Men Alone: Masculinity, Individualism, and Hard-boiled Fiction, Volume 3Rodopi, 1997 - 384 pages This study examines masculinity and individualism in four American novels of the 1920s and 1930s usually regarded as belonging to the genre of hard-boiled fiction. The novels under study are Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett, The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy, and To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway. In this first full-length study of gender in hard-boiled fiction the genre is discussed as a representation of the ideologies of masculinity and individualism. Hard-boiled fiction is located in its historical and cultural context and it is argued that the genre, with its explicit emphasis on masculinity and masculine virtues, attempts to reaffirm a masculine order. The study argues that this emphasis is a counter-reaction to more general changes in the gender relations of the period. Indeed, hard-boiled fiction is argued to be an attempt to reconstruct a masculine identity based on anti-modern values generally accepted in the cultural context of the genre. |
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According adventure alienation American argues autonomous male becomes behaviour body boiled fiction Cain Cain's novel connection construction context Continental Op contrast Cora Cora's Crime Fiction critical Cubans cultural Dashiell Hammett David Madden death defined detective fiction Dinah Brand discussion dominant dreams emphasis Ernest Hemingway Essays example feel feminine Frank Chambers functions gangster gender genre Gloria Hammett's Hammett's novel hard-boiled characters hard-boiled fiction Harry Morgan Harry's Hemingway's novel hero History Hobbes Hobbes's Hobbesian Horace McCoy human ideal identity importance interpretation italics original language literary Literature London Madden manhood marathon dance masculine McCoy's novel modern moral murder narrative nature Nick Nick's Op's pain passage Personville points political protagonist Red Harvest relationship representation reveals Richard Gordon Robert role romantic romanticism Routledge seen sexual Shoot Horses social society story stresses THAHN tough TPART traditional TSHDT University Press values violence wants Willsson women writing yearning
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Page 33 - all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.