Hardboiled Heroes, Deadly Dames

Modernity and 1940s Film Noir

Petra Nolan (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

308 Seiten

2008
VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
978-3-639-02976-5 (ISBN)

Infos

The hardboiled hero and his adversary, the femme fatale, arecentral tropes in the classic Hollywood films noirs produced in the1940s. Existing studies of these iconic figures often see them asarticulations of a specifically mid-twentieth century mood ofanxiety. This book develops a more diachronic and multidisciplinaryapproach, offering a socio-historical contextualisation reachingback to the advent of modernity in the nineteenth century. Byexploring several modernist discourses, this study genealogicallyconnects noir's hero to the flâneur, a figure emerging a centuryearlier as a critical metaphor for the modern subject. Similarly,the deadly dame of noir is revealed to be the cinematic renditionpar excellence of the artificial yet highly desirable new woman ofthe fin-de-siècle. Close analysis of Billy Wilder's 1944masterpiece Double Indemnity forms the foundation of this study,with other 1940s films noirs also discussed. This book provides afresh, innovative way to approach the noir canon, and to betterunderstand the historical forces that govern it. Moreover, itproposes a template for those wishing to analyse other film stylesusing the broadermatrix of modernity.

Autor

Dr Petra Nolan is a Research Manager in the School ofLetters, Art&Media at the University of Sydney. Dr Nolanholds a PhD in Film Studies (University of Melbourne), a Bachelorof Arts (Honours) from the University of New South Wales and aBachelor of Arts in Communications from the University ofTechnology, Sydney.

Produkt-Details

• Sprache: englisch; deutsch
• Maße: 150 x 220 mm
• Gewicht: 415 g
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
• ISBN-10: 3-639-02976-3 / 3639029763
• ISBN-13: 978-3-639-02976-5 / 9783639029765
• Zustand: Neuware