Angelica Michelis (Manchester Metropolitan University)
“The Domestic Flâneur: Masquerade, Invisibility and the Victorian Female Detective”
Discutante : Juliette Pochelu
In this presentation entitled "The Domestic Flâneur: Masquerade, Invisibility and the Victorian Female Detective," Dr Angelica Michelis examines the figure of the female detective in fin de siècle British literature, at the confluence of gender studies and crime fiction. This presentation explores how these female characters—in opposition to the male detectives of the time epitomised by Sherlock Holmes—approach detective work, the criminal and the scene of crime, which is often domestic. Dr Michelis thus demonstrates that female detectives were particularly well-skilled to tackle criminal investigations because of their acute understanding of the domestic and public spheres at the end of the nineteenth century. This "threshold identity"—which is similar to the concept of the liminal flâneur—makes female detectives both visible and invisible, and problematises the role of gender in relation to the figure of the detective as "a private eye" in the narratives.