Defining Detection: The Detective Genre

Abstract

This chapter frames the analysis of the American television detective drama through genre. It will first give an outline of the relationship between the crime genre and the detective genre, and will then move on to discuss two of the detective genre’s sub-genres: the ‘genius’ detective genre and the police procedural. In the course of outlining and defining the genre, this chapter will also sketch out an understanding of genre as discourse, following the work of Jason Mittell (2004). The discussion of how the genre is understood here serves several purposes. First, the different ways in which the detective genre has been debated in relation to various media makes it necessary to offer a clear terminology for this discussion. Furthermore, as this chapter will show, the definition of the detective genre is complicated by the sub-genre’s relationship with the crime genre. The crime genre describes all texts that feature crime as a dominant part of the narrative (the gangster genre, the serial killer genre, the cop drama, the heist film, the courtroom drama, etc.). It is treated here as an umbrella term or umbrella genre that accommodates a number of sub-genres, as will be discussed in more detail later on. Second, with a prolific genre like the detective genre, which is not exclusive to one media form, it becomes relevant to discuss similarities and differences between versions on television and other media in its aesthetics and narrative structures. These formal aspects and the television genre’s links to the literary genre are discussed throughout this study, but need to be underpinned by clear definitions.