The Genderization of Crime Fiction from the Victorian Era to the Modern Day

Although Victorian crime fiction was originally “feminine” in its sensation fiction origins, it became increasingly masculinized as the genre developed. Eventually, Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories set forth the detective duo archetype of two white middle-class males, and it has remained the genre’s defining model ever since. This essay describes a book collection which explores this transition from feminine to masculine in the crime fiction genre of British literature and questions to what extent modern day authors are both challenging this model and remaining confined by it