Poe’s Gift: Detective Genre and its Boundaries

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Absract: The essay examines the genre of mystery tales in the works of Edgar Allan Poe. It focuses not so much onThe essay examines the genre of mystery tales in the works of Edgar Allan Poe. It focuses not so much onthe elements of his well-read and thoroughly examined tales that will become formulas of the detective genrethereafter but on the inherent fluidity of their generic boundaries – namely, on what features Dupin stories asnon-classical detective narratives. It argues that Poe invented and bestowed on world literature a genre thatalready contains potential for experiment and, as its best samples demonstrate, seeks transgression of its ownconventions. Besides Dupin circle, the article discusses the lesser-known story “Thou Art the Man” that lacksscholarly attention in Russia.
Keywords: Edgar A. Poe, detective, genre, generic boundaries, Nineteenth-century American literature.
Category: Vol 77, NO 2 (2018)
Pages: 60–66
Department: Materials and Notes
Author: Alexandra P. Urakova
Information about the author: Candidate of Philological Sciences, Senior Researcher at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the RAS, 25a Povarskaya St., Moscow, 121069, Russia alexandraurakova@yandex.ru

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