The Roman Noir in Post-War French Culture offers a lively introduction to the post-war French roman noir from a cultural studies perspective. A populist and widely disseminated genre, the French roman noir has suffered from a reputation as a minor genre with its roots in American popular culture. In this study, Claire Gorrara challenges such preconceptions and examines how selected writers have appropriated the roman noir as a critical response to formative concerns and debates in post-war French society. Starting with the first truly French roman noir, Léo Malet's 120 rue de la gare (1943) and concluding with Maud Tabachnik's feminist thriller Un été pourri (1994), Gorrara analyses both texts and film in relation to their specific historical and cultural context. From the heritage of the Second World War and France's wars of decolonisation to the rise of consumer culture and questions of gender and sexual equality, the roman noir operates in dialogue with its times, mediating social change and transformation with stories of crime, transgression, and marginality. All the novelists studied were published initially in popular collections, such as the Série noire, but they have been chosen for the innovation of their work and the exciting ways in which they resist tired conventions and offer new ways of representing social reality. One of the first English-language studies of this popular genre, The Roman Noir in Post-War French Culture offers much more than close readings of these fascinating texts; it demonstrates the important contribution of the roman noir to the cultural histories of post-war France.
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Populist and widely disseminated, the French roman noir has a reputation as a minor genre with its roots in American popular culture. This study challenges such preconceptions and examines the genre as a critical response to concerns and debates in post-war French society.
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Introduction ; 1. Origins and beginnings: Leo Malet's 120, rue de la Gare (1943) ; 2. Criminal Intentions: Film Noir and Les Diabioliques (1955) ; 3. Counter-Cultural Politics: Jean-Patrick Manchette's Le Petit Bleu de la cote ouest (1976) ; 4. Historical investigations: Didier Daenickx's Meurtres pour memoire (1984) ; 5. Telling Tales: Daniel Pennac's La Fee Carabine (1987) ; 6. Feminist fictions: Maud Tabachnik's Un ete pourri (1994) ; Conclusion ; Select Bibliography ; Index
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...as a highly readable starting point for those wishing to research aspects of French crime fiction, and as a student-friendly survey of themes and trends in post-war French culture, this study has much to recommend it.
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One of the first English-language studies of the French roman noir Explores the contribution of the roman noir to twentieth-century French cultural history Includes discussion of film as well as literature
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Claire Gorrara is Senior Lecturer in French at Cardiff University. She is author of French Women's Writing and the Occupation in Post-1968 France (Macmillan, 1998) and co-editor of European Memories of the Second World War (Berghahn, 1998) and France Since the Revolution: Texts and Contexts (Arnold, forthcoming 2003).
Les mer
One of the first English-language studies of the French roman noir Explores the contribution of the roman noir to twentieth-century French cultural history Includes discussion of film as well as literature
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780199246090
Publisert
2003
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Vekt
300 gr
Høyde
223 mm
Bredde
145 mm
Dybde
17 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
148

Forfatter

Biographical note

Claire Gorrara is Senior Lecturer in French at Cardiff University. She is author of French Women's Writing and the Occupation in Post-1968 France (Macmillan, 1998) and co-editor of European Memories of the Second World War (Berghahn, 1998) and France Since the Revolution: Texts and Contexts (Arnold, forthcoming 2003).