ABSTRACT
The attempt to introduce a distinctly nineteenth-century aesthetic into the generic conventions of the detective novel placed Dorothy L. Sayers at the perilous intersection of two increasingly divergent literary cultures. Detective fiction plays an important role in these conversations, for it becomes a point of contention between those who consider it to be literature and those who do not. Two essays by Edmund Wilson written near the end of what has come to be known as the Golden Age of detective fiction clearly convey not only the issues at stake but also the vehemence with which some felt compelled to defend literature from the threat of detective fiction. The fact that Wilson's critique comes after the Golden Age of the detective novel seems to make it particularly damning. If he cannot find anything worthwhile in the works of the acknowledged great writers of the genre, then certainly the genre cannot be considered literature.
