Das ‚crimen‘ im Krimi: Zu einem Begriff an der Grenze von Rechts- und Literaturwissenschaft

Abstract

This article examines the concept of ‘crime’  as a constitutive feature of crime fiction and questions its use in literary genre theory. Drawing on different conceptions of crime, it first develops a general definition that understands crime as conscious, normviolating, and accountable human conduct. This concept is then applied to Edgar Allan Poe's “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”. The analysis reveals a fundamental paradox: since the orangutan's “act” as the “perpetrator” does not fulfil the essential conditions of a crime, no crime has in fact been committed. Yet Poe's story is widely regarded as the prototype of modern crime fiction. To resolve this contradiction, the article proposes a new, genuinely literary understanding of the genre-defining concept of “crime”, according to which the ‘crimen’  is no longer understood as an actually committed crime but rather as the structural principle of a potential crime, the investigation of which generates narrative suspense and ultimately restores the disrupted order.