Arts & Sciences Events
[PAST EVENT] Tack Faculty Lecture - The Detective is (not) a Nazi: German Pulp Fiction
Location
Sadler Center, Commonwealth Auditorium200 Stadium Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
* Free and open to the public
* Tickets are not required, but space is limited.
* Reception to follow
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Rough-hewn, punch-first-ask-questions-later detectives have ruled the genre of detective fiction virtually since it came into being, but why would that turn off German readers? Bruce Campbell, professor of German Studies, has employed many of the attributes of a great detective to investigate the conundrum that is German pulp fiction.
Truth and justice are fixtures in detective fiction, and so are the police. Germans can?t read a novel centered on a police detective without thinking about the past. The police played a central role in carrying out the Holocaust, not only arresting people, but also killing them in large numbers. If German authors want their readers to identify with a fictional detective, they have to make sure the detective is not a Nazi. But how?
Campbell?s lecture uncovers the most intriguing aspects of the under-appreciated, under-publicized genre of German pulp fiction. It is one that has occupied some of the last 15 years of his sterling academic career before, and since, coming to William & Mary.