CONTENTS

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
4. Introduction. DAMES AND DRIVING 1
5. Part 1: Contents and Contexts
6. 1. Manning the Posts: Classic Noir, Postclassic Noir, and Postmodernism 13
7. 2. Sexing the Paradigm: Women and Men in Noir 19
8. 3. Racing the Paradigm: The Whiteness of Film Noir 29
9. Part 2: Prototypes in Classic Noir
10. 4. The Killers (1946): Quintessential Noir? 39
11. 5. Out of the Past (1947): Passive Masculinity and Active Femininities 53
12. 6. Kiss Me Deadly (1955): Apocalyptic Femmes 63
13. Part 3: Return of the Repressed in Retro-Noir
14. 7. L.A. Confidential (1997) and Casablanca (1942): Does Anything Change as Time Goes By? 75
15. 8. Mulholland Falls (1996): Nuclear Noir as Numbskull Noir 91
16. 9. Fight Club (1999): Retro-Noir Masquerades as Neo-Noir 101
17. Part 4: Revision of the Repressed in Neo-Noir 115
18. 10. Twilight (1998): Age, Beauty, and Star Power—Survival of the Fittest 117
19. 11. Fargo (1996): A Woman Who Is Not Herself Mean— Snow-swept Highways and Margie 129
20. 12. Jackie Brown (1997): Gender, Race, Class, and Genre 143
21. Conclusion. Doing It for bell: Cultural Criticism and Social Change 155
22. Notes 161
23. Works Cited 173
24. Index 181