Whodunnit? A Web of Influence Among Writers of Early Detective Fiction Main Menu Cluster Dendrogram Network Graph of the Authors Top Ten Words using Voyant-Tools

Introduction

7267
Detective fiction has had a huge impact on culture.  This genre is incredibly popular throughout the world.  The amount of mystery novels and detective shows is staggering, along with the remakes, movies, and fan fiction of popular characters like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot.  For this project, I want take a closer look at the origins of the Detective fiction, from Edgar Allen Poe to Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie.  Many of these authors were well known in their time, and had many real world connections with each other.  The goal of this project is to see if these connections had any influence on their writings.
In order to do this, I decided to conduct a close textual analysis.  I made a cluster dendrogram to look at the relationships between the texts, then I created a network graph that shows the relationships between authors.  Next, I used voyant-tools, a textual analysis tool, to create word clouds of most used words in each text.  Finally, I analyzed the clouds to look at similarities and differences between texts and authors. 

I tried to choose a wide variety of authors for my project.  The genre  detective fiction started in America, England, and France.  In the past there were similar stories in other parts of the world, such as in China.  However, many of these stories were never translated or are no longer available.  There are many detective stories told around the world today, but the vast majority of them are not in the public domain.  Therefore, I decided to keep my focus on American and European fiction.  I also included works from both men and women, as well as works that have fallen into obscurity. 

The following is a list of the texts in my corpus:I chose Poe because he is the first recognized writer of detective fiction, often called "The Father of the Detective Story."  His works begin the genre.  I chose Adams because, while his work is obscure, he technically wrote the first British detective story.  I chose Collins because he is often referred to as the writer of the first detective novel.  I chose Green because she is not only the author of the first American detective novel, but she is also known as "The Mother of the Detective Story"  She is also the creator of Amelia Butterworth, who is a sort of prototype for Christie's Ms. Marple.  I picked Doyle because his work defines the detective genre.  When people think of detectives, they usually picture a Holmes-like character.  I chose Christie because she is one of the Golden Age writers, and is considered to be one of the "Queens of Crime".  She, like Doyle, also plays a big role in shaping the detective genre. Finally, I chose Sayers because she was also a prominent Golden Age writer, and another "Queen".  I chose Dickens because he wrote Hunted Down and Bleak House, both of which are technically detective stories.  I was a little hesitant about Bleak House, as it is over 300,000 words long, and only contains a detective story as a subplot.  However, that detective subplot was important for increasing interest and popularity of the detective genre.  Overall, I felt like my corpus represented the authors and works of the time that helped create the genre of detective fiction.   

This page has paths:

  1. Whodunnit? A Web of Influence Among Writers of Early Detective Fiction Abby Niederman