The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story.

Abstract

In The Mystery to a Solution, John Irwin examines the deeper significance of the genre Poe created and the meaning of Borges's efforts to double its origin. Drawing on history, literary history, and practical and speculative criticism, Irwin pursues issues underlying the detective genre into areas as various as the history of mathematics, classical mythology, the double-mirror structure of self consciousness, the anthropology of Evans and Frazer, the structure of chess, automata, the mind-body problem, the etymology of labyrinth, and scores of other topics. Throughout his inquiry, Irwin honours the aesthetic impact on the genre he discusses by relying on the dynamics of the detective story - the uncovering of mysteries, the accumulation of evidence, the tracing of clues, and the final solution that ties it all together. Irwin's other books include Doubling and Incest/Repetition and Revenge, American Hieroglyphics and The Heisenberg Variations.