1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910506393303321

Autore

Watson David Riddle

Titolo

Truth to Post-Truth in American Detective Fiction / / by David Riddle Watson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2021

ISBN

3-030-87074-X

9783030870744

303087074X

9783030870737

3030870731

Edizione

[1st ed. 2021.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (230 pages)

Collana

Crime Files, , 2947-8359

Disciplina

813.087209

Soggetti

Literature, Modern - 20th century

Literature, Modern - 21st century

America - Literatures

Language and languages - Style

Rhetoric

Metaphysics

Mass media and crime

Ethnology - America

Culture

Contemporary Literature

North American Literature

Rhetorics

Crime and the Media

American Culture

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction: From Clear Speaking to Misunderstanding -- 2. Closed Worlds and Cold Detectives -- 3. Cold Wars and Porous Borders -- 4. The Bleak and the Dread: From Existential Angst to Postmodern



Paranioa -- 5. The Flat-Earth Society: Tracing Networks in the Contemporary World -- 6. Living in Two Separate Worlds: The Feral Detective, The City and The City, and the Problem of Relativism -- 7. The United States of V, White, and Q.

Sommario/riassunto

Truth to Post-Truth in American Detective Fiction examines questions of truth and relativism, turning to detectives, both real and imagined, from Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin to Robert Mueller, to establish an oblique history of the path from a world where not believing in truth was unthinkable to the present, where it is common to believe that objective truth is a remnant of a simpler, more naïve time. Examining detective stories both literary and popular including hard-boiled, postmodern, and twenty-first century novels, the book establishes that examining detective fiction allows for a unique view of this progression to post-truth since the detective’s ultimate job is to take the reader from doubt to belief. David Riddle Watson shows that objectivity is intersubjectivity, arguing that the belief in multiple worlds is ultimately what sustains the illusion of relativism.