1. TA 471: Whodunit? The Social and Political “Realities” of the British Detective Play
MWF 1:00-3:20 p.m. (June 21-July 16) – CRN:
Instructor: Brian Cook, Office: 107 Villard, Email: cook3@uoregon.edu
Office Hours: MW 3:30-4 p.m. or by appointment.
Course Description
We will be reading a number of plays from the detective play genre, ranging from a crime
melodrama of the 1840s to a contemporary work from 2003. What all these plays share is the
audiences’ expectations for a formulaic production: we, as an audience, expect a murder, a ‘detective’
who possesses a brilliant intellect and utilizes the power of “ratiocination,” a number of suspects of
whom the murderer is likely one or several, the process of ‘digging up’ the victim’s past in search of,
finally, the revelation of the murderer and the re-establishment of order and normalcy. We will
discover, though, that while all of these plays work off of this formula, many of them work to
whittle away at or completely break apart the formula and explode the audiences’ expectations. We
will seek to uncover the ways in which this is done and attempt to come to some conclusions about
the possibilities for social and political transgression in a formulaic medium, in spite of usually being
derided as just “entertainment.”
Course Objectives
1. Identify and understand specific terminologies of detective plays as well as cultural studies
theories (i.e. – ratiocination, pseudo-individualization, polysemy, hegemony).
2. Seek answers to the following questions:
a. What is the function of a formulaic medium such as the detective story/play? What do
these types of stories tell us as an audience? What role do they play/have they played in
our culture? Are they just simply “entertainments”?
b. In what ways do detective plays help to shape ideologies? Do they produce an “idea of
truth” or reflect “reality”?
c. How does a detective play seek to portray “reality”? What does this portrayal mean to
an audience?
d. Why do these plays so often portray real-life crimes and characters? In what way does
that affect the “reality” of the detective play genre?
e. Do detective plays prompt or hinder critical assessment? Are they merely “opiates for
the masses” or do they enable audiences a mechanism for critical analysis?
f. In what ways have detective plays changed over time? Is this change reflective of any
particular theatrical evolution?
g. The vast majority of the characters and situations in these plays reflect a very specific
race or ethnicity, social class, gender expectation, and sexual orientation. Why does this
seem to be the case? Is this perhaps prompted by the formula?
h. What role does the reception of the audience play in negotiating the meanings of these
formulaic plays?
Required Books (available in UO Bookstore)
• Agatha Christie, The Mousetrap.
• Martin McDonagh, The Pillowman.
• Joe Orton, Loot.
• J.B. Priestley, An Inspector Calls.
• Tom Stoppard. The Real Inspector Hound.
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