Police novel, philosophy and critical sociology : problematic references

Abstract

he article addresses the problem of the meaning of existence from the analysis of the North American crime novel, which is characterized by a critical, disenchanted, pessimistic and melancholic vision of the modern world, in contrast to the rather conservative character of the original detective novel , based on solving enigmas. The North American detective novel involves a social critique of libertarian scope that targets both capitalism and the State as the embodiment of the pretense of totalization. In this genre, the "melancholic irony" works as a weapon to protect oneself from nihilism in the face of the accumulation of disappointments. The author reaches these conclusions using a methodology that makes philosophy, critical sociology and the crime novel dialogue with each other, but without confusing them, that is, maintaining the autonomy of their respective registers as "language games" (Wittgenstein). A lesson in political ethics can be drawn from this analysis: disenchantment as a pole of left-wing political experience, which allows us to move away from naive optimisms but without falling into fatalism or postmodern nihilism.