| The Street Was Mine: White Masculinity in Hardboiled Fiction and Film Noir 2002 Edition Contributor(s): Abbott, M. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0312294816 ISBN-13: 9780312294816 Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan OUR PRICE: $113.99 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 2003 Annotation: This book considers a recurrent figure in American literature: the solitary white man moving through urban space. The descendent of 19th-century frontier and western heroes, the figure reemerges in 1930s-' 50s America as the " tough guy." "The Street Was Mine" looks to the tough guy in the works of hardboiled novelists Raymond Chandler ("The Big Sleep") and James M. Cain ("Double Indemnity") and their popular "film noir" adaptations. Focusing on the way he negotiates racial and gender " otherness, " this study argues that the tough guy embodies the promise of an impervious white masculinity amidst the turmoil of the Depression through the beginnings of the Cold War. The book concludes with an analysis of Chester Himes, whose Harlem crime novels ("For Love of Imabelle") unleash a ferocious revisionary critique of the tough guy tradition. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Mystery & Detective Fiction - Literary Criticism | American - General - Performing Arts | Film - History & Criticism |
| Dewey: 813.087 |
| LCCN: 2002068408 |
| Physical Information: 0.77" H x 5.94" W x 8.66" (0.90 lbs) 246 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book considers a recurrent figure in American literature: the solitary white man moving through urban space. The descendent of Nineteenth-century frontier and western heroes, the figure re-emerges in 1930-50s America as the 'tough guy'. The Street Was Mine looks to the tough guy in the works of hardboiled novelists Raymond Chandler ( The Big Sleep ) and James M. Cain ( Double Indemnity ) and their popular film noir adaptations. Focusing on the way he negotiates racial and gender 'otherness', this study argues that the tough guy embodies the promise of an impervious white masculinity amidst the turmoil of the Depression through the beginnings of the Cold War, closing with an analysis of Chester Himes, whose Harlem crime novels ( For Love of Imabelle ) unleash a ferocious revisionary critique of the tough guy tradition. |