Revision 1:
The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today. The HBO series True Detective presents us with another step in the development of the investigator.
The term "artist-investigator" is used to describe someone working in the arts, especially theater, who pushes against established boundaries in the discipline. However, it is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology.
In this paper, I review selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions, showing how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character is based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pitting the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper, by closely examining the links among Chambers, Lovecraft, detective fiction, and True Detective, sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator.
(196 words, not counting this count marker)
The last graf needs work.
A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator.
Yep, that's better. Here's the abstract in full, revision 2:
The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and in fact going back to Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon in the Bible, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today. The HBO series True Detective presents us with another step in the development of the investigator.
That step is the artist-investigator. The term "artist-investigator" is used to describe someone working in the arts, especially theater, who pushes against established boundaries in the discipline. However, it is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology.
A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator.
(203 words, not counting this count marker)
Revision 3:
The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and in fact going back to Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon in the Bible, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today. The HBO series True Detective presents us with another step in the development of the investigator.
That step is the artist-investigator. The term "artist-investigator" is used in theater studies to describe someone who pushes against established boundaries in the discipline. However, it is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address this figure as part of its canon. This is a critical omission.
A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator.
(227 words, not counting this count marker)
Revision 4:
The investigator as a literary figure is a contentious one. Born out of traditions established by Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and, in fact, going back to Daniel and the story of Bel and the Dragon in the Bible, the first locked room mystery), the investigator changed radically in 20th-century detective fiction--moving from amateur to professional, investigator to criminal--and continues to do so today.
That investigator has become the artist-investigator. The term "artist-investigator" is used in theater studies--and then only by a select group--to describe someone who pushes against established boundaries in that discipline. It is not typically used to describe an epistemology of investigation or the figure employing that epistemology, nor does the extant body of detective fiction criticism address this figure as part of its canon. This is a critical omission.
A review of selected works by Robert W. Chambers and HP Lovecraft through the lens of detective fiction tropes and conventions shows how the investigators in True Detective are a new kind of detective derived from atelier fiction, weird fiction, and detective fiction. This new character, based on the aesthetics of crime and redemption, pits the artistic sensibilities of the detective against those of the criminal. This paper sheds new light on the little-recognized figure of the artist-investigator.
(249 words, not counting this count marker)
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