Mystery, Murder and the Moorland. Devon-Spaces in British Detective Fiction of the 20th and 21st Century

Examination Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Paderborn, language: English, abstract: [...]

This thesis will start with some general assumptions on spatiality in literature and outline its importance for (detective) fiction. The focus will be on the concepts of space and place by de Certeau, Lefebvre and Lotman. Afterwards, in the subchapter on the geographical and physical context, crucial dichotomies of space which have an influence on detective novels will be examined, especially the distinction between open and enclosed spaces. The chapter that follows will deal with three concrete novels of different eras to explore the representation of Devon with regard to the specific dichotomy mentioned above. Arthur Conan Doyle s The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) and Agatha Christie s novel The Sittaford Mystery (1931) both depict Devon in the early and middle twentieth century while Simon Beckett s The Calling of the Grave (2010) shows a contemporary idea of how this region is perceived. A comparative analysis of these three novels will follow in order to point out the similarities and differences of Devon-spaces, as well as to underline how they together create its overall image. In this way, this chapter shows that new inventions have only changed this location and its perception at the surface but not in its core.
Since there are many adaptations of Doyle s novel, the fourth chapter will take a closer look at two medial representations of Devon and compare the literary with the medial space. The popular film adaptation by Lanfield from 1939 and an episode of the BBC Series Sherlock, a reimagining, contemporary update of Doyle s classic, will serve as examples. Although many aspects of the adaptations could be compared to the novel, the interest will primarily be in the cinematographic realisation of spaces. Furthermore, the question of how far these spaces coincide with the image of Devon created by literature will be discussed. Subsequently, the conclusion will finally summarise the findings of this thesis and suggest possibilities to expand the topic of British detective fiction and Devon-spaces.