‘If I had any luck, he’d be a corpse’: Harriet Vane and the Psychogeographic Nature of Detection

Abstract

This article examines the role of women within the culture and society of the interwar period, or, precisely, the 1930s. Through examining the crime fiction of Dorothy L Sayers and focusing specifically on Have His Carcase the figure of the female detective is shown to be inherently psychogeographic. The article, then, analyses the way in which Harriet Vane functions as a psychogeographer through her methods of detection. It goes on to argue that it is the way in which Harriet’s detection methods operate that allows the text to critique the cultural, social and physical place of women in society and culture of the 1930s. With a close examination of walking within the cultural context of the holiday space, the spaces which women inhabit during the 1930s are shown to be influential and significant in the process of successful detection.

Keywords:

• Dorothy Sayers
• female detective
• Golden Age detective fiction
• Harriet Vane
• psychogeography

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See ‘Holidays with Pay Act 1938’ for more information.