Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons^™

Gals With Guns: The Changing Role Of The Female In Detective Fiction, Warren J. Graffeo

Warren J Graffeo

ABSTRACT In creating this thesis, my aim is to put forth an argument that the role of women in detective fiction has undergone a major change. In the earliest renditions of the genre, women did not occupy a major role in this form of literature. Over time, particularly since the 1970s, that role has changed dramatically. The advent of the self-assured, assertive, independent, female detective, private, amateur, or professional has emerged and is solidly in place at the beginning of the twenty-first century and takes her place in the forefront of detective fiction.

In establishing my argument, I began at …