Sint-Barbaracollege

THE THRILLER
Features, Subgenres & Origins in English Crime Fiction

Teacher: Katrien Franois

2-2-2018
Table of contents
1. ETYMOLOGY ........................................................................................................................................ 2
1.1. Verb (transitive)............................................................................................................................ 2
1.2 Verb (intransitive).......................................................................................................................... 2
1.3.Noun .............................................................................................................................................. 2
1.4. Conjugation .................................................................................................................................. 2
1.4. Origin ............................................................................................................................................ 3
2. DEFINITION .......................................................................................................................................... 3
3. FEATURES ............................................................................................................................................ 3
4. LITERARY DEVICES ............................................................................................................................... 4
4.1. The red herring ............................................................................................................................. 5
4.2. The plot twist................................................................................................................................ 5
4.3.The cliffhanger............................................................................................................................... 5
5. SUBGENRES ......................................................................................................................................... 5
5.1. The most common types of thriller + specific elements .............................................................. 5
6. ORIGINS IN ENGLISH CRIME FICTION .................................................................................................. 6
6.1. Some early non-English classics ................................................................................................... 6
6.2. Edgar Allan Poe & Arthur Conan Doyle ........................................................................................ 7
6.3. Wilkie Collins: the detective novel ............................................................................................... 7
6.4. The gothic novel ........................................................................................................................... 7
7. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................................... 8
8. LETS PRACTICE ! EXTRACT FROM ORIGIN (2017) BY DAN BROWN .................................................... 8
9. BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................................... 8
10. SOURCE IMAGE.................................................................................................................................. 9

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 THE THRILLER
FEATURES, SUBGENRES & ORIGINS IN ENGLISH CRIME FICTION

1. ETYMOLOGY

THRILL (antonym: bore)

1.1. Verb (transitive) 1. To cause a sudden feel of sensation or delight

e.g. The news of her arrival thrilled him.

2. To cause to quiver, tremble or vibrate

e.g. The screaming made him thrill.

1.2 Verb (intransitive) 1. To feel a sudden sensation of pleasure or delight

e.g. His letter came that morning and she thrilled to see the handwriting.

2. To quiver, tremble or vibrate

e.g. He thrilled by the thought of finally meeting the monster.

1.3.Noun 1. A sudden feeling of pleasure or excitement.

e.g. It gave him a thrill to learn their secret.

2. A source or cause of pleasure or excitement

e.g. The thrills of the amusement park.

3. A quivering or trembling caused by a sudden emotion

e.g. The thrill of seeing his grave made her shake.

4. (medical) A slight vibration from the heart, heard through a stethoscope

1.4. Conjugation
Past tense: thrilled

e.g. His kiss thrilled her.

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Past participle: thrilled

e.g. He was thrilled by the bell.

Present participle: thrilling

e.g. The noise is thrilling.

Adverb: thrillingly

e.g. The Italian doctor was thrillingly seductive.

1.4. Origin

Middle- English: thrillen (to pierce): derives from thyrlian in Old-English (hole)

2. DEFINITION

A thriller is a genre of literature that focuses on creating strong feelings of anxiety, tension, fear

and other similar emotions. A thriller literally wants to thrill its audience. And the audience likes to

be thrilled. Because thrillers are fictional, the emotions they provoke are exhilarating rather than

threatening. In other words: we like to get frightened, we enjoy the suspense because we know it is

not for real (in fact we would never want it to be real). How sadistic is that ?

3. FEATURES

Plenty of narratives bare the elements of crime and mystery. However, they are not all thrillers as

such. When does a mystery novel become a thriller?

*Strong emphasis on action and danger

*A vilain who presents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome

*The identity of the vilain is known, sometimes already at the beginning of the story

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*The protagonist is presented as a hero. Most of the times he has peculiar skills which help him out in

dangerous situations. They also make him defeat the bad guys.

*The presence of a companion (erotic element)

*The cover-up of important information is a common element: e.g. X seems to be the father of Y which

gives the story a whole new dimension

*The plot builds towards a climax

*The action takes place in the present

*Time is of enormous importance: the hero must act very quickly in order to prevent a disaster/ a

murder,Consequently the thriller is marked by a fast pace (events occur in rapid succession).

*Learning aspect: a thriller provides detailed information and accurate facts about a subject: a legal

system, medical procedures,

*Language: the vocabulary is specifically chosen to create feelings of wonder, tension, anxiety,

* A particular location

4. LITERARY DEVICES

Contrary to other mystery genres the thriller itself provides most of the clues. Rather than

answers the audience expects twists, turns and surprises (hence the strong emotional aspect of this

genre). In order to achieve this the author uses 3 specific literary devices or techniques:

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4.1. The red herring

A trick to keep you guessing and to make you believe that you have solved the mystery (but

unfortunately, you havent). A red herring is a misleading clue, a misdirection. The term originated in

the 18th century when dog trainers used pickled herring to distract their dogs. The animals were

trained to ignore the powerful odor of the fish and follow the original scent of the object they had to

find.

4.2. The plot twist

An unexpected development or a radical change in the expected outcome of the plot. Therefore the

author can withold information or mislead the audience with false information. A plot twist is likely

to change your perception of everything that happened before!

4.3.The cliffhanger

A character (and the audience) is confronted with a dilemma or a shocking revelation at the end of a

chapter. This device encourages to keep on reading (and to buy the next book !).

5. SUBGENRES

The number of types of thrillers seems endless: e.g. the medical thriller/forensic thriller (in hospital),

the legal thriller (in court), the technothriller (with the emphasis on technology, sometimes drawing

on science-fiction), the serial killer thriller (who sometimes tends to overlap with the horror genre).

The fairly new term literary thriller suggests the book to be more clever and well-written than other

thrillers.

5.1. The most common types of thriller + specific elements

*The epic thriller: concerns the threat of a catastrophe affecting a city, a country or even the planet.

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What to expect ? A diabolical plot, the vilain is a (diabolical) genius, a hero with an impossible mission.

Non-stop action.

e.g. all thrillers by Dan Brown: The Da Vinci Code, Inferno, Angels and Demons,

*The psychological thriller: the treath is more intimate, usually targetting the protagonist and his

family. The hero is often an ordinary man/woman. Has to reveal fear and panic in a more subtle way.

Character is more important than action.

e.g. The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris): the well-known story of the psychopath Hannibal Lecter

*The crime thriller: crime and justice are the primary focuses, with topics like murder, kidnapping,

mistaken identity, Usually the protagonist is a police man, a special agent, (who encounters

difficulties in his private life as well).

e.g. Conclave by Robert Harris, which tells of secrets and spies in the Vatican.

*The mystery thriller: begins with a mystery that needs to be solved, typically with negative

consequences at stake. Suspense and tension are gradually built up as the end (= the answer to the

mystery) comes closer.

e.g. The Au Pair (Anna Dowdall), a book that just came out and in which a female private investigator

uncovers a mystery when she takes a job as au pair

6. ORIGINS IN ENGLISH CRIME FICTION

6.1. Some early non-English classics

The term thriller turned up in the 20th century. However, the narrative techniques as we know them

in modern thrillers were alreay used in ancient works as the epic poem Odyssey by Homer (approx.

800 B.C). It tells the story of a hero who makes a dangerous journey back home after the Trojan Wars.

On his trip back he has to defeat one-eyed giants and sirens.

Little Red Riding Hood (1697), the fairy-tale about the girl who walks through the woods to bring some

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food to her sick grandmother, is an early example of the psycho-thriller.

6.2. Edgar Allan Poe & Arthur Conan Doyle

In English literature, William Shakespeares Macbeth (1606) is believed to be one of the first thrillers.

However, the real roots of the modern thriller have to be searched much later, in the detective story.

In 1841 Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Murders in the Rue Morgue, in which the character of Auguste

Dupin makes his entry. Two women are brutally murdered, the police doesnt know where to begin

but Dupin leads his own investigation and succeeds. The word detective did not exist yet at that time:

the name Dupin suggests the English word dupe or deception. Dupins character influenced many

portrayals of detectives in later years, even up until the early 20th century.

Edgar Allan Poe may have been the inventor of the detective novel, it was Arthur Conan Doyle who

cemetend it as a popular literary genre. Who did not like Sherlock Holmes and his loyal companion

Dr. Watson?

6.3. Wilkie Collins: the detective novel

Edgar Allan Poe only created short stories, William (Wilkie) Collins wrote voluminous novels. The

Moonstone (1868) is considered to be the first full length detective novel in English language

(more than 600 pages). It is the precursor of the modern mystery and suspense novel. The moonstone

in the title is a diamond sent to Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday, and stolen from her on

the same night. Her silence about the theft, which makes her chief suspect, results from the her

knowledge that the thief was her fianc. In The Moonstone Collins introduces some classical

elements of the modern detective novel: red herrings, a skilled investigator, a large number of false

suspects, a final twist in the plot,

6.4. The gothic novel

Another important predecessor of the modern thriller is the so-called gothic novel: an English genre

of fiction much appreciated in the 18th and early 19th century. Typical is the atmosphere of mystery

and horror, as well ad a pseudo-medieval setting or a dark castle. One of the finest examples is The

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Monk (1796) written by Matthew Lewis at the age of nineteen. It is a violent tale full of murder and

incest, set in a sinister monastery in Spain.

7. CONCLUSION

The modern thriller is a clever blend of crime, mystery, suspense and horror, marked by specific

features and literary devices . The aim is to keep you excited and quivering until the very end of the

story. Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins and the gothic novel-tradition laid the foundations for later,

famous writers as Daphne Du Maurier (Rebecca), Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot), Ian Fleming (James

Bond), Ruth Rendell and Nicci French. Brighton Rock (1938) by Graham Greene is considered as one of

the first English novels to be actually called a thriller.

8. LETS PRACTICE ! EXTRACT FROM ORIGIN (2017) BY DAN BROWN

See the hand-out, distributed in class.

Group exercise:

*Read the text carefully and look up the words you are not familiar with

*Determine some features, typical for the genre

*Determine some literary devices, typical for the genre

*What type of thriller do you think Origin is ?

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Priestman, M. (2013). Crime Fiction. From Poe to the Present. (2nd Edition). Devon: Northcote House
Publishers.

Thrill (2003-2017). Geraadpleegd op 27 oktober 2017 via https://www.thefreedictionary.com/thrill

Thriller (2015). Geraadpleegd op 27 oktober 2017 via https://literaryterms.net/thriller/

The Differences between a Crime Novel, Mystery Novel and Thriller Novel (2017). Geraadpleegd op 27
oktober 2017 via http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/differences-crime-novel-mystery-
novel-thriller-novel

Gaines, J. (1998-2017). A History of Detective Fiction: Literary Origins. Geraadpleegd op 23 oktober

2017 via http://www.librarypoint.org/detective_fiction_origins

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Collins, R.D. (2004). Classic Crime Fiction. The Origins of Detective Fiction. A Brief History of Crime and
Mystery Books. Geraadpleegd op 23 oktober 2017 via
http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/historydf.htm

10. SOURCE IMAGE

Fingerprint [Afbeelding]. Geraadpleegd 8 november 2017, via

https://openclipart.org/image/2400px/svg_to_png/85393/Fingerprint-Search.png

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