A retro crime story as an attempt at reconstructing the past through a literary heroine

Abstract

The article focuses on the literary character as a carrier of information about an era in the genre of retro crime novels. The basis for the discussion is a series of works by Maryla Szymiczkowa titled Investigations of Professor Szczupaczyńska. The article reflects on the way history is reconstructed in crime literature and the significance of the gender of the main character in crime novels for the reader. It is demonstrated that the retro crime novel is a syncretic genre, and the complexity of the construction of the main character of the series is proved, reflecting the reality of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and referring to contemporary times.