3.1 Due at the final exam, Friday, May 8: Explain which two writers on our syllabus you think it's most essential that I use again next time I teach this class: give very specific reasons why.  In a separate paragraph (at least) also explain which two writers you think I should drop from the syllabus in future Det Lit courses, here too being very specific in your reasoning. 

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On deck:

3.2 Due after the final exam, but no later than Sunday, May 10: Follow the link here, and respond with thoughtful, thorough suggestions for improvement of my teaching of this Literary Detective Fiction course.

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Previous critical response topics—no longer valid for submission.

1.1 Due Thursday, January 15: In the three Dupin stories, Poe seems to be interested in demonstrating genius in the amazing mental and intellectual processes of the detective, the powers of "ratiocination" possessed by C. Auguste Dupin. What else can you say about Dupin's personality or character beyond his being brilliant? Describe him in as much depth as you can (in two pages max.) as if he has recently become your neighbor and and you are trying to convey what sort of person he is to a friend or family member. Make some reference to all three stories, and include quotations from at least two (totaling four quotations in all).

1.2 Due Tuesday, January 20: Choose one option, do not address both:
a) Discuss the reliability of Gabriel Betteredge as narrator: how does Collins present him as being a worthy, reliable source of information, and also how does Collins suggest that he may not be entirely credible on all matters he narrates? Include quotations from at least three different chapters in your discussion.

b) Discuss Collins's portrayal of the police in Superintendent Seegrave, including at least three quotations to support your observations.

1.3 Due Thursday, January 22: How does Sergeant Cuff compare with the two detectives we have encountered thus far, Poe's Dupin and Collins's Superintendent Seegrave? Elaborate, focusing more on contrasts than similarities, and including at least four quotations dealing specifically with Sergeant Cuff.

1.4 Due Tuesday, January 27: Open assignment. Taking care to avoid plot summary (nugget 1), write about whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in at least one chapter from Miss Clack's narrative (pp. 221-71), and at least one chapter from either Bruff's narrative or our reading from Blake's narrative (pp. 296-356). Include at least two quotations from Miss Clack's narrative and at least two from either Bruff's or Blake's.

1.5 Due Thursday, January 29: Respond to the solution of the mystery and the conclusion of The Moonstone more generally. Explain how Collins's wrapping up of the narrative is satisfying in some respects but perhaps less than satisfying in others. Include at least three quotations from the final 100 pages of the novel to support your assertions.

1.6 Due Tuesday, February 3: Open assignment: what strikes you as significant, notable, or interesting in our first installment of Crime and Punishment? Be careful to avoid plot summary (nugget 1), comment on matters both before and after the murders, and include at least three quotations to illustrate your observations.

1.7 Due Thursday, February 5: Discuss Raskolnikov's first meeting with the head of the police investigative department, Porfiry Petrovich. How is this detective entirely different from those we've encountered in Poe or Collins? How might he be an even more formidable opponent to a criminal he is pursuing than Dupin or Sergeant Cuff? Include at least three quotations to support your analysis.

1.8 Due Tuesday, February 10: Choose one option, do not address both:
a) Open assignment on Raskolnikov's second meeting with Porfiry Petrovich, avoiding plot summary and including at least three quotations to support your claims.

b) Consider how Svidrigailov and Luzhin are both foils to Raskolnikov: how are all three of these characters seriously flawed in their morality? Include at least one quotation pertaining to each character, and feel free to go beyond the minimum.

1.9 Due Thursday, February 12: After reading to the end, comment on what Dostoyevsky seems to be saying in the novel about the role of the detective in the Russian criminal justice system: is Porfiry Petrovich merely concerned with getting criminals off the streets and protecting society? Punishing offenders? Explain, including at least three quotations.

1.10 Due Tuesday, February 17: Arthur Conan Doyle, in creating Sherlock Holmes and Watson, took the pattern Poe created in the Dupin stories and perfected it, establishing detective fiction as a major genre and igniting a veritable explosion of detective stories and novels in the late 19th century and early 20th. Discuss various ways that Doyle not only repeats elements of Poe's detective stories, but embellishes, expands, and improves them. Areas to consider might include differences between Watson and the Poe narrator, the deductive powers or processes of Holmes vs. those of Dupin, differences in treatment of setting or detailed description, differences in establishing the eccentric personalities of the detective characters—really, anything analytical you may notice. Include quotations from at least three different Doyle stories from this day's reading to illustrate your claims.

1.11 Due Thursday, February 19: Open assignment. Avoiding plot summary, respond to whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in two Sherlock Holmes stories, one being either "The Man with the Twisted Lip" or "The Blue Carbuncle" and the other either "The Speckled Band" or "The Engineer's Thumb." Include at least two quotations from each story you discuss.

1.12 Due Tuesday, February 24: How does the religious angle impact or modify the detective-hero in any three of the Father Brown stories we're reading? Include at least one quotation from each of the stories you discuss.

2.1 Due Tuesday, March 3: Choose one, do not address both
a) How does the broader space of a full novel permit greater expansion of key elements of classic detective fiction as established by Poe, Collins, and Doyle? Specifically, consider how Christie manages to involve us in greater depths of “puzzlement” and how she leads us down multiple blind alleys. Include at least four quotations from the novel to illustrate your claims (and not all from the first chapter or so J).

b) How does the greater space of the novel form permit more extensive commentary on human nature in the first half of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd—perhaps in the detective himself, but also in other characters? Can you point to any specific literary themes in the novel thus far? Include at least three quotations to substantiate your claims.

2.2 Due Thursday, March 5: Open assignment on the second half of Christie’s novel: write about whatever strikes you as interesting or significant. Avoid plot summary and include at least three quotations in your discussion.

2.3 Due Tuesday, March 17: Find an authoritative definition of "hard-boiled detective fiction," quote its most salient information, and then explain how the first half of The Maltese Falcon bears out different elements of that definition. Include at least four quotations from the novel. A works cited page is required with this response.

2.4 Due Thursday, March 19: Open assignment. Respond to whatever strikes you as interesting or noteworthy in the second half of The Maltese Falcon. Include at least three quotations to support your claims.

2.5 Due Tuesday, March 24: Review the Hammett PowerPoint in D2L, then point out different ways Chandler's The Long Goodbye fits the bill as "hard-boiled" detective fiction, including at least four quotations to support your claims.

2.6 Due Thursday, March 26: Write about Chandler's seeming commentary on American society, or on some particular segment or aspect of American society in The Long Goodbye. Focus your analysis on the middle third of the novel (between pp. 101-226), including at least three quotations to support your observations.

2.7 Due Tuesday, March 31: Open assignment on the concluding third of The Long Goodbye. Avoid plot summary and include at least three quotations in your discussion.

2.8 Due Thursday, April 2: Analyze the character of Brother William of Baskerville in The Name of the Rose. Describe his personality in general and also Eco's portrayal of him as a detective. Include at least three quotations in your analysis.

2.9 Due Tuesday, April 7: Choose one: do not address both:
a) Discuss Eco's portrayal of the church or the clergy in our second installment of the novel, focusing on any aspect you find interesting: the doctrinal disputes, significant weaknesses or corruption among the clergy, the daily lives of the monks, anything at all that you deem notable. Include at least three quotations to support your observations.

b) What do you make of the labyrinth in the library? How is the labyrinth symbolic as well as literal? What does Eco seem to be saying about knowledge through books thus far in the novel? Include at least three quotations.

2.10 Due Thursday, April 9: Point out passages from three different chapters delivering significant observations on the nature of truth, or knowledge, and explain what you think is so important about each. Naturally, quote the three passages you discuss.

2.11 Due Tuesday, April 14: Open assignment: respond analytically, avoiding plot summary, to anything that strikes you as interesting or significant in any two chapters in "Day Five" of The Name of the Rose, including at least two quotations from each chapter.

2.12 Due Thursday, April 16: Choose one option, do not address both:
a) Read to the end of the novel and consider how the conclusion to the detective plot illuminates or supports Eco's thematic commentary on the nature of truth and/or knowledge throughout the novel. Include at least three quotations from the Sixth Day, starting with "After Terce," and the Seventh Day

b) Comment on whatever strikes you as significant or interesting in any two sections of the Postscript, including a minimum of three quotations total.

2.13 Due Tuesday, April 21: Open assignment on the first 100 pages of The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Avoid plot summary, and include at least three quotations in your discussion. You might want to focus on the detective character, the "alternate history" the novel presents, or the comic in the novel, but anything analytical is fair game.

2.14 Due Thursday, April 23: Choose one option, do not address both:
a) Meyer Landsman is widely considered a "highly entertaining character." Discuss how this is so, including quotations from at least three different chapters in the second quarter of the novel.

b) Chabon is remarkably gifted in his distinctly creative use of language. Comment on Chabon's uniquely vivid use of language to convey what he narrates or describes with uncommon precision, including quotations from at least three different chapters from this day's reading.

2.15 Due Tuesday, April 28: Open assignment: respond analytically to whatever strikes you as interesting or significant in the third quarter of The Yiddish Policemen's Union, avoiding plot summary and including quotations from at least two different chapters.

2.16 Due Thursday, April 30: Focusing especially on the last quarter of the novel, and including quotations from at least three different chapters, comment on various ways The Yiddish Policemen's Union is radically different from all the other detective fiction we've read. Consider in particular how the book's themes are entirely different from those of all the other hard-boiled fiction we've read.