Detective Fiction surveys the genre of detective fiction as it has developed over the 19th and 20thcenturies. Together, we will read and discuss classic, noir, science fiction, and postmodern detective novels, as well as watch several films, glimsping the variety of this genre as it has transformed and diversified over a century and a half. To understand these novels, short stories, and films within their historical context, we will also consider such issues as criminal justice, the police state, racial and ethnic profiling, homophobia and gynophobia, and environmental justice. Come join us!

Some of course readings and films include:

• Short Stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie
• The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
• Chinatown directed by Roman Polanski
• Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
• Claire De Witt and the City of the Dead by Sara Gran