Narratives Under Attack: Outrage and Reaction in Early 20th Century Espionage Novels

Abstract

In the early 20th century, the figure of the anarchist, the enemy within, was very present in crime literature as well as in the newspapers. In The Man Who Was Thursday (1908), Chesterton challenged the traditional stereotypes about anarchists and policemen, undermining the current beliefs in the anarchist threat and in criminal physiognomy. Conrad’s The Secret Agent (1907), hinging around a fictional account of the 1894 Greenwich bombing, also satirises criminal typology. The word ‘outrage’ is used derogatively to refer to the bombing itself and Conrad’s satirical depiction of the self-proclaimed anarchist milieu contrasts with the moral radicalism of some semi heroic characters who embody true revolt. Although the form of the detective (or spy) story traditionally enacts reactionary tactics, the characters’ actions stem from activist theories: action and reaction meet and clash in these narratives putting Victorian canons to the test of modernity. Irony and parody function as textual bombs; the analogy enables us to present the paradoxical nature of outrage, causing both detachment and revolt.

Keywords

• Joseph Conrad
• Gilbert K. Chesterton
• espionage
• narrative
• irony
• bomb