How the Crime Novel Appeared

This paper addresses the thematic of mystery, conspiracy and inquiry. It seeks to understand the prominent place these thematics have occupied in the representation of reality since the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It focuses, first, on works belonging to two literary genres intended for a broad public in which these thematics have been featured : crime novels and spy novels. Then, it will veer toward questions that concern not only the representation of reality in popular literature but also the new ways of problematising reality that have accompanied the development of the human sciences.