Undergraduate Course: The Great Detectives 6 (LLLG07089)

Course Outline
School	Centre for Open Learning	College	College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	10	ECTS Credits	5
Summary	This course explores the origins of detective fiction. We will consider Edgar Allan Poe¿s first detective stories as well as how Charles Dickens popularised the genre and how Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo brought social conscience into Scandi noir. We will discuss Truman Capote¿s intervention into the genre with his true crime account as well as looking at the first tartan noir novel.
Course description	Detective fiction is a fascinating genre because of the sheer multiplicity of novels within it. This course aims to tease out the differing approaches that detective fiction writers have used. We will study Fyodor Dostoevsky's meditation on the morality of murder in the name of a higher purpose and Graham Greene's exploration of sin and damnation in the gangland world of Brighton. We will explore how the narration of the crimes of two sociopathic murderers affects our engagement with these cold-blooded criminals and look at the first 'tartan noir' novel, William McIlvanney's Laidlaw.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: show confidence in discussing texts demonstrate analytical approach to close reading place literature in its historical, cultural and political context explain and identify the various elements of the genre demonstrate a good understanding of how the genre has developed and diversified