Dorothy L. Sayers

Abstract

This thesis sets out to understand the theological method of Dorothy L. Sayers, a complex woman of letters. The preeminent argument is that a new and helpful paradigm for understanding Sayers’ work and evaluating her contribution to Christian apologetics is her emphasis on accessing and expressing theological ‘truth’, through ‘story’ and ‘pattern’. Sayers consistently explored theological truths in the context of dramatic narratives and orderly systems. 

The primary research methodology is to find, read and use Sayers’ own letters as the principal sources to shed light on her published work.  The thesis seeks to show that recognising Sayers’ passion for truth, through story and pattern makes a significant contribution towards understanding her canon as a unity.  The thesis differs in perspective in this regard from other Sayers scholarship, which has placed emphasis on other particular theological motifs or literary points in her career as an author. Furthermore, this thesis will differ from other theological analyses of Sayers’ work in that it engages with the full diversity of genres in Sayers’ canon and does so from a rigorous theological perspective rather than by taking a biographical approach.

This thesis contributes to current theological understanding by bringing the work of a significant lay female Christian thinker of the twentieth century to the attention of scholarship. Sayers’ work has continuing resonance for contemporary theologians who are interested in the role of narrative, drama and analogy in theology, and in the creative communication of theological ideas.

A variety of psychoanalytic readings of late-Victorian and early-twentieth century crime fiction often place the detective at the centre of their analysis, depicting them as a conduit through which readings of other aspects of the genre can be articulated. Samantha Walton, for example, explores the idea that the ‘the detective [acts as the] diagnostician of the self’, and goes on to argue that ‘[t]he central place of psychological discourses in the golden age novel both incites and responds to specific cultural anxieties about selfhood’ (2015: 275). Consequently, however, the psychological effects of performing the role of ‘detective’ remain under-examined. Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Sherlock Holmes performs his detection under constant scrutiny from those around him who fail to understand his mental processes. In the early twentieth century, Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey struggles to reconcile the tension between his position as ‘aristocrat’ and ‘detective’, and also has difficulty with disassociating his activities as a detective with his experiences in the First World War. Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s ‘othered’ position as of a different nationality to most other characters psychologically isolates him, whilst his compunction for the domestic does not mesh with his activities as an externally-othered figure. This article performs a reading of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey, and Christie’s Hercule Poirot and offers a tentative exploration of how these classic ‘detectives’ are often physically, socially, narratively and psychologically isolated by performing their role.

Advisor: Professor James Hopkins
Master of Arts conferred May 14, 2016
Dissertation completed April 15, 2016
Southern Methodist University

Today’s popular culture is inundated with adaptations of and references to Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about Great Britain’s most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. But the private detective’s impact on the Victorian society into which he was born is much more pervasive and far reaching, then and now, than a visit to the little flat on Baker Street could possibly convey. Examining the history of the British private detective both in fiction and in life shows that the figure has been used as a metaphorical plumb-line for English self-conception since the Victorian era. This thesis looks at the British private detective from different points of view– the police, government officials, the public, literature, media, and detectives themselves – and shows how the figure can serve as a compelling historical lens through which to view changes in British culture in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Barbara Reynolds, famed Italian scholar, developed a deep and collegial friendship with Dorothy L. Sayers. Reynolds wrote the biography, "Dorothy L. Sayers: Her life and soul," and when Sayers passed away before finishing her translation of Dante's "Paradiso," Reynolds completed the task for publication. Reynolds was also known for translating "Orlando furioso," Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem. This article discusses Reynolds' scholarship and gives an overview of Ariosto's poem with highlights of the titular character Orlando's storyline as well as that of the warrior maiden Bradamante and her beloved Ruggiero.

Full journal can be found: https://americanjournalofsayersstudies.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/dls-volume-ii-2019-wordpress-mutual-admiration-1a-1.pdf

Literary Images of Christ as Hero in the Early Poetry of Dorothy L. Sayers: The Influence of English and French Romanticism
Barbara L. Prescott

As a Christian apologist, Dorothy L. Sayers is rarely considered to be an author whose imagination of faith is expressed in the form of original poetry. Yet in her early years, Sayers considered herself first and foremost a poet, and a large portion of her poetry was an expression of Christian romanticism in myth and legend.
In her twenties, Sayers published a collection of poems in sonnet and ballad structure which reflect and interpret the heroic roles of Jesus the Christ. Within this small book, Catholic Tales and Christian Songs, produced in 1918 by Basil Blackwell, we are given a glimpse of those imaginative, unusual, and romantic images of Jesus Christ, some not often associated with His life manifested on earth. We are given the varied faces of Christ as a legendary folk and mythic Hero.
In this paper, I discuss the first poem of Catholic Tales, “Desdichado”, in light of Dorothy Sayers’ imaginative vision of the many faces of the Hero Christ and their significance to, and reemergence in, her later writings. I also consider briefly the literary sources applied by Sayers in the composition of this poem. Those sources, primarily from the 18th through 19th Century Romantic literary movement, include Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe), Victor Hugo (Les Misérables, Notre Dame de Paris), and the enigmatic French poet, Gèrard de Nerval (“El Desdichado”).  In support of my analysis, I refer to the published version of the text, earlier manuscript of the book, as well as Dorothy L. Sayers’ notes and unpublished letters from the archives of the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton, IL.

This article offers a preliminary exploration of the ironical paratexts accompanying published articles and books of Sherlockian Scholarship.  This beloved genre, a specialty of Sherlockian enthusiasts, features playful expository texts that investigate the "real" world of Sherlock Holmes through the nonfictional prose of Doctor Watson.  From Dorothy L. Sayers to William S. Baring-Gould, Sherlockian authors slyly winked at readers through their ludic paratexts including introductions, footnotes, and graphics.

J.R.R. Tolkien versus Dorothy Sayers: comparing the theories in 'On Fairy Stories' and 'The Mind of the Maker'.  The former sees in Fantasy the highest form of Art, while the latter makes a case for its opposite, Drama. Nevertheless their theories show remarkable similarities.

Dorothy L. Sayers is most famous for her detective fiction, particularly the mystery novels involving Lord Peter Wimsey. Her greatest gift to history, however, is the application of a faithful concept of vocation to her art. Based on a speech delivered to the Archbishop of York’s conference in Malvern, 1941, it appears Sayers had something like a transformationalist view according to Niebuhr’s model. She saw withdrawing from the culture and becoming one with the culture as a pair of matched dangers. The first effectively privatizes Christianity and
the second denatures it. Accordingly, Sayers believed the Church must do the impossible: without becoming identified with cultural institutions, it must redeem those institutions. The church must influence morality, but not get tied to the moralistic aspects of cultural institutions. This essay presents the case that Sayers was a cautious transformationalist. She believed that Christianity could permeate and redeem every form of art and every institution to improve it and make it more consistent with God’s creational design. In a period of growing cultural marginalization, Sayers’ example presents a way for Christians to point people toward a robust understanding of human flourishing.

Ngaio Marsh is recognised as one of the original Queens of Crime: her works sit alongside the greats of the crime fiction genre’s golden age including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Margery Allingham. Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh is just as well known, in her homeland of New Zealand, for her significant contributions to the world of the theatre. This paper explores the impact of a collision of Marsh’s two worlds – the world of the murder mystery and the world of the performing arts – in her series of Roderick Alleyn novels. With particular focus on her first novel set in a theatre, Enter a Murderer (1935), and the last novel penned by Marsh, also set in a theatre, Light Thickens (1982), this paper will look at how realistic Marsh’s portrayal of the performing arts is as well as the relevancy of such details in building a plot for a crime fiction novel

A specific structure is crucial to the design of the detective novel. This idea was already prevalent in the interwar period, when the detective genre was booming (therefore it was called “the Golden Age detective novel”) and various detective writers composed guidelines for writing detective stories. One of these authors, Dorothy L. Sayers, felt that the rules designed for this kind of writing originated in Aristotle’s Poetics (which deals with classical tragedy). This article inquires whether Sayers’s claim to the connection between Aristotle and detective fiction is appropriate and, if so, how the Poetics’ influence is apparent in the detective fiction rules of other interwar authors. For this purpose, the commandments of the following authors were thoroughly analysed: S.S. Van Dine, G.K. Chesterton, R. Chandler and R. Knox. These commandments generally overlap with Aristotle’s observations on tragedy (e.g. some commandments hint on the idea of peripateia or causality, both evident in Aristotle’s treatise), but none of the authors mentions a direct Aristotelian influence.
Secondly, Sayers’s article on Aristotle as forefather of detective fiction was discussed. Being the only one to link Aristotle to the detective novel, Sayers sets herself apart from the other interwar authors. Nevertheless, this divergence is easily explained by the fact that she strove to promote the detective story as a genre within literature, as it was not perceived in this way at the time. By associating the detective novel with the Poetics, Sayers made sure this type of novel came within reach of being recognized as literature. This is perceivable in one of her novels, Gaudy Night, which this essay analysed as well and which showed Sayers’s objectives by being more literary than a common detective story.
Still, Sayers was the only author to state Aristotle’s influence on the detective novel, which makes it difficult to assess if the Greek author really had an effect on the composing of guidelines for detective fiction. Her claim to the alleged influence of the Poetics to the Golden Age detective story is therefore probable, but debatable. Albeit, it is possible that the Poetics, as it was still widely read in this period, was so well known the other detective authors thought it unnecessary to mention Aristotle’s influence in their rules to writing detective stories. This is, nonetheless, a hypothesis that calls for further research.

"The robust criticism of contemporaries is most salutary, and we, undoubtedly, had the sense to profit from it." "The lecturer expoundeth what we think we think, And why we think we think we do." Not Old, Madam, Vintage Charis Ursula Barnett Frankenburg, 1975: 63, 61 …companions in this airy hermitage… Gaudy Night Dorothy L. Sayers, 1935: Ch. 11 The women students at Oxford University, prior to 1920, found themselves in somewhat of a curious situation. They were allowed to attend university, take classes and exams, prove their academic value, but they were not allowed to receive degrees. In point of fact, women attending Oxford University prior to October 7, 1920 1 were not given the rights of matriculation, that is, of full student status. They were there 'on probation,' a situation of which these women students were very well aware. 2 However, acceptance to the university was certainly an honor and sought, in fact coveted, by young learned women at the time. Within the Oxford world, Somerville College was noted to be the 'school for women' rather than the 'school for ladies.' From its early days, this college encouraged a strong spirit of individualism among its students. 3 Somerville's proudly held reputation was certainly attractive to the young independent woman scholar of the day. The principal of Somerville at the time was Emily Penrose, a strict but forward thinking administrator who made the raising of academic standards one of her chief objectives. She believed that women should take the full degree course even if the degree itself was denied them. Emily Penrose's insistence upon fulfillment of the degree requirements by Somerville students facilitated the later validation, in 1920, of their right to an official Oxford degree. 4

This talk looks at the presence, influence and purpose of animals in popular detective fiction, ranging from some of its earliest incarnations in Edgar Allan Poe’s short ‘Dupin’ stories of the 1840s, through to the infamous Sherlock Holmes stories of the late Victorian era, right up to the ‘Golden Age’ of detective fiction in the early twentieth century. It explores the sheer diversity of animals’ representation in the genre, and discusses some of the impacts animals have had on its development. It also looks at the conceptualisation of the detective themselves as somehow animalistic, whereby sleuths are often depicted as ‘stalking’ their quarry or following a scent in the manner of a bloodhound, and juxtaposes this idea against the common perception of detectives as distanced, calm, rational and observant.

Background: The aim of the article is to offer a possible way to the theme of imagination in relation to Christology, Trinitology and the theme of holiness with the help of C. S. Lewis and Dorothy L. Sayers. This concept is opened by explaining distinction between the primary and the secondary imagination according to the romantic poet and critic S. T. Coleridge. Noting that the article will deal with the primary imagination, the text proceeds to describe the role of the imagination in the Christian life. This part of the article shows that the phrase ‘holy imagination’ is necessary since there can be various ways of imagining the world and also different attitudes towards the imagination itself. The following Trinitarian account of the imagination is then developed in line with the ideas of Dorothy L. Sayers and allows us to demonstrate that the imagination is basically Christological. C. S. Lewis then helps us demonstrate concrete moments of the holy imagination according to the basic Christological movement of kenosis. The last part of the article illustrates how this attitude is relevant to Christian spirituality and evangelisation.
Conclusion: We should not forget that the holy imagination shaped according to the kenotic pattern has the perspective of hope and joy, which forms the necessary context for any discussion of suffering which relates to it. Therefore, the article emphasises the holy imagination as being the central element of evangelisation and should delimit the basic perspective of those who preach the Gospel.

In her 2015 monograph Guilty but Insane: Mind and Law in Golden Age Detective Fiction, Samantha Walton performs a rare and comprehensive analyses of the significance of psychology in golden age detective fiction, exploring ‘the detective as diagnostician of the self’ and arguing that ‘[t]he central place of psychological discourses in the golden age novel both incites and responds to specific cultural anxieties about selfhood’.
However, whilst Walton’s argument is excellent, the psychological effects of performing the role of ‘detective’ remain under-examined. Before the ‘golden age’ itself, Sherlock Holmes famously struggles mentally with periods of inactivity, leading to extended drug use to occupy his mind until another case presents itself. Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey, struggles to disassociate his activities as a detective with his experiences in the First World War, leading to turbulent flashback episodes when his activities have caused a criminal’s execution. Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot’s compunction for orderliness and neatness aids him in his acts of detection, yet potentially masks his own discomfort with his own existence. Finally, Margery Allingham’s eccentric detective Albert Campion uses his activities as a sleuth as a form of mental and physical escapism.
This paper therefore performs an introspective psychoanalytic reading of several golden age detectives to extend Walton’s narrative of the importance of psychoanalysis in fully understanding this genre. It argues that the psyche of the detective themselves is almost always connected to their sleuthing activities, and presents a picture of the ways in which this affects the genre’s construction.

En este ensayo (con la ayuda de Dorothy Sayers, autora tanto de obras de ficción detectiva como de ensayos importantes sobre la muchas temas, incluyendo el feminismo) Haack presente su concepción  de un feminismo que reconoce tanto lo que todos seres humanos, hombres y mujeres, tienen en común como la variedad de talentos, inclinaciones, etc., entre individuos. Entonces es posible distinguir el feminismo razonable de concepciones más radicales pero menos plausibles. 

Escribiendo este ensayo fue para Haack una oportunidad de explicar el sentido en lo que es una feminista seria. 

Translated by Edison Otero.

Yuletide greetings! Hobbits celebrate Yule, too, at the turning of the year. Our present to all of you this year: the contents of Mythlore 80/Mallorn 30, the elusive, out-of-print Tolkien Centenary Conference Proceedings, are now available through the online Mythlore portal at https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol21/iss2/

We hope to have the eLore and Print-on-Demand versions available for purchase early in the New Year.