Noir fiction

The Killer Inside Me (1952), a noir novel by Jim Thompson. The guilty party? "All of us."

Noir fiction (or roman noir) is a literary genre closely related to hardboiled genre[1] with a distinction that the protagonist is not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. Other common characteristics include the self-destructive qualities of the protagonist.[2] A typical protagonist of the Noir fiction is dealing with the legal, political or other system that is no less corrupt than the perpetrator by whom the protagonist is either victimized and/or has to victimize others on a daily basis, leading to Lose-lose situation.

The origin of the term

The term originates from the stories describing the atmosphere during the Prohibition-period in America that were written by hardboiled writers in the early 1940s, that were adapted for screen in Film noir by the Austro-German[lower-alpha 1] film-making emigrants in Hollywood who fled the similarly corrupt system in Europe which allowed for the Nazi movement to gain power.[3]

The genre's pioneers

James M. Cain — also regarded as the third major figure of the early hardboiled genre[4] - is regarded an American pioneer of the noir genre. He debuted as a crime novelist in 1934. Other important American writers in the noir genre include Cornell Woolrich, Dorothy B. Hughes, Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Charles Williams, and Elmore Leonard.

Variants of noir

Mediterranean Noir

Mediterranean Noir refers to noir fiction in a Mediterranean setting. Sex, crime, and physical violence often figure prominently in 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, Batya Gur and Enrico Teodorani.

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.

American Noir

W. R. Burnett, part of the first wave of hardboiled writers along with Hammett and Cain, wrote in a style that split the difference, often featuring heroic gangsters as his leads. The five novels featuring alcoholic detective Bill Crane written by Jonathan Latimer over the course of the 1930s constitute one of the earliest literary series of hardboiled screwball comedy. The work of Charles Willeford has sometimes been referred to as hardboiled or, particularly, noir fiction, though it is perhaps more helpfully characterized as "neo-noir," as Willeford's crime writing rarely employs the conventions of hardboiled literature without critiquing them.

Of latter-day hardboiled novelists who regularly feature detective protagonists, the most prominent to write in a noir mode is James Ellroy. In terms of character, plot, and worldview, Patricia Highsmith is a quintessential writer of noir fiction—indeed, her work has been the source for numerous movies, both American and European, regarded as films noir—but her style sets her apart: far from "lean" and "direct," it is characteristically dense and subtle.

Recently, the noir crime fiction genre has been re-energized with the success of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and the popularity of the video game L.A. Noire.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The Austro-German film-makers who fled the Nazi regime are central to the development of Film noir. The include Robert Siodmak and Fritz Lang, John Alton, Curtis Bernhardt, Michael Curtiz, William Dieterle, Marlene Dietrich, E. A. Dupont, Karl Freund, Frederick Hollander, Harry Horner, Peter Lorre, Rudolph Mate, F. W. Murnau, Seymour Nebenzal, Max Ophuls, Otto Preminger, Miklos Rozsa, Hans J. Salter, Eugen Schufftan, Steve Sekely, Douglas Sirk, Theodore Sparkuhl, Edgar G. Ulmer, Franz Waxman, Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann. (Bould 2005, p. 24)

References

  1. ↑ William Marling (1998-10-01). The American Roman Noir: Hammett, Cain, and Chandler. ISBN 978-0-8203-2081-6.
  2. ↑ Tuttle, George (1997). "What Is Noir?". p. 1 of 2. Archived from the original on 2012-03-29.
  3. ↑ Mark Bould (2005-12-15). Film Noir: From Berlin to Sin City. Wallflower Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-904764-50-2.
  4. ↑ Abbot, p. 4

Further reading

External links

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