The formal detective novel popularly known as the ‘whodunit’, through its narrative intention and design, affirms social structures, moral codes, assumptions about the world’s intelligibility and truth as givens. Stowe (1989) explains that “in conventional detective stories crime is usually seen as a symptom of personal evil rather than social injustice, and the detective is depicted as an ideal incarnation of competitive individualism. The truth in these novels may be elusive, but it is ultimately knowable and always worth knowing. The hero’s goal, simply put, is “to right wrongs by uncovering facts” (p. 570). In this connection, the likes of Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey, etc. assume the role of social, cultural and political authority. In other words, crime symbolizes violation of order and the detective/investigator is symbolical of a type of power that is responsible for maintaining an ideally innocent society. It is often interesting to note that in such forms of narrative, unquestionable authority and power of watching is invested in the detective and he is allowed to access a type of fatal secret which makes him an extraordinary mortal possessing a panoptic power of observation. In the venture to establish order and harmony from the state of chaos, the narrative offers an invincible and an unchallenged knowledge of truth derived through the detective’s ingenious watching thereby deciphering the effect of crime and its cause. To this end, it can be seen that the necessity to ‘watch’ allows the investigator the license to transgress official periphery, or sanctions him the power to define the legitimate.
The formal detective texts purposefully build the ‘dilatory space’; the space of suspense or the temporary vagueness between the fabula and the sjuzet which empowers the investigator with the pleasure of watching leads to the deductive pleasure of knowing. Moreover, the detective becomes an agent of the omnipotent gaze of the narrative which resonate the politics of unverifiable narrative codes in a given society. The faith in these normative codes is aroused through what Bell (2009) terms as ‘psychic protection’ (p. 8) provided by the narrative through the idea of a heroically equipped detective. Bell explains: “In the 19th century, the role of the newly-fashioned detective as an agent of consolation or security is [...] ideologically central to the subsequent project of popular crime writing” (p. 8). He further writes: “In a meticulously detailed and internally plausible textual-system, designed to reinforce the [...] sense of security, the detective becomes the [...] personal custodian, guaranteeing safe passage and neutralizing the threat of even the most cunning criminals” (p. 8). |
