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The Detective in American Fiction, Film, and Television
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Jerome H. Delamater, ed., Ruth Prigozy
ISBN: 0-313-30463-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-30463-7
160 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 4/30/1998
List Price: $110.95 (UK Sterling Price: £76.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: The detective, as a preeminent figure in all forms of American popular culture, has become the subject of a variety of theoretical exploration. By investigating that figure, these essays demonstrate how the genre embodies all the contradictions of American society and the ways in which literature and the media attempt to handle those contradictions. Issues of class, gender, and race; the interaction of film and literature; and generic evolution are fundamental to any understanding of the American detective in all of his or her forms.

Beginning with essays about Raymond Chandler's treatment of women, Part I concentrates on writers of the genre whose detectives embody aspects of American culture in the 20th century. Through examination of the work of Elmore Leonard, Chester Himes, Sue Grafton, and others, these essays look at the influence of film on literature, how ethnicity affects the genre's conventions, and gender issues. Part II looks closely at specific detectives in the media and demonstrates how the film detective has gone from one who upholds the moral order to one who contributes to the continuation of evil. A study of television detectives confirms the necessity of formula and variation to sustain a detective over many seasons.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
    Raymond Chandler and American Detective Fiction
    Anne Riordan: Raymond Chandler's Forgotten Heroine by David W. Madden
    Order, Error, and the Novels of Raymond Chandler by Steven Weisenburger
    Raymond Chandler's Pencil by James O. Tate
    Film in Fiction: The Real and the Reel in Elmore Leonard by George Grella
    "Aggravating the Reader": The Harlem Detective Novels of Chester Himes by Gary P. Storhoff
    Murdering Traditional Assumptions: The Jewish-American Mystery by Diana Arbin Ben-Merre
    Gender (De)Mystified: Resistance and Recuperation in Hard-Boiled Female Detective Fiction by Timothy Shuker-Haines and Martha M. Umphrey
    The Detective in Film and Television
    Bending the Bow: The Verdict (1946) and the Hollywood Victorian Detective by Meri-Jane Rochelson
    "The Injustice of It All": Polanski's Revision of the Private Eye Genre in Chinatown by James Maxfield
    Miller's Crossing: The Poetics of Dashiell Hammett by Katherine M. Restaino
    The "Very Simplicity of the Thing": Edgar Allan Poe and the Murders He Wrote by Jan Whitt
    Done to Death?: Formula and Variation in Perry Mason by J. Dennis Bounds
    Index
About the Author: JEROME H. DELAMATER is Professor of Communication at the School of Communication, Hofstra University.

RUTH PRIGOZY is Professor of English at Hofstra University.
LCC Class: 813
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