230578 America Noir (Literature and Film) (S) (SoSe 2008)

In this course we will explore the dark underworld of "hard-boiled" detective fiction from the 1930's, as well as the film genre it helped give rise to a decade later known as "film noir." In frank prose and baroque effects of light and shade, these novels and films conveyed dystopian, crime-ridden environments in which appearances are often deceptive, women are dangerously seductive femme fatales, and the tough-minded male detective trying to bring "order" to this world is not unlike the criminals he pursues. We will examine these novelistic/filmic works as artistic responses to specific crises in American depression-era and post-WWII culture. In particular, we will look at how these works seem to address contemporary challenges to traditional orderings of masculine identity and male authority. Because many classic examples of film noir are adaptations of hard-boiled detective fiction, this course will also give us the opportunity to consider how the rhetorical devices of fiction can be translated onto the screen.