Chesterton Defends Detective Stories
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-2096.2026.62166Keywords:
Chesterton, literary canon, detective stories, paradoxical encomiumsAbstract
The aim of this article is discussing how crime fiction, considered as a minor form of literature until the 20th century, could acquire a certain canonical status. Perrone-Moisés (1998) describes the variation of literary canon according to time, space, culture. Albuquerque (1979) and Priestman (2003) delineate a history of crime fiction, while Marcus (2003) indicates how this genre has been classified and interpreted in academic studies. Miller (1956) summarizes the production of paradoxical encomiums in England. This outlook will allow us to examine four essays by Chesterton (1901, 1920, 1925, 1930) on crime fiction and to discuss epideictic aspects of the articles collected in The Defendant (1901). Our aim is showing how the defense of crime fiction by Chesterton has contributed with literary criticism focused on this genre, at the same time it opens perspectives to comprehend principal aspects of his fictional and nonfictional work.
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