THEMATIC, FORMAL, AND IDEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF LITERARY FICTION : THE RISE OF DETECTIVE FICTION

From ancient Greece on, fictional narratives have entailed deciphering mystery. At almost the same period as the detective branch of the Metropolitan Police was evolving, the genre of detective fiction was also emerging, mainly in the short-story form. In these stories, a mystery or a crime occurs, and an amateur or professional detective is called in to solve it. The first modern detective story is often thought to be Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which first introduced the golden age of detective stories, and the world to private detectives, that would later culminate into the stories of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Detective fiction is one of the most popular literary genres. From the rigid structures of classic whodunits to the genre-bending experiments of today, crime fiction has undergone a fascinating evolution that is found in an investigative journey, and the eternal human desire to see justice served.