Mr. Whicher in the pre-Uprising Warsaw and councilor Estar Van Houten in Wokulski’s shop –historical crime fiction as a story about the past Cover Image

Pan Whicher w przedpowstaniowej Warszawie i radca Estar Van Houten w sklepie Wokulskiego – kryminał historyczny jako opowieść o przeszłości
Mr. Whicher in the pre-Uprising Warsaw and councilor Estar Van Houten in Wokulski’s shop –historical crime fiction as a story about the past

Author(s): Agnieszka Izdebska
Subject(s): Studies of Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Keywords: historical crime fiction; historical fiction; popular literature

Summary/Abstract: This article addresses two novels that, seemingly or truly, realise the historical crime convention. One of the novels is Pan Whicher w Warszawie (“Mr. Whicher in Warsaw”) by Agnieszka Chodkowska-Gyurics and Tomasz Bochiński, and the other one is Carska roszada (“The Tsar Castling”) by Melchior Medard. Genre aspects of both works are considered, and the consequences the conventional location carries for the way in which the 19th century reality is constructed in both novels. Finally – despite the differences between them – in both crime novels, the Polish history of the 19th century is shaped via many elements; one of them is strong reliance on the discourse of romantic martyr-related provenance.

  • Issue Year: 50/2018
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 173-194
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Polish