Mediterranean noir

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mediterranean Noir refers to a literary style that employs elements of noir and hardboiled crime fiction in a Mediterranean setting. Sex, crime, and physical violence often figure prominently Mediterranean Noir narratives. Social and historical issues specific to the region – particularly governmental corruption and instability, war, and racial strife – are frequently underlying plot considerations. Prominent authors of the movement include Jean-Claude Izzo, Andrea Camilleri, Massimo Carlotto, Eduardo Mendoza, and Batya Gur.

According to the Italian publisher Sandro Ferri, Mediterranean Noir is remarkable for its attention to a unique duality of Mediterranean life:

The prevailing vision in the novels belonging to the genre known as Mediterranean noir is a pessimistic one. Authors and their literary inventions look upon the cities of the Mediterranean and see places that have been broken, battered, and distorted by crime. There is always a kind of dualism that pervades these works. On one hand, there is the Mediterranean lifestyle-- fine wine and fine food, friendship, conviviality, solidarity, blue skies and limpid seas-- an art of living brought almost to perfection. On the other hand, violence, corruption, greed, and abuses of power.

[edit] References