Cracking the Hard-Boiled Detective
McFarland & Co Inc (Verlag)
978-0-7864-2581-5 (ISBN)
The hard-boiled private detective is among the most recognizable characters in popular fiction since the 1920s--a tough product of a violent world, in which police forces are inadequate and people with money can choose private help when facing threatening circumstances. Though a relatively recent arrival, the hard-boiled detective has undergone steady development and assumed diverse forms.
This critical study analyzes the character of the hard-boiled detective, from literary antecedents through the early 21st century. It follows change in the novels through three main periods: the Early (roughly 1927-1955), during which the character was defined by such writers as Carroll John Daly, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler; the Transitional, evident by 1964 in the works of John D. MacDonald and Michael Collins, and continuing to around 1977 via Joseph Hansen, Bill Pronzini and others; and the Modern, since the late 1970s, during which such writers as Loren D. Estleman, Liza Cody, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton and many others have expanded the genre and the detective character. Themes such as violence, love and sexuality, friendship, space and place, and work are examined throughout the text.
Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
Lewis D. Moore, a retired professor of English, taught at the University of the District of Columbia in Washington for thirty years. He is also the author of Meditations on America: John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee Series and Other Fiction (1994).
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Poe, Conan Doyle, and the Hard-Boiled Detective Novel
EARLY PERIOD
2. History as Recovery
3. The Creation of Character
4. Violence: Direction and Control
5. Decaying Worlds
6. Work: Discourse and Danger
7. Sexuality and Discovery
8. Friendship: The Absent Theme
TRANSITIONAL PERIOD
9. Character in Conflict
10. Pervasive Violence
11. Expanded Space
12. Needed Work
13. Love and Sexuality
14. Friendship: Faint Stirrings
15. The Quality of Change: Individual Lives and Social Transformation
MODERN PERIOD
16. Character and Wholeness
17. Violence: Echoes and Conversions
18. Better Places
19. Necessary Work
20. Sexuality and Diversity
21. Surviving Friendship
22. Multiples of Change
23. The Uses of Memory
24. Lies and Deceit: Family
25. Conclusion: Expanding the Word
Bibliography
Index
Erscheint lt. Verlag | 30.12.2006 |
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Zusatzinfo | bibliography, index |
Verlagsort | Jefferson, NC |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
Gewicht | 408 g |
Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
ISBN-10 | 0-7864-2581-4 / 0786425814 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-7864-2581-5 / 9780786425815 |
Zustand | Neuware |
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