The dissertation is devoted to a comprehensive study of the main trends in the development of the American female "hard-boiled" detective (a series of novels by Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky and Marcia Muller). The mass literature and features of its functioning are considered. Our analysis of critical works shows that, despite more than twenty years of active understanding of the functioning of mass literature, the specifics of its dominant genres, which, of course, include detective, is still in its infancy.
In the works of Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky and Marcia Muller, the genre form of the detective is preserved, the elements of the plot remain unchanged: first the crime, then its consequences and investigations, and finally the disclosure. In the female "hard-boiled" detective, as well as in the male, the private detective is included in the vicissitudes of the plot, uses not only his intellectual abilities, but also a gun or even a fist. However, a female detective has a different worldview, slightly different moral and social priorities, which provide for other methods of investigation and lies in the organization of the plot. Gender and love motives do not change the genre matrix, but determine the nature of the transformation of the central images, modification of the lines of plot development and expand the pictorial capabilities of the detective. Having considered the images of the main heroines of detective series, we can try to highlight the main positions that characterize female characters in detective novels: the desire of the heroine to realize herself in public life and professional activities; complex family relationships; lack of housekeeping skills; neglect of typical female stereotypes of behavior; the special nature of love relationships; the desire of the heroines to prove their worth in the profession against the background of general skepticism. Independence, autonomy and successful adaptation are the features that are characteristic of the heroines of popular detective series. The study analyzes the semantics and function of the topos "city" in the novels. One of the most important aspects of the formula of a female "hard-boiled" detective is the image of everyday life of a big city, which is characterized by ethnic diversity, sharp class differences and specific social conditions that create opportunities for crime. We can say that the cities of the fictional city Santa Teresa, the gloomy real city Chicago and the foggy metropolis San Francisco, depicted in the novels of Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky and Marcia Muller become not only the background against which the events of detective novels unfold but also full-fledged heroes.
The peculiarity of the female "hard-boiled" detective is primarily in the subject matter, issues, narrative techniques and features of the central image – a woman-private detective. In the dissertation an attempt is made to analyze the peculiarities of the development and functioning of the female "hard-boiled" detective, which may give impetus to further study of this intra-genre variety of one of the most and most popular genres of mass literature.
