Figurations of the detective character

Abstract

This article intends to trace a historical panorama of detective fiction, from its first manifestations in the nineteenth century to the contemporary manifestations, seeking to prove that the configuration of the detective character is always in harmony with the social context in which it is inserted. At first, we will analyze the detective of the so-called “puzzle novel”, which emerged in the nineteenth century, whose greatest representatives are Dupin and Sherlock Holmes. Later, we will analyze the new type of detective novel’ narrative that emerged in the early twentieth century, which may be considered as an outgrowth of the “puzzle novel”: the roman-noir, represented by the characters Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. Finally, we will make considerations about the contemporary detective, focusing on the character Mandrake, by Rubem Fonseca.