Representations of Detective Novels and Their Readers: Edogawa Rampo's <i>Inju</i> and Journalism in the 1930s

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  • 転位する「探偵小説家」と「読者」
  • 転位する「探偵小説家」と「読者」 : 江戸川乱歩『陰獣』とジャーナリズム
  • テンイ スル 「 タンテイ ショウセツカ 」 ト 「 ドクシャ 」 : エドガワ ランポ 『 イン ジュウ 』 ト ジャーナリズム
  • ――江戸川乱歩『陰獣』とジャーナリズム――

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Abstract

<p>The word inju (literally “shadow beast”), which began to appear in journalism on crime around 1930, came to refer to deviant criminals. In this paper I show the connection between this change in the word's usage and detective novels of the period such as Edogawa Rampo's Inju, as well as the shift in the way writers of such detective novels, Rampo foremost among them, were perceived. I also point out that a correspondence can be seen between the narrator of Inju, who seeks to make the detective novelist Oe Shundei into a criminal, and readers of detective novels who identified the writers of these novels with criminals who had committed actual crimes. This shows that Inju was a precursor in showing the connection between journalism and the genre of the detective novel, which was to become increasingly evident after its publication, and that the ways in which such texts were publicized and circulated played an important role in the formation of the detective novel genre.</p>

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