Dostoyevsky’s observation as a starting point this course explores crime as an idea and as a fiction – of reinvention, resistance, alternative worlds, and subjectivities. Why are we so compelled by maverick detectives, violent crimes, elicit schemes, deception and betrayal? From its beginnings in the late 18th Century, crime fictions of various kinds have captivated readers and challenged literary, cultural and moral conventions. This course will trace the historical emergence and circulation of this genre from Edgar Allan Poe and Conan Doyle through to its contemporary global proponents. You will explore key issues that have shaped the history of consuming crime fictions – the emergence of mass culture, taste and 'the art of murder', sensationalism, violence, the nexus of literary and cinematic storytelling, horror, and the grotesque.

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