THE REPRESENTATION OF INNER CONFLICT IN CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY DETECTIVE FICTION
PDF

Keywords

detective fiction
inner conflict
psychological realism
moral dilemma
unreliable narration
protagonist
crime narrative РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ ВНУТРЕННЕГО КОНФЛИКТА В КЛАССИЧЕСКОЙ И СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ДЕТЕКТИВНОЙ ЛИТЕРАТУРЕ

How to Cite

THE REPRESENTATION OF INNER CONFLICT IN CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY DETECTIVE FICTION. (2026). Qo‘qon DPI. Ilmiy Xabarlar Jurnali, 8(8), 806-812. https://doi.org/10.70728/b.series.fil.v08.i08.117

Abstract

This article examines inner conflict as a central psychological and narrative mechanism in detective literature. While early detective fiction often presents the investigator as a figure of rational mastery, later crime narratives increasingly expose protagonists to guilt, trauma, divided loyalties, unstable identity, and moral uncertainty. Using qualitative comparative textual analysis, the study considers representative works by Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, and Gillian Flynn. The analysis focuses on four variables: the source of conflict, its mode of representation, its effect on investigation, and its ethical outcome. The findings show a historical shift from contained conflict, subordinated to the restoration of order, toward constitutive conflict that shapes both the protagonist and the truth-producing process.
PDF

References

1. Chandler, R. (1939). The big sleep. Alfred A. Knopf.

2. Christie, A. (1926). The murder of Roger Ackroyd. William Collins, Sons.

3. Del Gobbo, D. (2017). Unreliable narration in law and fiction. Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence, 30(2), 311–351. https://doi.org/10.1017/cjlj.2017.14

4. Doyle, A. C. (1892). The adventures of Sherlock Holmes. George Newnes.

5. Flynn, G. (2012). Gone girl. Crown Publishers.

6. Horsley, L. (2005). Twentieth-century crime fiction. Oxford University Press.

7. Knight, S. (2010). Crime fiction since 1800: Detection, death, diversity (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.

8. Latimer, E. (2025). Writing the detectives. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009502412

9. Poe, E. A. (1841). The murders in the Rue Morgue. Graham’s Magazine, 18, 166–179.

10. Scaggs, J. (2005). Crime fiction. Routledge.

11. Todorov, T. (1977). The typology of detective fiction. In The poetics of prose (R. Howard, Trans., pp. 42–52). Cornell University Press.