The Versatility of Crime Fiction – Yulia Mevissen
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
6:30 pm on Zoom to socialize
The meeting proper begins at 7:00

The beginnings of crime narrative are tied to real criminal cases and the judicial system in the 18th and 19th century. Focusing on exemplary works from the history of European crime fiction, the talk discusses the origins of crime fiction as a genre, its enormous versatility, and, in particular, the connection between restoring law and order in a criminological sense and restoring social and moral order.

Yulia Mevissen studied German Philology and History at Humboldt University in Berlin. She completed her doctorate at the Research Training Group “Literary Form. History and Culture of Aesthetic Modeling” at the University of Münster, Germany, and is now a Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Her research interests include: 17th and 18th century poetics and history of knowledge; genre theory; theories of literary emotion; epistolary novels; letter culture; gallantry. She regularly teaches a class on European crime fiction.