The Boy Detective in Early British Children’s Literature

Andrew, Lucy

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-62090-9

Cited by 8 publications

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“…In relation to crime and detection, please see especially studies byWorthington (2005) andSussex (2010). With reference to children's stories, please seeBoyd (2003) andAndrew (2017).6 In particular this re-evaluation of the ghost story has focused upon its uses in the hands of women writers. See, for example, studies by Edmundson (2013),Margree (2019) andLiggins (2020).…”

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Teaching Victorian Short Fiction

Margree¹

2020

VPFJ

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This essay argues for greater inclusion of Victorian short fiction in university teaching. In the first part of the essay I argue that Victorian short fiction has been subject to a double marginalisation in scholarship. This has resulted, firstly, from the minor status of short fiction in general, and secondly, from the focus of attempts to redeem the short story upon proto-modernist stories. This leaves underexplored the greater part of short fiction from the nineteenth century – particularly highly plotted popular fictions, and fictions published before the 1890s. Part two contends that this scholarly neglect is reflected in an insufficiency of pedagogic scholarship on Victorian short fiction. It argues for the teaching potential of this material in terms of moving beyond the canon, enabling students to become producers of knowledge, and decolonising the curriculum. Part three provides a case study of a digital platform – the Victorian Short Fiction Project – and an 1862 tale collected there from London Society magazine which focuses upon female art students negotiating possibly conflicting desires for autonomy, professional fulfilment, and marriage. The analysis aims to show that even ephemeral, anonymous short fiction of this kind can open up valuable classroom discussions of narrative form, readerly engagement, and the complex ideological work being undertaken by popular Victorian fictions.

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Teaching Victorian Short Fiction

Margree¹

2020

VPFJ

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The Boy Detective

Andrew

2020

The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication

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This entry focuses on the origins and development of the boy detective protagonist in various forms of Anglophone literature from the mid‐19th century to the present. In Britain, the boy detective first appeared in the “penny dreadful” The Boy Detective; or, the Crimes of London (1865–1866) as a middle‐class role model for boy readers, before becoming a recurring feature of Alfred Harmsworth's boys' story papers from the 1890s onward as a street urchin assistant to a middle‐class, adult detective. In the early 20th century, the boy detective featured in popular school stories in papers such as the Gem and the Magnet and moved into other hybrid forms in series fiction from the 1940s onward, merging with genres such as holiday‐adventure, historical fiction, and the supernatural. In the United States, the boy detective emerged as an independent hero in half‐dime novels and story papers from the 1880s onward before moving into popular series such as The Hardy Boys (1927–), Encyclopedia Brown (1963–2012), and The Three Investigators (1964–1990). The originally British adult detective/boy assistant tradition has flourished in American comics since 1940 in Batman/Robin narratives. While Robin begins as a firm role model for his young readers in 1940, recent incarnations of the Boy Wonder have become less idealized. The movement of the boy detective into American Young Adult fiction has continued this exploration of the morally ambiguous and potentially violent and criminalized nature of the modern boy detective.

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Introduction: Step Forward, Sidekicks

Andrew

Saunders

2021

The Detective's Companion in Crime Fiction

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The Boy Detective in Early British Children’s Literature

Cited by 8 publications

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Teaching Victorian Short Fiction

Teaching Victorian Short Fiction

The Boy Detective

Introduction: Step Forward, Sidekicks

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