Thinking About Detective Stories: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Bloch, Detective Genre and the Dissolution of Communal Relationships

Abstract

This essay analyzes Benjamin’s, Bloch’s and Kracauer’s reflections on detective literature and its relationship with new forms of life and socialization, which include, according to these authors, anonymity of one's neighbour, the rupture of the connection between human being and transcendence, the split between private and public life, etc. I try to show that these authors analyze many characteristics of this literary genre in the light of dissolution of communal life and the new social determinations which came up at the end of 18th century and beginning of the 19th century. I attempt to make visible the authors’ contributions to the study of this genre and to show that Bloch's view of detective novel synthesizes and goes beyond Benjamin's and Kracauer's contributions. Last but not least, I suggest how the evolution of detective literature continues expressing existing conflicts, related to the representation of law and its application on the bodies. Furthermore, I show how, according to the thesis of Richard Hoggart, the transformation of this literary genre in a mass product takes away some of its critical power.