The Ecology of American Noir by Younes, Katrina;

Short description:

This volume investigates the relationship between the conventions of noir fiction and film and its sub-types in relation to environmental crises. 

Long description:

This volume investigates the relationship between the conventions of noir fiction and film and its sub-types in relation to environmental crises. Dr. Younes addresses questions that not only allow readers to (re)read early hardboiled literature and neo-noir films but also help identify a new sub-genre of noir and develop an ecocritical methodology: "eco-noir." This text traces the development of strategies of mapping urban blight and environmental deterioration in classic hardboiled fiction of the 1940s, neo-noir films of the 1970s, and eco-noir texts of the post-millennial period. Introducing the concept of eco-noir as both a sub-genre and fictional form, as well as a methodology, the volume develops a new way of understanding the relationship between noir and climate fiction texts. Through a close reading of hardboiled, neo-noir, and eco-noir texts, including those by Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Robert Towne, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Jeff VanderMeer, it asks and addresses the question: how does each sub-genre of noir map the noir atmosphere of the private investigator's natural setting in terms of environmental toxicity? The Ecology of American Noir contributes to critical conversations in both noir and ecocritical scholarship, making clear how a new understanding of noir as defined through environmental and atmospheric conditions invites readers, viewers, and scholars of the genre to generate meaningful dialogues about our decaying and deteriorating environment.

Table of Contents:

Introduction to The Ecology of American Noir 

               0.1 What is The Ecology of American Noir?      

               0.2 Defining American Noir

               0.3 Defining Eco-Noir   

               0.4 Detailed Overview of the Chapters

Chapter 1: The Hardboiled Eco-Awareness of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler               

               1.1 Introduction: The Fragmented Ecologies of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler

               1.2 Hammett and Chandler’s Fragmented Scales

               1.3 Red Harvest (1929)              

               1.4 From Personville to Poisonville       

               1.5 The Big Sleep (1939)            

               1.6 Conclusion

Chapter 2: Exploitation and Extraction in Chinatown and The Two Jakes           

               2.1 From Noir to Neo-Noir         

               2.2 Chinatown and The Two Jakes         

               2.3 Resource Extraction in the Films    

               2.4 Neo-Noir Perception           

               2.5 Incest          

               2.6 Race            

               2.7 Looking Ahead: What The Two Jakes Tells us About The Future       

               2.8 Conclusion

Chapter 3: Rhizomatic Eco-Noir Visions of New York 2140 and Hummingbird Salamander     

               3.1“What is Happening?” and “What Happened?”       

               3.2 Methodology           

               3.3 The New Nordic Noir           

               3.4 New York 2140        

               3.5 The Collective PI and the Rhizomatic Map of New York City             

               3.6 Regenerating Crime and Violence

               3.7 The Scene of the Seen Victim          

               3.8 Hummingbird Salamander: The Rhizome and the “Weird”

               3.9 The Hardboiled and Weird Female Green PI            

               3.10 The Eco-Crime Scene and Olfactory Sensations  

               3.11 Conclusion            

Chapter 4: Afterword   

              4.1         Introduction: Eco-Noir Han

              4.2         Introduction to The Silent Sea and Eco-Noir Han            

              4.3 Collective Detectiveships, Lunar Water, and Luna

              4.4 Conclusion