English Faculty Work
Title
A Sisterhood of Sleuths: The Gothic Heroine, the Girl Detective, and their Readers
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2014
Publication Title
A Companion to American Gothic
DOI
10.1002/9781118608395.ch16
Abstract
In many ways, the earliest American girl detectives of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries bear a family resemblance to their predecessors, the young heroines of late eighteenth‐ and early nineteenth‐century Gothic. As girls and young women of action, courage, and curiosity, these detectives, both amateur and professional, dare to explore gothic spaces prohibited to them, often uncovering secrets crucial to their own future well‐being and that of their readers. Their insistence on seeing what they are forbidden to see models the behavior of young female readers, whose reading often enacts a similar kind of illicit seeing.
First Page
201
Last Page
210
Recommended Citation
Carpenter, Lynette. "A Sisterhood of Sleuths: The Gothic Heroine, the Girl Detective, and their Readers." In A Companion to American Gothic, edited by Charles L. Crow, 201-210. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
Link Out URL
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118608395.ch16