SOURCE: Werner, James V. “The Detective Gaze: Edgar A. Poe, the Flaneur, and the Physiognomy of Crime.” American Transcendental Quarterly 15, no. 1 (March 2001): 5-21.

In the following essay, Werner identifies Edgar Allan Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin as an example of what critic Walter Benjamin termed a “flaneur,” and asserts that Poe's use of this careful observer, who interacts within but still remains apart from the world he surveys, “represents a pivotal influence on Poe's philosophical perspective and fictional aims and strategies.”

Among the many achievements in the short and difficult life of Edgar A. Poe was the creation of the detective tale as a popular literary genre. The extraordinary feats of ratiocination performed by C. Auguste Dupin in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Purloined Letter,” and “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” have entertained countless young readers in the past 150 years, and attracted enormous critical attention...