Crime stories

Description:

The Weimar Republic (1918{u2013}1933) was a crucial moment not only in German history but also in the history of both crime fiction and criminal science. This study approaches the period from a unique perspective - investigating the most notorious criminals of the time and the public{u2019}s reaction to their crimes. The author argues that the development of a new type of crime fiction during this period - which turned literary tradition on its head by focusing on the criminal and abandoning faith in the powers of the rational detective - is intricately related to new ways of understanding criminality among professionals in the fields of law, criminology, and police science. Considering Weimar Germany not only as a culture in crisis (the standard view in both popular and scholarly studies), but also as a culture of crisis, the author explores the ways in which crime and crisis became the foundation of the Republic{u2019}s self-definition. An interdisciplinary cultural studies project, this book insightfully combines history, sociology, literary studies, and film studies to investigate a topic that cuts across all of these disciplines.

subjects: Crime films,  Crime in literature,  Crime in popular culture,  Criminals,  German National characteristics,  History,  History and criticism,  Intellectual life,  Modernism (Literature),  Popular culture,  Social conditions,  German literature,  National characteristics, german,  Crime, germany,  Germany, intellectual life,  Germany, social conditions,  German literature, history and criticism, 20th century,  Popular culture, germany,  Culture populaire,  Histoire,  Vie intellectuelle,  Conditions sociales,  Allemands,  Criminalité dans la culture populaire,  Criminels,  Criminalité dans la littérature,  Littérature allemande,  Histoire et critique,  Modernisme (Littérature),  Films criminels,  Criminology - general & miscellaneous,  German history - social aspects,  20th century german literature - literary criticism,  Mystery & suspense fiction - literary criticism,  Popular culture - general & miscellaneous,  German history - 1918 - 1933 (postwar

Places: German literature,  Germany

Times: 1918-1933,  20th century