Too Many Detectives. On El enigma de París (2007) by Pablo De Santis

Abstract

I propose an interpretation based on the ways in which detective fiction is presented and represented in the novel El enigma de París (2007) by Pablo De Santis. I discuss and expand affirmations of other critical works. First of all, I maintain that the novel is a tribute to the wide detective fiction genre (and not only related to the Anglo-Saxon stream). Then I analyze the combination of this literature with the model of the Bildungsroman. I also study the representation of social changes in the novel and its subordination to the literary aspect. Finally, I conclude with an idea about three different ways in which the detective fiction aspect is constructed in the novel, based on a sort of poetics of excess, plus another poetics more subtle, and a last one refered to a sort of totalization of the detective fiction genre