What is Ratiocination

This chapter shows the results of a teaching-learning experience carried out for over 15 academic years. Since it is usually agreed that Edgar Allan Poe is the father of detective fiction, students are embarked in a deductive process to explore some key antecedents to “The Murders of the Rue Morgue.” This starts with the analysis of a few lines of Daniel's Book, Aesop's “The Fox and the Old Lion,” and some sections of Oedipus Rex. Afterwards the students enter the modern world, examining Hamlet, learning about Voltarie's Zadig, Vidocq, and The Newgate Calendar. Thenceforth, the impact of “Murders” among the 1840s public, together with its two sequels (“The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” and “The Purloined Letter”) is investigated, completing the Dupin Trilogy and assisting to the birth of “serialized” ratiocination narratives. Finally, students study “Thou Art the Man,” a non-Dupin detective story in which country manners are called into question.