Buy Columbo Book by Christyne Berzsenyi from book shop
close menu
Bookswagon
search
My Account
Home > Society and Social Sciences > Psychology > Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders
Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders

Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders


     0     
5
4
3
2
1



International Edition


X
About the Book

This book is an analysis of the hit television series Columbo and the investigative methods of its eponymous main character. In the iconic detective show, which aired from 1968 to 2003, Lieutenant Columbo was known for his Socratic method of rhetorical inquiry. Feigning ignorance and employing a barrage of questions about minute details, the detective enacts a persona of “antipotency,” or counter authoritativeness, to affect the villains' underestimation of his attention to inconsistencies, abductive reasoning, and rhetorical efficacy. In his predominantly dialogue-based investigations, Columbo exhausts his suspects by asking a battery of questions concerning all minor details of the case—an aggravating, tedious provocation for the killer trying to maintain innocence.

In this engaging interdisciplinary study, Christyne Berzsenyi explores the character and his influences, dissects his methods of investigation, and assesses the show’s enduring legacy in academia and popular culture. While critical and theoretical, the text is also accessible to interdisciplinary readers, practical in application, and amusing for Columbo buffs.



Table of Contents:

PART ONE: UNDERSTANDING THE LIEUTENANT AND HIS VILLAINS

  1. Introduction: Introduction to Columbo And Columbo
    1. Columbo, An Inverted Mystery
    2. A Snapshot of Television and Film History: Pre-Columbo
    3. The Underestimated Detective (1910)
    4. Scholarship and the Lieutenant
    5. Historical, Literary, and Television Contexts: Shift to Grit and Realism
  2. Columbo and the Lieutenant: Literary Influences
    1. The Firsts in Short and Long Detective Fiction in English (1841-62)
    2. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Lieutenant Porfiry Petrovitch: Pretenses (1886)
    3. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes: Genius Detective (1887)
    4. British Golden Age, Drawing Room Mysteries, The Cozy (1920-40)
  1. Characterology and Character-Based Detective TV Shows
    1. The Lieutenant with His Sergeants
    2. Columbo: A Blend of Genres, Influences, and Deviations
  1. Columbo, The Suspect Charmer
    1. Suspects as Resistant Responders
    2. Charming the Stinging Villains
      1. Glamour in Columbo
    3. Two Sides of Columbo Presented on a Case by Case Basis
      1. Columbo Talks to 'Dog', 'Étude in Black' (1972)
      2. Columbo and a Resistant Responder, 'Double Shock' (1973)
      3. Dual Personae, 'An Exercise in Fatality' (1974)
    4. Columbo and the Ancient Greek Virtue of Sophrosyne
    5. Looking for the Right Word: Antipotency
  1. The Columbo Killer
    1. White, middle-aged, wealthy, intelligent, cultured, successful, arrogant
    2. Audience-Villain Relationships and Columbo
    3. Columbo’s Five Types of Villains
  1. Columbo, Women of His Investigations, and the Equal Rights Movement
    1. The Women’s Professional Movement Strategic Male Chauvinism
    2. Columbo’s Female Villains: Ladylike but Lethal
    3. Columbo and the Female Accomplices
    4. Columbo and the Female Witnesses

 PART TWO: COLUMBO’S METHOD OF INVESTIGATION

  1. Crime Scene Examination and Ratiocination
    1. What Viewers Know and Don’t Know about What Columbo Knows
  2. The Working Cop’s Habit of Asking Questions: A Rhetoric of Inquiry
    1. Power of Asking Different Types of Questions
    2. The Socratic Method of Dialectic, aporia, and Standard Elenchus
    3. Techniques of Columbo’s Rhetorical Inquiry
    4. Fake Questions Types with Multiple Functions
    5. Probing Questions Types with Multiple Functions
  3. Killing Them Softly: Irritating the Suspects in Seven Modes
    1. Obligating the Suspect with Appeasement Pressure and the Extrication of Any Threat
    2. False modesty, Excessive flattery
    3. Repeated, Disingenuous Apologies
    4. Wasting the Suspect’s Time
    5. Circumstantial Speech and Inane Storytelling
    6. False Exits, 'Oh, I almost forgot'
    7. False Exits, 'Just one more thing'
    8. Special Cases of Direct Confrontation: Columbo Gets Mad
  4. Columbo Closes the Case: Capture and Consequences
    1. Lieutenant Columbo: Virtuous or Villainous?
    2. Columbo: The Denouement

      PART THREE: COLUMBO’S LEGACY IN POPULAR CULTURE AND ACADEMIA

  5. Television Detectives Influenced by Lieutenant Columbo
    1. Spoofing the Lieutenant
  6. Using Columbo’s Method in Our Everyday Lives
  7. 'Just One More Thing': Columbo and Spectatorship


About the Author :

Christyne Berzsenyi is associate professor of English at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.


Best Sellers


Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9781783209859
  • Publisher: Intellect
  • Publisher Imprint: Intellect Books
  • Height: 244 mm
  • No of Pages: 224
  • Returnable: Y
  • Sub Title: A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders
  • ISBN-10: 1783209852
  • Publisher Date: 20 Aug 2021
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Language: English
  • Returnable: Y
  • Returnable: Y
  • Width: 170 mm


Similar Products

Add Photo
Add Photo

Customer Reviews

REVIEWS      0     
Click Here To Be The First to Review this Product
Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders
Intellect -
Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders
Writing guidlines
We want to publish your review, so please:
  • keep your review on the product. Review's that defame author's character will be rejected.
  • Keep your review focused on the product.
  • Avoid writing about customer service. contact us instead if you have issue requiring immediate attention.
  • Refrain from mentioning competitors or the specific price you paid for the product.
  • Do not include any personally identifiable information, such as full names.

Columbo: A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders

Required fields are marked with *

Review Title*
Review
    Add Photo Add up to 6 photos
    Would you recommend this product to a friend?
    Tag this Book Read more
    Does your review contain spoilers?
    What type of reader best describes you?
    I agree to the terms & conditions
    You may receive emails regarding this submission. Any emails will include the ability to opt-out of future communications.

    CUSTOMER RATINGS AND REVIEWS AND QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TERMS OF USE

    These Terms of Use govern your conduct associated with the Customer Ratings and Reviews and/or Questions and Answers service offered by Bookswagon (the "CRR Service").


    By submitting any content to Bookswagon, you guarantee that:
    • You are the sole author and owner of the intellectual property rights in the content;
    • All "moral rights" that you may have in such content have been voluntarily waived by you;
    • All content that you post is accurate;
    • You are at least 13 years old;
    • Use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.
    You further agree that you may not submit any content:
    • That is known by you to be false, inaccurate or misleading;
    • That infringes any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;
    • That violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising);
    • That is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any individual, partnership or corporation;
    • For which you were compensated or granted any consideration by any unapproved third party;
    • That includes any information that references other websites, addresses, email addresses, contact information or phone numbers;
    • That contains any computer viruses, worms or other potentially damaging computer programs or files.
    You agree to indemnify and hold Bookswagon (and its officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures, employees and third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.), harmless from all claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of a breach of your representations and warranties set forth above, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.


    For any content that you submit, you grant Bookswagon a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell, transfer, and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. Additionally,  Bookswagon may transfer or share any personal information that you submit with its third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc. in accordance with  Privacy Policy


    All content that you submit may be used at Bookswagon's sole discretion. Bookswagon reserves the right to change, condense, withhold publication, remove or delete any content on Bookswagon's website that Bookswagon deems, in its sole discretion, to violate the content guidelines or any other provision of these Terms of Use.  Bookswagon does not guarantee that you will have any recourse through Bookswagon to edit or delete any content you have submitted. Ratings and written comments are generally posted within two to four business days. However, Bookswagon reserves the right to remove or to refuse to post any submission to the extent authorized by law. You acknowledge that you, not Bookswagon, are responsible for the contents of your submission. None of the content that you submit shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of Bookswagon, its agents, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners or third party service providers (including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.)and their respective directors, officers and employees.

    Accept

    Fresh on the Shelf


    Inspired by your browsing history


    Your review has been submitted!

    You've already reviewed this product!
    Your IP: 216.73.216.43 IN