ABSTRACT
Metropolitan culture will be defined in both literary and socio-geographical terms, in the topography and psychology of not only the metropolis itself, but also the familiar essay. The growth of the city and subsequent urbanisation of society is a key principle of modernity, therefore criminality is perhaps also inseparable from metropolitan culture. The metropolitan environment also plays a significant part in Edgar Allan Poe's emotionally less stable treatment of a potential rather than actual murderer, the anonymous, diamond-and-dagger-carrying man of the crowd. In addition to contributing to the development of detective fiction and the murder mystery, Poe offers a template for the later transatlantic ambivalence of Henry James. The growth of the city and subsequent urbanisation of society is a key principle of modernity, therefore criminality is perhaps also inseparable from metropolitan culture.
