The Detective and the Witch: Local Knowledge and the Aesthetic Pre-History of Detection

SummaryThe paper reevaluates an obscure, German-language crime novel from the nineteenth century and its better-known English translation: Carl Adolf Streckfuss's Das einsame Haus: nach den Tagebüchern des Herrn Professor Döllnitz: Roman (1888), translated as The Lonely House (1907). Although written in German by an author from Berlin, the novel is set on the territory of Slovenia. The paper situates the novel geographically and historically, while considering its place in the developing genres of crime and later detective fiction. Moreover, the novel's depiction of intraethnic tension in the Slovenian village where the crime occurs will be shown to reflect the ethnic tensions on the frontiers of Austro-Hungarian territory, and to align with later trends in English detective fiction towards the use of ethnic taxonomies in constructing and solving crime. (Samotna hiša, 1907). Čeprav je njegov avtor iz Berlina, se odvija v Sloveniji. Prispevek predstavi geografski in zgodovinski okvir romana in ga žanrsko umesti med nastajajoči kriminalni roman in kasnejšo detektivsko pripoved. Na podlagi zločina, opisanega v romanu, ki se zgodi v slovenski vasi, zaznamovani s spori znotraj iste etnične skupnosti, prikaže medetnične napetosti na robu avstro-ogrskega ozemlja, ki se ujemajo s kasnejšimi trendi v angleški detektivski pripovedi, kjer se zločini načrtujejo in razrešujejo s pomočjo etničnih taksonomij.

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

customersupport@researchsolutions.com

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

The Detective and the Witch: Local Knowledge and the Aesthetic Pre-History of Detection

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Enlightenment, Counter-Enlightenment: Detection, Reason, and Genius in Tales of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle

Enlightenment, Counter-Enlightenment: Detection, Reason, and Genius in Tales of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle

Elementary Ratiocination: Anticipating Sherlock Holmes in a Slovene Setting

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About