Jem Bloomfield. Allusion in detective fiction: Shakespeare, the Bible and Dorothy L. Sayers

Abstract

The review is concerned with a study of allusion in British detective fiction written between the wars. J. Bloomfield’s hypothesis is that, facing a crisis in the perception of the Bible and Shakespearian output, this historical period adopted detective fiction as a ‘deciphering’ genre, a remedy for the crisis and a means to decode elusive meanings. The monograph focuses on Dorothy L. Sayers’ novels. On the one hand, they epitomize the literary-centric detective fiction of the Golden Age, replete with a complex meta-literary play, allusions to Shakespeare and Holy Scripture, and countless quotes interspersing characters’ speech. On the other hand, Sayers’ novels have in turn set a canon for later writers of detective fiction, whose playing with her texts has become no less a defining and hierarchy-setting genre characteristic than Biblical and Shakespearian allusions.