2025 Volume 112 Pages 15-30
This essay studies the role that the discourse of “naturalist” literature played in detective fictions around 1925. First, I describe the detail how the concept of “nature” increasingly became normative and was comprised of “naturalism” in the detective novels of that time. Secondly, I confirm that “naturalist literature” was discussed in contemporary literary circles and show that it has been accepted in a good light by later generations. The latter tendency could be construed as a demand to reconstruct detective fiction in the sense of finding a successor to established literature, based on a simple understanding of literary history. Although this demand eventually met strong opposition, it encouraged critics to reconfirm the principles of detective fiction and urged them to recognise detective fiction as a new, independent genre. This shows the essence of “naturalist” literature as a genre. Finally, I point out that the discourse of “naturalist” literature has influenced literary circles indirectly, referring to consciousness towards “naturalism” in the counterpart-norms that appeared later.
