Readings · Lecture Notes
MIT OpenCourseWare
Bestsellers: Detective Fiction
- Instructor
- Prof. Stephen Tapscott
- Term
- Fall 2006
- Level
- Undergraduate
- What's inside
- 1 reading · 2 web pages
- Materials open
- MIT OCW
About this course
Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 21L.310 Bestsellers: Detective Fiction, Fall 2006, Prof. Stephen Tapscott — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.
Materials are grouped the way MIT organized them. A verified, course-wide order has not been established here.
Before you start
Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.
How this course was organized
What's here, and what isn't
- A lecture sequence of 11 items is confirmed. It stays as organized materials rather than a full course order.
Not included here
21 items from the source could not be safely included:
- MIT's page format for this item wasn't recognized clearly enough to place it safely. (21 items)
Materials by section
Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.
Assignments
Course outline
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 2: Nature and Hieroglyphics Ideograms Cryptography as Process and as Metaphor
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 3: Doubling Self-Consciousness as Method and Disguise Materialism, Claustrophobic Homes, Locked Rooms
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 4: Materialism and Identity The Advantages of Empiricism are the Disadvantages of Empiricism Why Conan Doyle Killed Off Holmes to Write about Victorian Faeries
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 5: Self and Self-Revelation Oedipal Resistances Retrospective Narratives
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 6: The Position of the Observer Small Town, Country House, Sexual Demimonde, Moving Train
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 7: McGuffins, Clewes, Histories The Detective as Knight Errant Film Noir as Style and as Moral Orientation
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 8: Deep Focus Politics and Representation Does Rosebud Even Matter? Kane’s Women
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 9: Doubling and the Mind-Body Nexus Completing Dupin The Double-Mirror Paradigm of Self-Consciousness Evidence, Clues, Solution: Elusive Pleasures
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 10: Guilt and Transference The Pleasure of Looking through Other People’s Windows The Secret in the Marsh: Coming Clean about Secrets
Readings · Lecture Notes
Lecture 11: The Hidden Jewels Doubling and Narcissism “The Mystery to a Solution”
MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. Stephen Tapscott, 21L.310 Bestsellers: Detective Fiction, Fall 2006.
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Fall 2006 · Open the original course on OCW ↗
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