French and American Noir: Dark Crossings

by Alistair Rolls, Deborah Walker

Overview

A longstanding misconception surrounding the term French noir suggests that the post-war French thriller and film noir were a development of, or response to, a pre-existing American tradition. This book challenges this misconception, examining the complexity of this trans-Atlantic exchange and refocusing debate to include a Franco-French lineage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230536906
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/21/2009
Series:	Crime Files
Edition description:	2009
Pages:	229
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

ALISTAIR ROLLS is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia, where he teaches French. His research is in the area of twentieth-century French literature, with particular emphasis on the immediate post-war era. He has published works on Boris Vian, Jean-Paul Sartre and French detective fiction.

DEBORAH WALKER is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her research is in French cinema and the translation of indigenous Pacific literatures. Current projects include a book-length study of the films of Alain Resnais and another on the figure of the femme fatale in French and American film noir.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction Fetishistic Noir: Charles Baudelaire and Léo Malet Liberation Noir: Boris Vian and the Série Noire (1) Allegorical Noir: Boris Vian and the Série Noire (2) Noir Strangulation (1): Terry Stewart and Vernon Sullivan Noir Strangulation (2): Amélie Nothomb and Intertextuality Jazz: Classic French Film Noir as Trans-Atlantic Exchange Fatal(e) Crossings: Figures of the Feminine in French and American Film Noir Americans in Paris From Honest Thief to Media Sociopath Double-Crossings: Reversing the Remake Bibliography Index