Truth to Post-Truth in American Detective Fiction

Truth to Post-Truth in American Detective Fiction examines questions of truth and relativism, turning to detectives, both real and imagined, from Poe's C. Auguste Dupin to Robert Mueller, to establish an oblique history of the path from a world where not believing in truth was unthinkable to the present, where it is common to believe that objective truth is a remnant of a simpler, more naïve time. Examining detective stories both literary and popular including hard-boiled, postmodern, and twenty-first century novels, the book establishes that examining detective fiction allows for a unique view of this progression to post-truth since the detective's ultimate job is to take the reader from doubt to belief. David Riddle Watson shows that objectivity is intersubjectivity, arguing that the belief in multiple worlds is ultimately what sustains the illusion of relativism.

Auteur
David Riddle Watson is English and Humanities Instructor at Central Carolina Community College in Sanford, NC, USA, where he has taught since 2005. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2019. His research examines the intersection of philosophy, rhetoric, and contemporary American literature.

Résumé
Truth to Post-Truth in American Detective Fiction examines questions of truth and relativism, turning to detectives, both real and imagined, from Poe's C. Auguste Dupin to Robert Mueller, to establish an oblique history of the path from a world where not believing in truth was unthinkable to the present, where it is common to believe that objective truth is a remnant of a simpler, more naïve time. Examining detective stories both literary and popular including hard-boiled, postmodern, and twenty-first century novels, the book establishes that examining detective fiction allows for a unique view of this progression to post-truth since the detective's ultimate job is to take the reader from doubt to belief. David Riddle Watson shows that objectivity is intersubjectivity, arguing that the belief in multiple worlds is ultimately what sustains the illusion of relativism.

Contenu

1. Introduction: From Clear Speaking to Misunderstanding2. Closed Worlds and Cold Detectives3. Cold Wars and Porous Borders4. The Bleak and the Dread: From Existential Angst to Postmodern Paranioa5. The Flat-Earth Society: Tracing Networks in the Contemporary World6. Living in Two Separate Worlds: The Feral Detective, The City and The City, and the Problem of Relativism7. The United States of V, White, and Q