Whodunit
Whodunit (also whodunnit ) describes the abductive concept,often used in crime novels and television series ,of gradually solving a crime and searching for the perpetrator (s). The following explanations relate to literature , but are also applied to films and television series.
Terminology
The term whodunit is the phonetically written question Who done it? (short for Who has done it? ), in German “Who has done it?”. The term is used in English to classify a sub- genre of crime fiction.
principle
A Whodunit novel usually starts with a serious crime, often murder (or more precisely: a death if one can suspect murder, but this has not yet been proven). The investigator (s) are often faced with the problem of first having to clarify the identity of the victim in order to then fathom the motive of the perpetrator. The reader or viewer accompanies the investigator - it can be a police officer, private investigator or employee of the forensics department - at work and is thus encouraged to make assumptions about who might have committed the crime. It is not uncommon for them to be taken by the hand by the naive assistants of a master detective (the classic role model is Dr. Watson in Arthur Conan Doyle's crime novels ), who - comparable to the reader or viewer - understands little and tries to use simple but false ones To clarify assumptions. In most cases, the resolution does not take place until the end of the book or film, unless, for example, several cases are linked.
In general, the following requirements must be met for a classic Whodunit :
- The setting is limited. The setting is often cut off from the outside world or the judiciary .
- There are only a limited number of suspects who were often closely related to the victim. In the case of a locked room mystery , this situation is even more acute, because at first apparently nobody can be seriously suspected.
- In the end, the case is completely deciphered for the “audience” in the presence of the suspects, and the killer is exposed.
development
Even the earliest crime fiction, for example some of Edgar Allan Poe's stories , belong to this direction. The best-known examples include many of the stories and novels by Arthur Conan Doyle (character: Sherlock Holmes ), Agatha Christie (who significantly influenced the genre with the characters of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot ) and Dorothy L. Sayers . From the 1930s onwards, this direction was increasingly supplanted by the mainly American hardboiled novels ( Dashiell Hammett (character: Sam Spade), Raymond Chandler (character: Philip Marlowe ), Mickey Spillane (character: Mike Hammer)) and survived thereafter, especially in trivial literature and in children's and youth books such as those by Wolfgang Ecke or the series of three ??? .
With the advent of the postmodern novel , the genre was revived, mostly in ironically broken forms such as in Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose or the Duffy crime novels by Julian Barnes under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh . The Whodunit is currently experiencing a new heyday in Asia through the Japanese "New Orthodox School" (Shin Honkaku Ha). Soji Shimada , Yukito Ayatsuji and Alice Arisugawa are among the best-known representatives of this movement there. In Europe it is authors like Paul Halter and Rob Reef who dedicate themselves to this genre.
Well-known TV series
- from Germany :
- from Austria :
- from Great Britain :
- Detective Agency Blunt (1983–1984)
- Miss Marple (1984-1992)
- Inspector Morse, Oxford Homicide Squad (1987-2000)
- Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989-2013)
- Inspector Barnaby (since 1997)
- Inspector Lynley (2001-2007)
- Agatha Christie's Marple (2004-2013)
- Lewis - The Oxford Crime (2006-2015)
- George Gently - The Incorruptible (2007-2017)
- Inspector Banks (2010-2016)
- Vera - A very special case (since 2011)
- Death in Paradise (since 2011)
- The young inspector Morse (since 2012)
- Father Brown (since 2013)
- Grantchester (since 2014)
- Agatha Raisin (since 2014)
- from the USA :
- Murder is her hobby (1984-1996)
- Law & Order
- CSI: On the trail of the perpetrators
- Twin peaks
- Veronica Mars
- pretty Little Liars
- from Japan :
Well-known films
The films are often set back to the heyday of this literary genre, i.e. the 1920s and 1930s, which is why these films are said to have a certain flair.
- 4:50 p.m. from Paddington (UK 1961)
- The Wax Bouquet (UK 1963)
- Four Women and a Murder (UK 1964)
- Killer ahoy! (UK 1964)
- A Shot in the Dark (UK / USA 1964)
- Secret in the Blue Castle (Great Britain 1965)
- A stranger accounts (Germany / Italy / France / Spain 1974)
- Murder on the Orient Express (Great Britain 1974)
- A Corpse for Dessert (USA 1976)
- Death on the Nile (Great Britain 1978)
- Murder in the Mirror (UK 1980)
- Evil Under the Sun (Great Britain 1982)
- Rendezvous with a Corpse (USA 1988)
- 8 women (France 2002)
- Knives Out - Murder is a Family Business (USA 2019)
The most successful radio drama and TV multi-part series were based on the British writer Francis Durbridge . In Germany, these include above all the Paul Temple radio plays with René Deltgen and Annemarie Cordes as well as the Durbridge film series with the classics Das Halstuch , Tim Frazer and Melissa , which achieved ratings between 80 and 93%.
The film A corpse for dessert with David Niven and Peter Falk delivered a successful parody of the aforementioned characters . Crime old master Alfred Hitchcock used the term Whodunit as the title for an episode in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents series in 1956 .
The reverse principle
A variation of the Whodunit principle is the reverse or inverted detective story , also known as the inverted detective story or howcatchem (from " How catch them? ", Which translates as "How do you catch them (the bad guys)?"). The perpetrator is known to the reader or viewer from the start; the attraction lies in following how the investigator finds the perpetrator. Early examples of this narrative style are found in short stories by R. Austin Freeman (1912). It became popular through Inspector Columbo , and since then it has also been used in other series (for example Diagnosis: Murder , Criminal Intent - Crime in the Visor and Monk ) and feature films ( Catch Me If You Can , The Perfect Crime ). The popular manga, anime and real film Death Note also told the story exclusively from the point of view of the perpetrator, with his motifs being portrayed to the viewer just as comprehensibly as those of the pursuing detective. The sympathies can consequently be shifted towards the perpetrator based on the narrative perspective .