Humanities 2610 Final Exam. McRae, summer 2017
Directions. Please answer the ALL of the questions fully with reference to specific texts. You must do all of the work yourself, without help from another person. You
may refer to your texts as necessary. You will need 2 to 2 ½ hours to complete the exam. Please submit in the drop box by Sunday August 13, 9:00 am.
A. Genre. – Read both questions first, please, and then plan which texts you will use to answer each question so that you are able to show off knowledge of more
texts. 20 points
1. Evolution of the detective character. You have now read a variety of detective fiction novels and novellas. What makes a good detective? How have you seen the
character of detectives evolve from one author to the next? Do they depend on earlier models or do they introduce new characteristics for their detectives? Refer
specifically to at least 4 detectives and mention at least 4 different texts or detectives in your answer. (300-325 words) 10 points
2. We read Van Dine’s “Rules of Detective Fiction” and Todorov’s article illustrating how a genre can develop through breaking the rules. In what novels that we read
did you see rules broken? Mention at least 4 texts and 4 different rules broken. How did this rule breaking affect the evolution of the detective fiction as a genre
and your appreciation of the novel? Be explicit here as you refer to texts, but do not use Poe, Gaboriau, or Doyle’s stories since they wrote before Van Dine and thus
cannot be expected to “follow the rules”. (300-325 words) 10 points
B. Culture. 20 points – Read both questions first, please, and then plan which works you will use to answer each question. 20 points
1. Detective fiction, as we have seen, is a popular genre in many countries and is written in many languages. How does culture play a role in these stories? What
cultural facts do we need to be aware of to gain a fuller understanding of the work? Choose at least four (4) works to support your opinion and refer directly to the
texts. (300-325 words) 10 points
2. Recently on NPR literary critic Maureen Corrigan reviewed the re-publication of 4 of American author Ross Macdonald’s hardboiled detective novels. She lifts out an
enlightening quote about the “why” of reading and writing detective fiction: “Ross Macdonald had a smart answer to the tedious question of why he devoted his
considerable talents to writing “mere” detective stories: Macdonald said that the detective story was “a kind of welder’s mask enabling writers to handle dangerously
hot material.” What stories have we read that were able to use the “welder’s mask” to write about difficult topics? Choose at least four (4) works (different from the
ones above – well, ok, one author can be overlapping – that illustrate this phenomenon (300-325 words) 10 points
C. Reader response and your point of view – Answer the following question, feeling free to offer your opinion supported by evidence from the works we have read.
1. Edmund Wilson has famously panned the genre of detective fiction as worthless in a 1944 New Yorker article. What do you think? What is the value of reading
detective fiction? Give at least 4 advantages or disadvantages (or perhaps a mixture of both) to support your opinion, illustrating with direct references to the texts
we have read as well as to newer manifestations of the genre, in print, tv, or movie format.. (300 – 325 words) 10 points
