Editing Whodunit (section)

== Concept ==
A whodunit follows the paradigm of the traditional detective story in the sense that it presents crime as a puzzle to be solved through a chain of questions that the detective poses.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory|last1=Herman|first1=David|last2=Jahn|first2=Manfred|last3=Ryan|first3=Marie-Laure|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=0203932897|location=New York|pages=103}}</ref> In a whodunit, however, the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of [[Deductive reasoning|deduction]] as the [[protagonist]] throughout the investigation of a crime. This engages the readers so that they strive to compete with or outguess the expert investigator.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Limits of Critique|last=Felski|first=Rita|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2015|isbn=9780226293981|location=Chicago|pages=93}}</ref>

A defining feature of the whodunit narrative is the so-called '''double narrative'''. Here, one narrative is hidden and gradually revealed while the other is the open narrative, which often transpires in the present time of the story.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Nordic Noir on Page and Screen|last=Peacock|first=Steven|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2012|isbn=9780230390430|location=New York|pages=44}}</ref> This feature has been associated with the Russian literary terms [[Fabula and syuzhet|''syuzhet'' and fabula]]. The former involves the narrative presented to the reader by the author or the actual story as it happened in chronological order while the latter focuses on the underlying substance or material of the narrative.<ref name=":0" /> 

The double narrative has a deep structure but is specific, particularly when it comes to time and a split gaze on the narrative itself.<ref name=":1" /> The two tales coexist and interweave with the first tale focusing on the crime itself, what led to it, and the investigation to solve it while the second story is all about the reconstruction of the crime.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Crime Fictions: Subverted Codes and New Structures|last1=Gallix|first1=François|last2=Guignery|first2=Vanessa|publisher=Presses Paris Sorbonne|year=2004|isbn=2840503492|location=Paris|pages=4–5}}</ref> Here, the ''[[diegesis]]'', or the way the characters live on the inquiry level creates the phantom narration where the objects, bodies, and words become signs for both the detective and the reader to interpret and draw their conclusions from.<ref name=":1" /> For instance, in a detective novel, solving a mystery entails the reconstruction of the criminal events. This process, however, also involves on the part of the detective the production of a [[hypothesis]] that could withstand scrutiny, including the crafting of findings about cause and motive as well as crime and its intended consequences.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Whodunit?: A Who's Who in Crime & Mystery Writing|last=Herbert|first=Rosemary|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003|isbn=0195157613|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/whodunitwhoswhoi0000unse/page/92 92]|url=https://archive.org/details/whodunitwhoswhoi0000unse/page/92}}</ref> This discourse of explanation constitutes the second narrative besides the primary story relating to the crime.<ref name=":2" />

The double narrative is cited as a main distinguishing element between the whodunit and the [[Thriller (genre)|thriller]]. The whodunit goes backward as it goes forward, reconstructing the timeline of both crime and investigation, while the thriller coincides with the action in a single story.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=About Time: Narrative, Fiction and the Philosophy of Time: Narrative, Fiction and the Philosophy of Time|last=Currie|first=Mark|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|year=2006|isbn=9780748624249|location=Edinburgh|pages=87–88}}</ref> According to [[Tzvetan Todorov]], in terms of [[temporal logic]], the whodunit narrative is considered a [[paradigm]] for fiction in general because the story unfolds in relation not to a future event but one that is already known and merely lying in wait.<ref name=":3" /> Such certainty pertains to the crime and not to the identity of the culprit, who the reader must anticipate as part of the unknown future.<ref name=":3" />

This narrative development has been seen as a form of [[comedy]], in which order is restored to a threatened social calm.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shead|first=Jackie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U9QoDAAAQBAJ&q=%22whodunit+narrative%22+definition&pg=PT52|title=Margaret Atwood: Crime Fiction Writer: The Reworking of a Popular Genre|date=2016-05-13|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317100744|language=en}}</ref>