The Evolution of the Female Detective in Crime Fiction. A Journey of Feminism

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Constance (Literaturwissenschaft), course: British and American Literature and Culture, language: English, abstract: The following term paper will use novels of the genre crime fiction to illustrate the evolution of female protagonists ¿ in this specific case ¿ female detectives. This genre is especially interesting because it was associated very male characteristics for most parts of its existence. The development of this genre, which lead us to today¿s variety in gender amongst detectives, is an accurate representation for the evolution of the feminist movement. In other words, female crime writers had to enter a domain dominated by men just as much as their female protagonists had to enter a profession that was formerly exclusively occupied by their male counterparts. We will start by briefly defining the terms used throughout this term paper. The main part will be structured chronologically, with the beginnings of the female detectives during the 18th century up until today¿s representatives of the genre. In order to prove that the image of the female detective has changed simultaneously with the development of the feminist movement, we will take a closer look at three distinct crime fiction novels. The literature we chose will focus on female detectives in novels written by women authors from the United States. Moreover, these female detectives are to some extend archetypes of their respective fields. Lastly, we will conclude our findings by giving a concise summary and analyzing whether full equality among female and male detectives in crime fiction has been established.