Death in a Delphi Seminar: A Postmodern Mystery (Margins of Literature

by Norman N. Holland

In this detective novel set in a small, intense seminar, eight students study what their professor regards as the central mystery of human the uniqueness of the individual. One morning a woman student who has been fighting this idea and disrupting the seminar keels over, poisoned. The detective who takes charge is himself a writer who finds this tight little world of academic criticism and theory fascinating, baffling, yet somehow sympathetic. Together he and the professor explore the minds and writings of the people in the seminar in order to track the murderer, then another body is found, pointing them in a different direction.

334 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Norman N. Holland (born 1927) is an American literary critic and Marston-Milbauer Eminent Scholar Emeritus at the University of Florida.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_...

Reviews

[Lobo]

Przeczytane na egzamin. Mam mnóstwo opinii, ale podzielę się nimi z egzaminatorką. Zasadniczo wymęczona lektura, niezdrowa pretensjonalna, ale dobrze napisana, w sensie znajomości techniki. Gdyby nie była napchana żargonem jak neojeżycjada tanim moralizatorstwem, byłoby niezłe.

[Emma Strawbridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really liked the english class analysis as part of solving the mystery and the mixed media bust thought the twists caused the final chapter to lose momentum. also it was about 50 pages too long.

[Will Tate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book: after a sluggish start, when half of my attention was diverted by the thoughts that the story was merely a vehicle for the literary theories of its author, I gradually got engrossed by the story, and I think that Prof. Holland has pulled off a mean feat in presenting a credible mystery that is resolved through the application of critical theory. It probably helps if you have at least a nodding acquaintance with the likes of Derrida, Lacan and Barthes, but it's not essential. The format of the plot being unfolded through the transcripts of police interviews took some getting used to, but worked well,and the inclusion of the students' papers, each with their own interpretations, was a perfect illustration of how there are as many versions of any text as there are readers.

[Mayur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great work in postmodern mystery by one of the leading lights of contemporary literary criticism. Interesting novelistic treatment of many themes in literary theory. The death of the author. Everything is a text. Multilayered novel that affords a close second reading.

[Christina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Way too heavy-handed. I'm an English PhD student and I couldn't stand it. Ridiculously snobby.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: in a small seminar, eight students study the uniqueness of the individual. One day a woman, who disagreed with the prof, is poisoned.