Detective Fiction and Anti-Intellectualism at the Fin de Siècle

Detective Fiction and Anti-Intellectualism at the Fin de Siècle

Presenter(s)

Allie Thiele

Comments

11:20-11:40, Kennedy Union 312

Description

At the turn of the century there was an increase in social concern surrounding intellectualism and the role of the academic in a rapidly industrializing world. While anti-intellectualism is addressed in a variety of literary texts, detective fiction offers a unique insight into the emergent anxieties surrounding intellectualism through its stark representations of good and evil. The Sign of the Four, published in 1890 by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and The Man Who Was Thursday, published in 1908 by G.K. Chesterton, both address the increased cynicism surrounding intellectualism. The Sign of the Four is also riddled with concerns surrounding reverse-colonization, which is the fear that the colonizer (Britain) will be invaded by the colonized. I argue that Conan Doyle attempts to justify the work of the intellectual by proposing that they are necessary to prevent reverse-colonization; while Chesterton critiques the idea that intellectuals are openly planning the downfall of Western society. Chesterton and Conan Doyle’s different approaches to addressing the fears surrounding intellectualism highlight the pervasive distrust of the intellectual through two decades and the efforts of literary authors to emphasize the continued importance of intellectuals in modern times.

Publication Date

4-23-2025

Project Designation

Graduate Research

Primary Advisor

John P. McCombe, Kirsten N. Mendoza, Laura J. Vorachek

Primary Advisor's Department

English

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Scholarship

Detective Fiction and Anti-Intellectualism at the Fin de Siècle

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