Sarah Trott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496808646
- eISBN:
- 9781496808684
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496808646.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
Hard-boiled writer Raymond Chandler created his detective Philip Marlowe not as the idealisation of heroic individualism as is commonly perceived, but as an authentic individual subjected to real ...
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Hard-boiled writer Raymond Chandler created his detective Philip Marlowe not as the idealisation of heroic individualism as is commonly perceived, but as an authentic individual subjected to real psychological frailties resulting from his traumatic experiences during World War One. Marlowe’s characterisation goes beyond the traditional chivalric readings and can instead be interpreted as an authentic representation of a traumatised veteran in American society. Substituting the horror of the trenches for the corruption of the city, Chandler’s disillusioned protagonist and his representation of an uncaring American society resonate strongly with the dislocation of the Lost Generation. Consequently, it is profitable to consider Chandler as both a generic writer and a genuine literary figure. This book re-examines important primary documents highlighting extensive discrepancies in existing biographical narratives of Chandler’s war experience, and unveils an account that is significantly different from that of his biographers. Utilizing psychological behavioural interpretation to interrogate Chandler’s novels demonstrates the variety of post-traumatic symptoms that tormented Chandler and his protagonist. A close reading of his personal papers reveals the war trauma subconsciously encoded in Marlowe’s characterisation. This conflation of the hard-boiled style and war experience – a war noir – has influenced many contemporary crime writers, particularly in the traumatic aftermath of the Vietnam War. This work offers a new understanding of Chandler’s traumatic war experience, how that experience established the traditional archetype of detective fiction, and how this reading of his work allows Chandler to transcend generic limitations to be recognised as a key twentieth century literary figure.Less
Hard-boiled writer Raymond Chandler created his detective Philip Marlowe not as the idealisation of heroic individualism as is commonly perceived, but as an authentic individual subjected to real psychological frailties resulting from his traumatic experiences during World War One. Marlowe’s characterisation goes beyond the traditional chivalric readings and can instead be interpreted as an authentic representation of a traumatised veteran in American society. Substituting the horror of the trenches for the corruption of the city, Chandler’s disillusioned protagonist and his representation of an uncaring American society resonate strongly with the dislocation of the Lost Generation. Consequently, it is profitable to consider Chandler as both a generic writer and a genuine literary figure. This book re-examines important primary documents highlighting extensive discrepancies in existing biographical narratives of Chandler’s war experience, and unveils an account that is significantly different from that of his biographers. Utilizing psychological behavioural interpretation to interrogate Chandler’s novels demonstrates the variety of post-traumatic symptoms that tormented Chandler and his protagonist. A close reading of his personal papers reveals the war trauma subconsciously encoded in Marlowe’s characterisation. This conflation of the hard-boiled style and war experience – a war noir – has influenced many contemporary crime writers, particularly in the traumatic aftermath of the Vietnam War. This work offers a new understanding of Chandler’s traumatic war experience, how that experience established the traditional archetype of detective fiction, and how this reading of his work allows Chandler to transcend generic limitations to be recognised as a key twentieth century literary figure.
Kenneth E. Hall
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9789622099562
- eISBN:
- 9789882207097
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789622099562.003.0007
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The Killer was the spark for Woo's international career. Just as A Better Tomorrow had been the turning point in his local and regional career, The Killer led to increased international attention ...
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The Killer was the spark for Woo's international career. Just as A Better Tomorrow had been the turning point in his local and regional career, The Killer led to increased international attention being directed to Woo and his work. Woo achieved an early cult status in the States, with audiences reportedly cheering at showings of his films during the “extreme gunplay” sections. Following its release, Woo made other films in Hong Kong, but only Hard-Boiled (1992) approached the visibility, in this early stage of his career in the West, that The Killer had gained. Although Woo's other two recent Hollywood films, Mission Impossible 2 (2000) and Paycheck (2003), are not as deeply imbued with his familiar themes, neither are they devoid of his preoccupations.Less
The Killer was the spark for Woo's international career. Just as A Better Tomorrow had been the turning point in his local and regional career, The Killer led to increased international attention being directed to Woo and his work. Woo achieved an early cult status in the States, with audiences reportedly cheering at showings of his films during the “extreme gunplay” sections. Following its release, Woo made other films in Hong Kong, but only Hard-Boiled (1992) approached the visibility, in this early stage of his career in the West, that The Killer had gained. Although Woo's other two recent Hollywood films, Mission Impossible 2 (2000) and Paycheck (2003), are not as deeply imbued with his familiar themes, neither are they devoid of his preoccupations.
Lisa Mendelman
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198849872
- eISBN:
- 9780191884283
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198849872.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
Chapter 3 examines Frances Newman’s neglected avant-garde novel The Hard-Boiled Virgin (1926), as the book elaborates the exchanges between the sentimental tradition, the evolving free love movement, ...
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Chapter 3 examines Frances Newman’s neglected avant-garde novel The Hard-Boiled Virgin (1926), as the book elaborates the exchanges between the sentimental tradition, the evolving free love movement, and the nascent concept of hard-boiled fiction. The chapter details how these developing cultural ideals reconfigure sentimental narratives of emotion and the body and doom their female versions to inevitable failure. The chapter further analyzes Newman’s synthesis of sentimental and modernist style to register these circumstances. Newman’s trenchant irony and elaborate prose experiments dovetail with writings by free love advocates like Emma Goldman and Margaret Sanger, particularly in their treatment of gendered corporeal concerns like birth control and abortion. Like the disillusioned free lover whose experience the novel relates, Virgin’s negative aesthetic of feminine emotion affirms sentimental ideals.Less
Chapter 3 examines Frances Newman’s neglected avant-garde novel The Hard-Boiled Virgin (1926), as the book elaborates the exchanges between the sentimental tradition, the evolving free love movement, and the nascent concept of hard-boiled fiction. The chapter details how these developing cultural ideals reconfigure sentimental narratives of emotion and the body and doom their female versions to inevitable failure. The chapter further analyzes Newman’s synthesis of sentimental and modernist style to register these circumstances. Newman’s trenchant irony and elaborate prose experiments dovetail with writings by free love advocates like Emma Goldman and Margaret Sanger, particularly in their treatment of gendered corporeal concerns like birth control and abortion. Like the disillusioned free lover whose experience the novel relates, Virgin’s negative aesthetic of feminine emotion affirms sentimental ideals.
