{"product_id":"unless-the-threat-of-death-is-behind-them-hard-boiled-fiction-and-film-noir-paperback","title":"Unless the Threat of Death Is Behind Them: Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eJohn T. Irwin\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEarly in the twentieth century a new character type emerged in the crime novels of American writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler: the \"hard-boiled\" detective, most famously exemplified by Sam Spade in \u003ci\u003eThe Maltese Falcon\u003c\/i\u003e. Unlike the analytical detectives of nineteenth-century fiction, such as Edgar Allan Poe's Inspector Dupin, the new detectives encountered cases not as intricate logical puzzles but as stark challenges of manhood. In the stories of these characters and their criminal opposites, John T. Irwin explores the tension within ideas of American masculinity between subordination and independence and, for the man who becomes \"his own boss,\" the conflict between professional codes and personal desires. He shows how, within different works of hard-boiled fiction, the professional either overcomes the personal or is overcome by it, ending in ruinous relationships or in solitary integrity, and how within the genre all notions of manly independence are ultimately revealed to be illusions subordinate to fate itself. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTracing the stylistic development of the genre, Irwin demonstrates the particular influence of the novel of manners, especially the writing of F. Scott Fitzgerald. He goes on to argue that, from the time of World War II, when hard-boiled fiction began to appear on the screen in film noir just as women entered the workforce in large numbers, many of its themes came to extend to female empowerment. Finally, he discusses how these themes persist in contemporary dramatic series on television, representing the conflicted lives of Americans into the twenty-first century. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEarly in the twentieth century a new character type emerged in the crime novels of American writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler: the \"hard-boiled\" detective, most famously exemplified by Sam Spade in \u003ci\u003eThe Maltese Falcon\u003c\/i\u003e. Unlike the analytical detectives of nineteenth-century fiction, such as Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin, the new detectives encountered cases not as intricate logical puzzles but as stark challenges to manhood. In the stories of these characters and their criminal opposites, John T. Irwin explores the tension within ideas of American masculinity between subordination and independence and, for the man who becomes \"his own boss,\" the conflict between professional codes and personal desires.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIrwin succeeds in presenting his topic with the intellectual cachet it deserves.--\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIrwin gracefully and successfully accomplishes the critic's most worthy task--to return us happily to the scene of the crime.--\u003ci\u003eModernism\/Modernity\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStimulating . . . Irwin's psychoanalytic criticism offers subtle readings of the novels, their adaptations, and of the relations between these texts and their authors' lives.--\u003ci\u003eJournal of Popular Culture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePersuasively locates the development of noir out of the quintessentially American genre of hard-boiled detective fiction.--\u003ci\u003eBooks and Culture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eJohn T. Irwin\u003c\/b\u003e is the Decker Professor in the Humanities at the Johns Hopkins University, where he formerly served as chair of the Writing Seminars. His previous books include \u003ci\u003eThe Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story\u003c\/i\u003e, recipient of the Modern Language Association's Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies and Phi Beta Kappa's Christian Gauss Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e--Donald A. Yates, editor and translator of \u003ci\u003eLatin Blood: The Best Crime Stories from Spanish America\u003c\/i\u003e \"Books and Culture\"\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEarly in the twentieth century a new character type emerged in the crime novels of American writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler: the \"hard-boiled\" detective, most famously exemplified by Sam Spade in \u003ci\u003eThe Maltese Falcon\u003c\/i\u003e. Unlike the analytical detectives of nineteenth-century fiction, such as Edgar Allan Poe's Dupin, the new detectives encountered cases not as intricate logical puzzles but as stark challenges to manhood. In the stories of these characters and their criminal opposites, John T. Irwin explores the tension within ideas of American masculinity between subordination and independence and, for the man who becomes \"his own boss,\" the conflict between professional codes and personal desires.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Irwin succeeds in presenting his topic with the intellectual cachet it deserves.\"--\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Irwin gracefully and successfully accomplishes the critic's most worthy task--to return us happily to the scene of the crime.\"--\u003ci\u003eModernism\/Modernity\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Stimulating . . . Irwin's psychoanalytic criticism offers subtle readings of the novels, their adaptations, and of the relations between these texts and their authors' lives.\"--\u003ci\u003eJournal of Popular Culture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Persuasively locates the development of noir out of the quintessentially American genre of hard-boiled detective fiction.\"--\u003ci\u003eBooks and Culture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn T. Irwin\u003c\/b\u003e is the Decker Professor in the Humanities at the Johns Hopkins University, where he formerly served as chair of the Writing Seminars. His previous books include \u003ci\u003eThe Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story\u003c\/i\u003e, recipient of the Modern Language Association's Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies and Phi Beta Kappa's Christian Gauss Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn T. Irwin \u003c\/b\u003eis the Decker Professor in the Humanities at the Johns Hopkins University, where he formerly served as chair of the Writing Seminars. His previous books include \u003ci\u003eThe Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story, \u003c\/i\u003e recipient of the Modern Language Association's Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies and Phi Beta Kappa's Christian Gauss Prize.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 304\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.66 x 8.68 x 5.84 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 01, 2008\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51757478019360,"sku":"9780801890802","price":52.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/7a44e6836536ff1b342552de2e9ea9bc.webp?v=1780104029","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/unless-the-threat-of-death-is-behind-them-hard-boiled-fiction-and-film-noir-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}