FROM MODERNITY'S DETECTION TO MODERNIST DETECTIVES: NARRATIVE VISION IN THE WORK OF ALLAN PINKERTON AND DASHIELL HAMMETT

Allan Pinkerton was both the architect of the first national detective agency and author of a series of extremely successful post-Civil War memoirs narrating the activities of his agency. After working as a Pinkerton Agent for almost seven years, Dashiell Hammett consciously intervened on the narrat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Modern fiction studies 2003-12, Vol.49 (4), p.629-659
Main Author: Raczkowski, Christopher T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American literature
Criminal investigation
Criminals
Detectives
Epistemology
Eyes
Fiction
Hammett, Dashiell (1894-1961)
History
Literary criticism
Memoirs
Modernism
Modernist art
Narrative modes
Narratives
Novels
Pinkerton, Allan
Stein, Gertrude (1874-1946)
Surveillance
Visual fixation
Writers
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Summary:Allan Pinkerton was both the architect of the first national detective agency and author of a series of extremely successful post-Civil War memoirs narrating the activities of his agency. After working as a Pinkerton Agent for almost seven years, Dashiell Hammett consciously intervened on the narrative tradition of Allan Pinkerton with a series of detective fictions critical of the detective's visual authority. Considered together, the work of Pinkerton and Hammett enact a visual and epistemological drama fundamental to the emergence of modernism in America.
ISSN:0026-7724
1080-658X
1080-658X
DOI:10.1353/mfs.2003.0082