POST-1960S DETECTIVE FICTION · NOIR TRAITS & TODAY’S THRILLER Today’s thrills based (in part)...
Transcript of POST-1960S DETECTIVE FICTION · NOIR TRAITS & TODAY’S THRILLER Today’s thrills based (in part)...
POST-1960S
DETECTIVE FICTION
Week 1: Ross Macdonald, Lew Archer
Week 2: Henning Mankell, Kurt Wallander
Week 4: David Pirie, Conan Doyle
Week 5: Howard Engel, Benny Cooperman
Week 6: Sarah Paretsky, V.I. Warshawski
NOIR TRAITS & TODAY’S THRILLER
Today’s thrills based (in part) on 1930s-50s Noir elements:
Urban crime -> Gangster films => Cynical "black film”
Noir = “Dark” plots (murder, betrayal) -> Untrustworthy
femme fatale -> Monstrous villain -> Tough, fatalistic hero
Key films:
Maltese Falcon (1941) – Huston, Hammett novel
Double Indemnity (1944) – Wilder, Chandler rewrites Cain
Touch of Evil (1958) – Welles, monstrous villain-sheriff
Nicholas Christopher - Somewhere in the Night: Film
Noir and the American City
NOIR INHERITS ROMANTIC HERO
Romantic hero – 19th C
Noir wrong man/detective
Western cowboy
Seeking justice
(urban jungle of corruption)
Lonely quest (making
something of oneself in West)
Sublime (monstrous yet
beautiful in Nature)
Hero type Experience quest
=
=
=
Doyle’s
Study in
Scarlet
combines
Films High
Noon &
Touch of Evil
combine
Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre; Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights;
NORTHROP FRYE - ROMANTIC HERO
“outside the structure of civilization and representing the
force of physical nature, amoral or ruthless, yet with a sense
of power and often leadership, that society has
impoverished itself by rejecting"
Introspective individual triumphs over social conventions
Wandering, melancholy, misanthropic, alienated, isolated ->
regret for actions, self-critical, self-sacrificing
Estranged from his grounded/realist family -> solitary life ->
Long-suffering love interest victimised by hero’s rebellion ->
Fates intertwined often until death
Rochester, Jane Eyre; Ahab, Moby Dick; Heathcliff Wuthering
Heights
ROMANTICISM: SUBLIME & SCARY
What does the Romantic hero pursue? Sublime beauty
Edmund Burke (1756):
Whatever excites ideas of pain and danger, is terrible, induces pain, fear and pleasure simultaneously is the sublime
Pleasure from viewing sublime from a safe vantage
Rejects Ancient-Classical beauty as “lovely” (symmetrical) = “pleasurable”
Modern seeks out - proximity to danger, fear, ugly, loss of boundaries = excitement, thrill, vitality
WHAT IS ROMANTIC?
"Romanticism" (1770 – 1860)
Refers to an art movement ->
5 I’s -> individualism, imagination,
idealism, inspiration, intuition
Genius, high-feeling, adventure, Nature’s
forces, Antiquity
Examples: Beethoven, Napoleon
ROMANTIC SUBLIME – 19TH C.
ROMANTIC SUBLIME & GROTESQUE
The “Grotesque” is a sub-set of Sublime:
Strange, mysterious, magnificent
Fantastic, hideous, ugly, unpleasant
Distorted forms – animals/plants combined
Twins, mixes, transitional creatures
Grotesque can be further divided into “Uncanny” –demonic, familiar-unfamiliar, otherworldly, taboo
Medieval Grotesque is comedic -> 19thc. Grotesque = pitiable, sympathy for malformed
ROMANTIC GROTESQUE
QUESTIONS: BLACK & BLUE
Romantic hero seeks out sublime and grotesque
experiences, rejects social norms and classic
“pleasure.” Sublime and grotesque are
frightening, sinister, compelling, often pitiable.
What is the villain Bible John like?
How has Scotland changed from Bible John to
Johnny Bible’s times?
How is Rebus’ mind affected by Bible John?
POST-CHRISTIE FICTION CLIMATE
1950s = Post-colonial independence surge; art
and pop culture express regional identity/issues
Tartan noir = Uses Noir elements (hardboiled,
crisp prose, police procedural, realistic
setting/character) and adds Scottish regional
flavour (issues, romantic-sublime aesthetic)
Others: Muriel Spark, Val McDermid, Philip Kerr,
Iain Banks, Ian Rankin
Legacy: R. L. Stevenson, A. C. Doyle, J.M. Barrie,
Josephine Tey
RANKIN’S ROMANTIC SCOTLAND
REBUS = PUZZLE
Heraldic, Middle Ages, to denote surnames
Puzzle combining pictures and letters to depict
word or phrase
Example: Word "been" is depicted by a
bumblebee next to plus sign + and letter "n"
Three salmon denote the surname "Salmon"
Non verbis, sed rebus = ”Not by words but by
things”
IAN RANKIN
1960, Born Fife, Scotland in
mining village.
1982, Finishes undergraduate degree.
1983-1986, Attends PhD program at
University of Edinburgh.
1986, First novel, The Flood.
1987, First Rebus, Knots and Crosses.
IAN RANKIN
1986-early 1990s, Marries, works
various odd jobs.
1988-present, Hawthorne Fellow,
Chandler Fulbright Award, CWA Short
Story Dagger Awards.
1997, Publishes Black and Blue;
shortlisted for Edgar Award; wins CWA
Gold Dagger for Black and Blue.
IAN RANKIN
1998, The Hanging Garden.
2000, Set in Darkness.
2002, OBE.
2003, Grand Prix Aus Roman Noir (Fr).
2005, CWA Diamond Dagger, Lifetime
Achievement.
2015, Royal Society of Edinburgh.
RANKIN CHARACTERISTICS
Context: Centred in Edinburgh;
depicts “gothic” Scotland → darker,
more dangerous than tourist image;
19th-c. mix of proper and perverse.
Influences: Contemporary literature,
film, music; Scottish authors R.L.
Stevenson and Murial Spark; Scottish
political/social issues.
RANKIN CHARACTERISTICS
Themes: Connection between past
and present Scottish social/political
history; links between crimes and
corrupt police/financial/political elite.
Class struggles, development of
Scottish economy, international
influences, political scrambling.
RANKIN CHARACTERISTICS
Style: Quick paced prose; absurd
situations and humour; later novels use
narrative peppered with musical
references = time and place in which
Rebus lives.
Narrative: Mostly 1st person omniscient
from Rebus viewpoint; brief glimpses of
other characters’ viewpoints.
RANKIN CHARACTERISTICS
Structure: Crime linked to social issue
begins story; Rankin develops story
threads as he writes it.
Rambling quality as story grows in
complexity, layers = different skins
applied to basic crime (political,
economic, social links), enlarge original
problem.
BLACK AND BLUE
Detective: Access to high/low in
society; does/says things others will not, no
fear of consequences; guilty conscience,
compassion for victims; sweet wrapped in
prickly; problems with authority; few
personal relations.
Secondary characters: Tension with police
colleagues/superiors.
BLACK AND BLUE
Criminals: Bible John, Johnny Bible; mob
circle and henchmen.
Victims: Oil rig worker, club women.
Citizens: Cabbies, barmen, security guards,
drinking friends, kids on the street.
Workers: Environmentalists, rig workers,
executives, pilots/stewardesses, journalists,
bartenders.
SETTING
New vs. Old Edinburgh: City is a
character itself; Rebus like a tour-guide;
sense of patriotism, love of the city.
Also exposing dirty underbelly of the pretty
rivers, castles, cobbled streets.
Other Scottish cities: Rivalry, differences.
Inner city vs. gentrified areas: Influx of new
money changes areas, crime.
SETTING
Pubs: Refuge for Rebus; culture of
drinking in Scotland; social hub.
Police station: Home for Rebus; source of
tension and release; problem with
superiors.
Apartment: Chair/music/drink main
comforts; not fully domesticated. Progress
in story to rehabilitate Rebus.
PLOT
Murder of oil rig worker connected to
drugs cartel, environmentalism, 1960s
Bible John serial murders.
Copycat murderer = Johnny Bible.
Rebus personally linked to crimes = old
partner’s possible corruption reopened.
Rebus’ suspicion of police corruption
complicates effort to solve crimes.
ISSUES
Corruption at all levels “a worm in
the fabric of society” (Massie).
The respectable as unrespectable, criminal.
Intermingling of oil/drugs/politics and
police protection of crime and sex abuse
Foreign money investment into Scotland =
instability, dependency.
Gentrification vs. poorer neighbourhoods.
ISSUES
Detective opposed to slavish superiors
bowing to authority, political pressure.
Fraught personal and professional
relationships; unable to maintain warmth.
Sensitivity to crime; feeling personal
responsibility for victims; depression.
Inside mind of killer = no one understands
the impulses – shared narrative with Rebus
REBUS & FILM
TV series, John Hannah
Other Rankin:
Writing Scotland: Sense of Place (BBC)
Newsnight Review (BBC2)
Ian Rankin’s Hidden Edinburgh (BBC4)
WHAT IS THE GOTHIC?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNohDe
gnaOQ
Up to 3:22 –7:00 approx.
Next week: Pirie and Gothic Horror - the
legacy of Romantic sublime-grotesque