Poe's Dupin as professional, the Dupin stories as serial text.
| Publisher | Northeastern University |
| Publication | Studies in American Fiction |
| Subject | Literature/writing |
| Format | Magazine/Journal |
| ISSN | 0091-8083 |
| Issues per Year | 2 |
| Volume | v23 |
| Issue | n2 |
| Published | 1995-09-22 |
| Role | Type | Name |
| Author | n/a | William Crisman |
| Person | Criticism and interpretation | Edgar Allan Poe |
The reader of Poe's Dupin stories is caught between two contrary models of Dupin's professional status. On the one hand, Susan Beegel considers it "obvious" that Dupin is the "prototypical amateur detective" and thus by definition not a professional at all. Indeed, on a different level of theoretical discourse, Jacques Lacan experiences Dupin's interest in fees as a "clash with the rest" of "The Purloined Letter."(1) On the other hand, in such neo-historicist readings as Terence Whalen's, Dupin appears so money-focused that the actual solution to his mysteries becomes unimportant, and...
[This journal article is 6292 words long]
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