TY - BOOK ID - 17907470 TI - Detecting texts: the metaphysical detective story from Poe to postmodernism AU - Merivale, Patricia AU - Sweeney, Susan Elizabeth PY - 1999 SN - 0812216768 9786613212375 1283212374 0812205456 0812234693 9780812216769 9780812234695 PB - Philadelphia, Pa University of Pennsylvania Press DB - UniCat KW - Detective and mystery stories KW - Experimental fiction KW - Fiction KW - Metaphysics in literature. KW - History and criticism. KW - Technique. KW - Metafysica in de literatuur KW - Metaphysics in literature KW - Métaphysique dans la littérature KW - anno 1900-1999 KW - History and criticism KW - American fiction KW - 20th century KW - Technique KW - Fiction writing KW - Metafiction KW - Writing, Fiction KW - Authorship KW - Detective and mystery stories - History and criticism KW - Experimental fiction - History and criticism KW - Fiction - 20th century̨ - History and criticism KW - Fiction - Technique KW - ROMAN POLICIER KW - LITTERATURE EXPERIMENTALE KW - METAPHYSIQUE DANS LA LITTERATURE KW - HISTOIRE ET CRITIQUE UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:17907470 AB - Although readers of detective fiction ordinarily expect to learn the mystery's solution at the end, there is another kind of detective story—the history of which encompasses writers as diverse as Poe, Borges, Robbe-Grillet, Auster, and Stephen King—that ends with a question rather than an answer. The detective not only fails to solve the crime, but also confronts insoluble mysteries of interpretation and identity. As the contributors to Detecting Texts contend, such stories belong to a distinct genre, the "metaphysical detective story," in which the detective hero's inability to interpret the mystery inevitably casts doubt on the reader's similar attempt to make sense of the text and the world.Detecting Texts includes an introduction by the editors that defines the metaphysical detective story and traces its history from Poe's classic tales to today's postmodernist experiments. In addition to the editors, contributors include Stephen Bernstein, Joel Black, John T. Irwin, Jeffrey T. Nealon, and others. ER -