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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Between Continuity And Change: Early Twentieth-Century German-Language Crime And Detective Novels And The ‘Familienkrimi’, Julia Karolle-Berg
Between Continuity And Change: Early Twentieth-Century German-Language Crime And Detective Novels And The ‘Familienkrimi’, Julia Karolle-Berg
2018 Faculty Bibliography
German-language crime and detective novels of the 1920s and 1930s have recently enjoyed scholarly attention, yet the first decade of the century remains relatively unresearched. This study explores a popular subgenre of the ‘Kriminalroman’ from this crucial period: novels that featured a criminal investigation in which central characters are part of an extended family, referred to here as ‘Familienkrimis’. In them, the resolution of the crime requires addressing familial conflicts, which then enables the (re-)union of a romantic couple. My sample comprises five novels, Im Haus der Witwe (1901) by Robert Kohlrausch, Subotins Erbe (1905) by Gabriele von Schlippenbach, Die …
On The Popularity Of The Kriminalroman: The Reception, Production, And Consumption Of German Crime And Detective Novels (1919–1933), Julia Karolle-Berg
On The Popularity Of The Kriminalroman: The Reception, Production, And Consumption Of German Crime And Detective Novels (1919–1933), Julia Karolle-Berg
2018 Faculty Bibliography
For many decades, popular literature, including crime and detective fiction, was viewed only in opposition to high literature and as unworthy of scholarly attention. This study proposes an approach that recognizes this discourse, yet shifts the focus to consider indicators of the popularity of the Kriminalroman during the Weimar era through additional evidence of its reception, production, and consumption. Even as these sources acknowledge the persistent stigma of crime and detective fiction, they also present a complex, multivalent notion of its popularity as the bourgeoisie increasingly participated in writing, reading, and commenting on crime and detective fiction. This re-visioning of …