From Sherlock Holmes onwards, fictional detectives use lenses: Ocular Proof and the Spectacled Detective in British Crime Fiction argues that these visual aids are metaphors for ways of seeing, and that they help us to understand not only individual detectives’ methods but also the kinds of cultural work detective fiction may do. It is sometimes regarded as a socially conservative form, and certainly the enduring popularity of ‘Golden Age’ writers such as Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh implies a strong element of nostalgia in the appeal of the genre. The emphasis on visual aids, however, suggests that solving crime is not a simple matter of uncovering truth but a complex, sophisticated and inherently subjective process, and thus challenges any sense of comforting certainties. Moreover, the value of eye-witness testimony is often troubled in detective fiction by use of the phrase ‘the ocular proof’, whose origin in Shakespeare’s Othello reminds us that Othello is manipulated by Iago into misinterpreting what he sees. The act of seeing thus comes to seem ideological and provisional, and Lisa Hopkins argues that the kind of visual aid selected by each detective is an index of his particular propensities and biases.
Author(s): Lisa Hopkins
Series: Crime Files
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 193
City: London
Acknowledgements
Contents
Part I: Through a Glass Darkly
Chapter 1: Introduction: What the Spectacled Detective Sees
References
Chapter 2: Out of Focus: Ariadne Oliver
References
Part II: Seeing the Unseen
Chapter 3: Scouting Skills: Max Carrados, Sherlock Holmes’ Blind Rival
References
Chapter 4: An Unseen Hook and an Invisible Line: Father Brown
References
Part III: Seeing Through Glass
Chapter 5: The Man with the Monocle: Lord Peter Wimsey
References
Chapter 6: An Ass in Horn-Rims: Albert Campion
References
Part IV: Binocular Vision
Chapter 7: Seeing Double: Inspector Alleyn
References
Chapter 8: The Double Vision of Dornford Yates
References
Chapter 9: Conclusion
References
Index
