Academic literature on the topic 'Detective work'

Raymond Chandler created his detective Philip Marlowe not as the idealisation of heroic individualism as is commonly perceived, but instead as an authentic individual subjected to very real psychological frailties resulting from his traumatic experiences during World War One. Marlowe's characterisation goes beyond the traditional chivalric readings and should instead be interpreted as an authentic representation of a traumatised veteran in American society. Substituting the horror of the trenches for the corruption of the city. Chandler's disillusioned protagonist and his representation of an uncaring American society resonate strongly with the dislocation of the Lost Generation. Consequently, it is profitable to consider Chandler not simply as a generic writer but as a genuine literary figure. This thesis re-examines important primary documents highlighting extensive discrepancies in existing biographical narratives of Chandler's war experience, and unveils an account that is significantly different from that of his biographers, revealing the trauma that troubled Chandler throughout his life. The application of psychological behavioural interpretation to interrogate Chandler's novels demonstrates the variety of post-traumatic symptoms that tormented both Chandler and his protagonist. A close reading of his personal papers reveals the psychological symptoms of PTSD that were subconsciously encoded into Marlowe's characterisation. Marlowe can only be understood a character shaped by Chandler's own experiences. This conflation of the hard-boiled style and war experience has influenced many contemporary crime writers, particularly in the traumatic aftermath of the Vietnam War. The sum of this work offers a new understanding of Chandler's traumatic war experience, how that experience established the traditional archetype of detective fiction, and how this reading of his work allows Chandler to transcend generic limitations to be recognised as a key twentieth century literary figure.

Over the last two centuries, mass-produced serial narratives, especially those created for women, have been vilified or ignored by literary and cultural critics. Serial narratives, which include continuing stories published in installments and independent tales that form part of an overarching plot, have been maligned for their content, for the material realities of their mass production, and most simply for their popularity. Serial texts aimed at female audiences have been subjected to further criticisms: they have been judged as being trivial or insipid in content and as lacking aesthetic merit or cultural weight. Despite these criticisms, serial narratives were exceedingly popular with audiences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and by the end of the twentieth century became the dominant mode of storytelling across nearly all media. Popularity, far from being a reason to disparage these works, suggests the enormous power serial narratives have to both reflect and shape the culture that produces and consumes them. This cultural agency has long been overlooked, and this study hopes to change that. Serial narratives, it will be argued, train readers and viewers in various ways to actively participate in the narrative and in parallel ways in real life, an outcome especially noteworthy for modern female audiences. Ongoing and repetitive, serial narratives invite long-term engagement that enables audiences to participate imaginatively in the story itself and to embody the attitudes and behaviors of the serial protagonists in their own lives. In addition, because they are published on a potentially infinite basis, serial narratives are a medium through which modern audiences come to understand themselves and the world they inhabit. This connection between the reading and viewing choices of the modern citizen and their lived experiences, what I call serial modernism, provides a way of understanding how serial texts enact this connection particularly in relation to the modern woman’s increasing sense of agency and her continually evolving identity. Several serial texts from different eras and in different media that powerfully engage with evolving expectations of American women over the last 150 years will crystallize this connection: Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women series (1868-1886) and her serialized novel Work (1873); two silent film serials, The Perils of Pauline (1914) and The Hazards of Helen (1914-1917); two teenage sleuth series, Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew (1930-2003) and Margaret Sutton’s Judy Bolton (1930-1967); and Sara Paretsky’s adult detective series V.I. Warshawski (1982-present).

This thesis examines the preoccupation with the relationship between history and fiction present in the work of Leonardo Sciascia and Jorge Luis Borges. By means of different narrative strategies, both authors underscore the narrative elements that underpin any reconstruction of the past, and in this way they link the process of reconstruction of past events to the process of rewriting of a literary work. They emphasise, however, that whereas the literary work can be enriched by multiple rewritings, multiple reconstructions of the same real past event risk threatening its truthfulness. This thesis investigates the different ways in which Borges’s and Sciascia’s works intersect, across three narrative forms: the detective story, the historical essay (inchiesta or ‘enquiry’ for Sciascia) and the historical fiction. The analysis of Sciascia’s texts starts from a focus on the structural similarities with the work of Borges in the detective story, paying particular attention to Il contesto (1971), Todo modo (1974), and Il cavaliere e la morte (1988). It then moves on to Sciascia’s inclusion of fragments of Borges’s texts in two of his inchieste, L’affaire Moro (1978) and Il teatro della memoria (1981). The last chapter of the thesis proposes a metafictional reading of Sciascia’s historical novel Il Consiglio d’Egitto (1963), in the light of the comparisons with Borges’s work undertaken in the previous chapters. The two key aims of this thesis are to show (1) that studying the ways in which Sciascia integrates Borges’s texts in his own writing allows a deeper understanding of Sciascia’s texts, but also underscores traits in Borges’s which might have been downplayed by previous criticism of his work, and (2) that reconsidering in the light of this understanding a number of Sciascia’s other texts where Borges’s influence is not explicit allows us to identify a preoccupation with regards to the relationship between history and fiction shared between both authors.

This comparative study focuses on the detective genre and is conducted through literary analysis with a feminist critical perspective of two of its most iconic protagonists, Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887 and Agatha Christie in 1930 respectively. The purpose is to attempt to establish the effect of the gender differences on these two protagonists. Both Holmes and Miss Marple are deemed as iconic in the detective genre, but the protagonists do not have similar experiences and are created by authors of different genders. Thus, the focus is to explore how gender differences are represented in the literary texts A Study in Scarlet (1887), “A Scandal in Bohemia” (1891), and The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) when it comes to their work as detectives. By using a feminist critical perspective and with the help of previous research, the differences in three central issues, that is, work methods, attitudes and method of disguise, are established. The most prominent result from the analysis is that Miss Marple has to work independently from the police force and trust another character, Leonard Clement, with what she knows hoping that Clement will use her observations to make the case move forward. By contrast, Holmes is approached by clients and even assists the police force in investigations, while Miss Marple is dismissed because of gender discrimination and ageism when she reaches out to the police force. Miss Marple is clearly a victim of gender discrimination and ageism, while Holmes is seen as eccentric but fully competent as a detective. Holmes is even described as having “extraordinary powers” while Miss Marple is described as an “old pussy” in a derogatory manner. Therefore, the results are that there is a significant difference in attitude where Holmes as a man encounters more positive attitudes and Miss Marple as a woman encounters more negative attitudes, all because of gender discrimination and ageism. These results are of great importance as it reveals what gender differences Holmes and Miss Marple encounter in their literary texts. It opens up the opportunity for more research in gender differences and gender discrimination in comparisons between protagonists. That Miss Marple is successful in the end, however, functions as a feminist statement.

В статті розглянуто британський детектив Г. К. Честертона. Специфіка авторської картини світу Честертона полягає в тому, що автор використовує художній хронотоп для трансформації жанру детективного оповідання в релігійну проповідь. Створюючи художній образ світу детективного твору, Честертон вдається до художніх засобів, запозичених зі сфери образотворчих мистецтв. При формуванні художнього простору Честертон використовує насамперед графічну лінеарність, а для створення художнього часу – гру світла і кольору, як у живописі. В статье рассмотрен британский детектив Г. К. Честертона. Специфика авторской картины мира Честертона заключается в том, что автор использует художественный хронотоп для трансформации жанра детективного рассказа в религиозную проповедь. Создавая художественный образ мира детективного произведения, Честертон прибегает к художественным средствам, заимствованных из сферы изобразительных искусств. При формировании художественного пространства Честертон использует прежде всего графическую линеарность, а для создания художественного времени – игру света и цвета, как в живописи. The article deals with the British detective story by G. K. Chesterton. The specifics of Chesterton's author's picture of the world lies in the fact that the author uses artistic chronotope to transform the genre of the detective story into a religious sermon. Creating an artistic image of the world of the detective work, Chesterton resorts to artistic means borrowed from the field of fine arts. In shaping artistic space Chesterton uses primarily graphic linearity, and to create artistic time – the play of light and colour, as in painting.

Using trauma theory, I analyze the disjointed narrative structure of gothic works from 1764-1853 as symptomatic of the traumatic experience. Gothic novels contain multiple structural anomalies, including gaps in experience that indicate psychological wounding, use of the supernatural to violate rational thought, and the inability of witnesses to testify to the traumatic event. These structural abnormalities are the result of trauma that characters within these texts then seek to prevent or repair via detection.

Roadway construction workers have to work in close proximity to construction equipment as well as high-speed traffic, exposing them to an elevated risk of collisions. This research aims to develop an innovative holistic solution to reduce the risk of collisions at roadway work zones. To this end, a connected hazard detection and prevention system is developed to detect potential unsafe proximities in highway work zones and provide warning and instructions of imminent threats. This connected system collects real-time information from all the actors inside and outside of the work zone and communicates it with a cloud server. A hazard detection algorithm is developed to identify potential proximity hazards between workers and connected/automated vehicles (CAV) and/or construction equipment. Detected imminent threats are communicated to in-danger workers and/or drivers. The trajectories and safety status of each actor is visualized on Virginia Connected Corridors (VCC) Monitor, a custom web-based situational awareness tool, in real-time. To assure the accuracy of hazard detection, the algorithm accommodates various parameters including variant threat zones for workers-on-foot, vehicles, and equipment, the direction of movement, workers' distance to the work zone border, shape of road, etc. The designed system is developed and evaluated through various experiments on the Virginia's Smart Roads located at Virginia Tech. Data regarding activities of workers-on-foot was collected during experiments and was used and classified for activity recognition using supervised machine learning methods. A demonstration was held to evaluate the usability of the developed system, and the results proved the efficacy of the algorithm in successfully detecting potential collisions and provide prompt warnings and instructions. The developed holistic system elevates safety of highway construction and maintenance workers at work sites. It also helps managers and inspectors to keep track of the real-time safety status of their work zone actors as well as the accidents occurrences. As such, with the connected work zone hazard detection system, the safety level and productivity of the workers is expected to be greatly enhanced.<br>Master of Science<br>In order to reduce the risk of collisions for roadway construction workers, this research aims to develop an innovative holistic solution at roadway work zones. In this research, a connected hazard detection and prevention system is developed to detect potential collision hazards in highway work zones and generate warning and instructions of imminent threats. This system collects real-time information from all the workers, construction equipment and connected/automated vehicles (CAV) of the work. A hazard detection algorithm is developed to identify potential proximity hazards between them as well as to recognize the activities of workers. The trajectories and safety status of each worker, equipment or vehicle is visualized on Virginia Connected Corridors (VCC) Monitor, a custom web-based tool, in real-time. A demonstration was held to evaluate the developed system, and the results proved the efficacy of the algorithm in successfully detecting potential collisions and provide prompt warnings and instructions. The developed holistic system helps managers and inspectors to keep track of the real-time safety status of their work zone worker, equipment and vehicles as well as the accidents occurrences. As such, with the connected work zone hazard detection system, the safety level and productivity of the workers is expected to be greatly enhanced.

<p>This thesis describes a project that utilizes honeypots to detect worms. A detailed description of existing worm detection techniques using honeypots is given, as well as a study of existing worm propagation models. Simulations using some of these worm propagation models are also conducted. Although the results of the simulations coincide with the collected data from the actual outbreak of a network worm, they also conclude that it is difficult to produce realistic results prior to a worm outbreak. A worm detection mechanism called HoneyComb is incorporated in the honeypot setup installed at NTNU, and experiments are conducted to evaluate its effectiveness and reliability. The mechanism generated a large amount of false positives in these experiments, possibly due to an error discovered in the implementation of the detection algorithm. An architecture using honeypots for detection of unknown worms is proposed. This architecture is based on a combination of two recently published systems with the extension referred to as a Known-Attack (KA) filter. By using this filter, it is believed that the amount of traffic needed to be processed by the honeypot sensors will be considerably reduced.</p>