Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction Mark T. Conard 1
Part 1 The Coen Brand of Comedy and Tragedy
Raising Arizona as an American Comedy Richard Gilmore 7
The Human Comedy Perpetuates Itself: Nihilism and Comedy in Coen Neo-Noir Thomas S. Hibbs 27
Philosophies of Comedy in O Brother, Where Art Thou? Douglas McFarland 41
No Country for Old Men: The Coens' Tragic Western Richard Gilmore 55
Deceit, Desire, and Dark Comedy: Postmodern Dead Ends in Blood Simple Alan Woolfolk 79
Part 2 Ethics: Shame, Justice, and Virtue
"And It's Such a Beautiful Day!" Shame and Fargo Rebecca Hanrahan David Stearns 93
Justice, Power, and Love: The Political Philosophy of Intolerable Cruelty Shai Biderman William J. Devlin 109
Ethics, Heart, and Violence in Miller's Crossing Bradley L. Herling 125
"Takin"er Easy for All Us Sinners": Laziness as a Virtue in The Big Lebowski Matthew K. Douglass Jerry L. Walls 147
No Country for Old Men as Moral Philosophy Douglas McFarland 163
Part 3 Postmodernity, Interpretation, and the Construction of History
Heidegger and the Problem of Interpretation in Barton Fink Mark T. Conard 179
The Past Is Now: History and The Hudsucker Proxy Paul Coughlin 195
"A Homespun Murder Story": Film Noir and the Problem of Modernity in Fargo Jerold J. Abrams 211
Part 4 Existentialism, Alienation, and Despair
"What Kind of Man Are You?" The Coen Brothers and Existentialist Role Playing Richard Gaughran 227
Being the Barber: Kierkegaardian Despair in The Man Who Wasn't There Karen D. Hoffman 243
Thinking beyond the Failed Community: Blood Simple and The Man Who Wasn't There R. Barton Palmer 267
Part 5 God, Man, and Nature
How Job Begat Larry: The Present Situation in A Serious Man K. L. Evans 289
"A Lead Ball of Justice": The Logic of Retribution and the Ethics of Instruction in True Grit David LaRocca 307
List of Contributors 333
Index 339