Parodies in Death and the Compass

雒娜娜

【Abstract】“Death and the Compass” parodies the traditional detective story by subverting that the detective would solve the mysteries and good would triumph over evil. It announces the death of the detective and limitation of knowledge.

【Key words】“Death and the Compass”； parody； subversion

“Death and the Compass” argues that whether logic can reveal the truth and ones ratiocination is reliable. It tells that detective L?nnrot foresees the last crime through his logic induction while he has no idea that he himself is the target. The first crime happened by chance. There is actually no serial murder. But Scharlach used L?nnrot's ingenuity to lure him to this trap. Time and place are correctly foreseen， only the motive of the murder is not conjectured.

The first subversion is the parody of the traditional detective. Normally， the detective brings the justice to the criminal no matter how difficult it is .In this story， the culprit uses the detectives ingenuity to get him killed. It is the detective instead of the criminal that is trapped. The detective loses the ability to crack the case. It is not the confrontation between the detective and the criminal， but between the detectives rationality and his fragmented subjectivity. The final failure is inevitable.

Secondly， it is a parody of the serial killing like Agatha Christies The ABC Murders； such mysteries conceal an important pattern to outfox the reader. Borges mocks L?nnrot who was obsessed with the patterned concept. The detective follows his bigoted course to search in the dim history of Judaism. It never occurred to him that the criminal use these religious legends to trap him and lead him to his death as designed.

Thirdly， the detective goes from a catalyst to an emissary of death. His search for the crimes triggers off more corpses and more chaos. The first crime happened by chance. There is actually no serial murder. The culprit committed the second crime and designed a third one only want the detective dead.

Conclusion

“Death and the Compass” parodies the traditional detective story by subverting the genres conventions. In this story， the criminal planned the murder with equal ingenuity and caprice only to destroy the detective. It symbolizes the rebellion of the rationalism and the inefficacy of detection.

References：

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