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Magic, and especially performance magic, has been a part of crime fiction since its inception: both art forms surged in popularity in Western Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century and influenced each other in profound ways. This collection of essays provides an in-depth look at this phenomenon and covers a variety of writers, across multiple languages, cultures, and traditions as well as multiple subgenres (Victorian autobiography, classic detective tales, pulp fiction, fantasy mystery, etc.). From historical studies examining the rise in popularity of magician narratives in mystery and detective fiction, to essays documenting the number of professional magicians who double as crime fiction writers, to theoretical studies analyzing the narrative and functional overlap between illusion, prestidigitation, and literary criminals and detectives, this collection of essays provides readers with a range of perspectives and approaches from a variety of scholarly backgrounds.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
Rebecca Josephy
Typologies of Magic and Detection
Magic and Detective Fiction: A Typological Approach
Zi-Ling Yan
Creating the Impossible: Magician-Authors and the Mystery-Making Process
Neil Tobin
Tricks with Mirrors: The Magician-Detective as Proxy in Magician-Written Mysteries
Neil Tobin
Magic and Detective Fiction: An Overlapping History
"My power to do good or evil": The Magician as Criminal/Detective in Victorian Culture
Beatrice Ashton-Lelliott
"A prince among conjurers": Performance Magic and Grant Allen's An African Millionaire
Christopher Pittard
Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Magician? The Art of Deception in Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin Series
Rebecca Josephy
Magic in Global Detective Fiction
Considering Magic and Technology in the Works of Edogawa Ranpo and Murakami Haruki
Robert Del Greco
Black Magic and Its Complete Unmasking? Magic, Reason, and Russian Sleuthing in Boris Akunin's Adventures of Erast Fandorin Series
John P. Hope
Elvis Infante, from Occult Investigator to Shaman Detective: A New Manifestation of Criminal Fiction in F.G. Haghenbeck's Novels and the Diablero Series
George Cole
Appendix: Magic-Related Detection in Books and Pulp Magazines, 1899-1948
Neil Tobin and Zi-Ling Yan
Bibliography: Important Texts in the Field
About the Contributors
Index
About the author
Rebecca Josephy is an associate professor at Oakland University in Michigan. Her principal field of research is in 20th century comparative literature with a special emphasis on the Hebrew Bible and Jewish thought and philosophy in French literature and popular culture.
