Affect, Detective Fiction, and Foucault's "Literature of Criminality"

Foucault argued that fear of the ineluctable criminal was one means through which state power expanded in the late 1800s. This suggests that power works through affect and emotion, but Foucault does not delve into exactly how populations are made to experience fear, or how that fear is channeled towards the criminal. This paper aims to fill that gap through an examination of detective fiction, part of what Foucault called the "literature of criminality" that spreads fear. It focuses on the affective content of Sherlock Holmes stories, demonstrating how both the form and content of Sherlock stories inspired particular forms of fear in audiences, channeled that fear towards criminals, and then, in solving the crime, transmuted fear of the criminal into love of the state. It concludes with a discussion of how religious studies hermeneutics shed light on the operations of power.