ENGL 324 Lecture Notes - Chester Himes, Missing Person, Ernest Hemingway
3 Dec 2012
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Document Summary
Crime novels aren"t just about crime, and in fact that"s not even necessarily the focal point. Little caesar is the first one of those ^ written. Cities are thought to produce crime because they inspire anonymity. Sensory overload - scientists thought that this weakened your moral fibre and physical being. What"s happening right now? urban expansion, more cars, prohibition. All of this atmosphere is the background of hard boiled crime fic. New, scientific way of policing. statistics etc is later in the century. In new york and chicago etc, there is widespread political corruption. Hammett and chandler = joyce, pound, hemingway etc. Exploration of identity: protagonist is the missing person. All these novels are crime novels, but they"re not all the same (different perspectives) Classic detective story valorizes reason and deduction. Mysterious murder, single setting, limited cast of characters -> ends when the protagonist unmasks the killer. Lesson: evil doesn"t come from social inadequacy, but from antisocial.
