Race, Gender and Empire in American Detective Fiction

John Cullen Gruesser is a Senior Research Scholar at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.

“a distinctive and valuable analysis of cross-cultural currents within American crime writing, shedding new light on the genre’s representations of gender, race and empire”—CrimeCulture; “essential read”—The Edgar Allan Poe Review; “recommended...Gruesser is one of the most readable and stimulating professorial writers on crime fiction, and he has fresh insights to offer on race and gender”—Mystery Scene; “Combining historical breadth and detailed textual analysis, this ambitious and original examination of the importance of gender, race and empire in American detective fiction is indispensable for scholars and fans of the genre alike.”—David Schmid, author of Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture; “An astutely connective and yet wide-ranging study of the genre, showing it to have been from its inception a reader’s path to incisive critiques of gender, race, and American empire-building.”—Norlisha F. Crawford, editor, Clues special issue on Chester Himes (2010).

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction: Manipulation, Malleability and Metafiction in American DetectionOne • “Having defeated him in his own castle”: Character Rivalry, Authorial Sleight of Hand and Generic Fluidity in Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin TalesTwo • Expanding on Poe: Varieties of Detection in Key American Literary Texts, 1850–1882Three • Subverting and Re-Entrenching Traditional Gender Roles: Female Sleuths, Dangerous Women and the Imperial Origins of Hard-Boiled FictionFour • Detecting Empire Abroad and at Home: Interrogations of United States Overseas Expansion and Jim Crow in Early African American Detective WritingCoda: Black Freedom, Mythic ­Heroism and Hard-Boiled Motherhood in Contemporary American Detective FictionAppendix: Interviews with Valerie Wilson Wesley (May 2003, January and February 2013)Chapter NotesWorks CitedIndex