The Double, the Labyrinth and the Locked Room

Ilana Shiloh

ISBN 10: 0820468436 / ISBN 13: 9780820468433

Published by Peter Lang, Peter Lang Nov 2010, 2010

About this Item

Neuware -Traditional detective fiction celebrates the victory of order and reason over the senseless violence of crime. Yet in spite of its apparent valorization of rationality, the detective genre has been associated from its inception with three paradoxical motifs ¿ the double, the labyrinth and the locked room. Rational thought relies on binary oppositions, such as chaos and order, appearance and reality or truth and falsehood. Paradoxes subvert such customary distinctions, logically proving as true what we experientially know to be false. The present book explores detective and crime-mystery fiction and film from the perspective of their entrenched metaphors of paradox. This new and intriguing angle yields fresh insights into a genre that has become one of the hallmarks of postmodernism.Books on Demand GmbH, Überseering 33, 22297 Hamburg 196 pp. Englisch.

Seller Inventory # 9780820468433

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Double, the Labyrinth and the Locked Room
• Publisher: Peter Lang, Peter Lang Nov 2010
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0820468436
• ISBN 13: 9780820468433
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 225W x 150H x 11D millimeters 225 millimeters width by 150 millimeters height by 11 millimeters depth
• Weight: 284 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Traditional detective fiction celebrates the victory of order and reason over the senseless violence of crime. Yet in spite of its apparent valorization of rationality, the detective genre has been associated from its inception with three paradoxical motifs – the double, the labyrinth and the locked room. Rational thought relies on binary oppositions, such as chaos and order, appearance and reality or truth and falsehood. Paradoxes subvert such customary distinctions, logically proving as true what we experientially know to be false.
The present book explores detective and crime-mystery fiction and film from the perspective of their entrenched metaphors of paradox. This new and intriguing angle yields fresh insights into a genre that has become one of the hallmarks of postmodernism.

About the Author

Ilana Shiloh received her PhD in American literature from Tel Aviv University, where she taught detective fiction in the Department of English. Her previous book, Paul Auster and Postmodern Quest, has gained critical acclaim.