Realism in Anglo-American crime fiction
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Simão Valente
Abstract
For the century following the publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in 1841 crime fiction would follow lines set by that foundational work: the main character must solve mysteries by the application of reason alone. In an effort to ennoble a genre of popular literature that had its roots in nineteenth-century sensational fiction, in which the otherworldly was commonplace, the Golden Age of the genre, the 1910s to 1930s, saw the emphasis on rational thought and realistic explanations become enshrined in rules that sought to root out any supernatural solution. This formula was criticized by Raymond Chandler in his article “The Simple Art of Murder” (1944 and 1950), which took stock of a new style of crime novels published in the previous decade and coined the term ‘hardboiled’ to define them: realistic depictions of criminals and their motivations, with a particular emphasis on realistic language. Realism based on the use of everyday language and the depiction of morally reprehensible behavior displaced realism based on rationality as the cardinal rule for the detective story. Upon closer inspection, however, the very novels championed by Chandler display inconsistencies: language is stylized and the detective is often portrayed as a romantic hero facing off evil. In both periods realism appears as a ploy to grant canonicity to a genre of popular literature.
Abstract
For the century following the publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in 1841 crime fiction would follow lines set by that foundational work: the main character must solve mysteries by the application of reason alone. In an effort to ennoble a genre of popular literature that had its roots in nineteenth-century sensational fiction, in which the otherworldly was commonplace, the Golden Age of the genre, the 1910s to 1930s, saw the emphasis on rational thought and realistic explanations become enshrined in rules that sought to root out any supernatural solution. This formula was criticized by Raymond Chandler in his article “The Simple Art of Murder” (1944 and 1950), which took stock of a new style of crime novels published in the previous decade and coined the term ‘hardboiled’ to define them: realistic depictions of criminals and their motivations, with a particular emphasis on realistic language. Realism based on the use of everyday language and the depiction of morally reprehensible behavior displaced realism based on rationality as the cardinal rule for the detective story. Upon closer inspection, however, the very novels championed by Chandler display inconsistencies: language is stylized and the detective is often portrayed as a romantic hero facing off evil. In both periods realism appears as a ploy to grant canonicity to a genre of popular literature.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of illustrations xiii
- Editors’ preface and acknowledgments xv
- Note on translations, cross-references and documentation xvii
- Introduction 1
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Chapter 1. What is realism?
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Core essay
- What is realism? 31
-
Case studies
- The contest of realism 65
- How real is realism? 81
- The emergence of the novel in India and competing modes of realism 89
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Chapter 2. Routes into realism
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Core essay
- Routes into realism 103
-
Case studies
- Routes into realism 191
- Routes into American realism 213
- Realism and translation 231
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Chapter 3. Time and space
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Core essay
- Fleeting moments and unstable spaces 247
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Case studies
- Cartographic realism in nineteenth-century literature 321
- Mobile spaces 337
- Reclaiming space, mastering time in African postcolonial fiction 357
- Utopian island realism in J. M. Synge’s travel narrative of The Aran Islands and Tomás O’Crohan’s autobiography The Islander 373
- In-between spaces in Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore 387
- Haptic realism 403
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Chapter 4. Rereading nineteenth-century realism
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Core essay
- Literary playing fields in motion 417
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Case studies
- The French debate about Gustave Courbet’s pictorial realism and the dialogue between literature and art in the mid-nineteenth century 489
- Russian families, accidental and other 503
- The benefit of reading marginal forms 515
- Madame Bovary in Italy 531
- Eça and Machado 551
- Zola, realism and naturalism in late nineteenth-century Greece 565
- The polyphony of late nineteenth-century Baltic realism 577
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Chapter 5. Post-1900 transformations of realism
-
Core essay
- Straw man or profligate son? 599
-
Case studies
- Realism across borders 697
- Realism in play 715
- Realism and postcolonial subjectivity in the Black British Bildungsroman 735
- The rise and fall of socialist realism 751
- Realism in Anglo-American crime fiction 761
- Biographical fiction’s challenge to realism 775
- Notes on contributors 793
- Index 801
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of illustrations xiii
- Editors’ preface and acknowledgments xv
- Note on translations, cross-references and documentation xvii
- Introduction 1
-
Chapter 1. What is realism?
-
Core essay
- What is realism? 31
-
Case studies
- The contest of realism 65
- How real is realism? 81
- The emergence of the novel in India and competing modes of realism 89
-
Chapter 2. Routes into realism
-
Core essay
- Routes into realism 103
-
Case studies
- Routes into realism 191
- Routes into American realism 213
- Realism and translation 231
-
Chapter 3. Time and space
-
Core essay
- Fleeting moments and unstable spaces 247
-
Case studies
- Cartographic realism in nineteenth-century literature 321
- Mobile spaces 337
- Reclaiming space, mastering time in African postcolonial fiction 357
- Utopian island realism in J. M. Synge’s travel narrative of The Aran Islands and Tomás O’Crohan’s autobiography The Islander 373
- In-between spaces in Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore 387
- Haptic realism 403
-
Chapter 4. Rereading nineteenth-century realism
-
Core essay
- Literary playing fields in motion 417
-
Case studies
- The French debate about Gustave Courbet’s pictorial realism and the dialogue between literature and art in the mid-nineteenth century 489
- Russian families, accidental and other 503
- The benefit of reading marginal forms 515
- Madame Bovary in Italy 531
- Eça and Machado 551
- Zola, realism and naturalism in late nineteenth-century Greece 565
- The polyphony of late nineteenth-century Baltic realism 577
-
Chapter 5. Post-1900 transformations of realism
-
Core essay
- Straw man or profligate son? 599
-
Case studies
- Realism across borders 697
- Realism in play 715
- Realism and postcolonial subjectivity in the Black British Bildungsroman 735
- The rise and fall of socialist realism 751
- Realism in Anglo-American crime fiction 761
- Biographical fiction’s challenge to realism 775
- Notes on contributors 793
- Index 801
