"I Used to Be a Highbrow but Look at Me Now"
Phrenology, Detection, and Cultural Hierarchy in S. S. Van Dine
Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Mystery & Detective Fiction
| Author: | Brooks E. Hefner | ISBN: | 9781476624808 |
| Publisher: | McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers | Publication: | November 2, 2015 |
| Imprint: | Language: | English |
| Author: | Brooks E. Hefner |
| ISBN: | 9781476624808 |
| Publisher: | McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers |
| Publication: | November 2, 2015 |
| Imprint: | |
| Language: | English |
This article reads Willard Huntington Wright’s work against his anxieties about cultural hierarchy and value, utilizing archival work in Wright’s papers at the University of Virginia and unearthing a previously unknown series of crime stories that he published under another pseudonym a decade before his success as bestselling detective novelist S. S. Van Dine. The author argues that Wright’s work in popular fiction provides a special opportunity for interrogating the highbrow/lowbrow divide and its phrenological roots. This article originally appeared in Clues: A Journal of Detection, Volume 30, Issue 1.
This article reads Willard Huntington Wright’s work against his anxieties about cultural hierarchy and value, utilizing archival work in Wright’s papers at the University of Virginia and unearthing a previously unknown series of crime stories that he published under another pseudonym a decade before his success as bestselling detective novelist S. S. Van Dine. The author argues that Wright’s work in popular fiction provides a special opportunity for interrogating the highbrow/lowbrow divide and its phrenological roots. This article originally appeared in Clues: A Journal of Detection, Volume 30, Issue 1.
