|
This course is designed as an introduction to the practice and writing of history via examination of mystery novels and primary source documents that contain a “mystery.” Mystery novels teach a method of inquiry that often is remarkably close to that of the historian. Historians have to learn how to ask good questions and to sense when they have, at last, by luck or logic, arrived at the right question. Historians also need to know what is an irrelevant detail—a red herring—and what will carry an inquiry to its main goal. Like the authors of detective fiction, historians have to learn to ask questions of evidence—and distrust it. They must master the art of inference, piecing together the bits and pieces of evidence in an engaging narrative and convincing analysis. And historians have to learn how to relate findings to an audience, whether large and essentially anonymous, as the novelist knows, or small audience in a classroom.
 Download (389.30 K) Syllabus in RTF Format
Download (259.02 K) Syllabus in PDF Format
|
 |
The following books are required for the course. They are available in the Campus Bookstore.
Davidson & Lytle
-- The Art of Detection
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
-- A Study in Scarlet
Tony Hillerman
-- People of Darkness
Barbara Hambly
-- Sold Down River
Michael Wayne
-- Death of an Overseer
Simon Schama
-- Dead Certainties |
