POST-1960S

DETECTIVE FICTION

Week 1: Ross Macdonald, Lew Archer

Week 2: Henning Mankell, Kurt Wallander

Week 4: David Pirie, Conan Doyle

Week 5: Howard Engel, Benny Cooperman

Week 6: Sarah Paretsky, V.I. Warshawski

NOIR TRAITS & TODAY’S THRILLER

Today’s thrills based (in part) on 1930s-50s Noir elements:

Urban crime -> Gangster films => Cynical "black film”

Noir = “Dark” plots (murder, betrayal) -> Untrustworthy

femme fatale -> Monstrous villain -> Tough, fatalistic hero

Key films:

Maltese Falcon (1941) – Huston, Hammett novel

Double Indemnity (1944) – Wilder, Chandler rewrites Cain

Touch of Evil (1958) – Welles, monstrous villain-sheriff

Nicholas Christopher - Somewhere in the Night: Film

Noir and the American City

NOIR INHERITS ROMANTIC HERO

Romantic hero – 19th C

Noir wrong man/detective

Western cowboy

Seeking justice

(urban jungle of corruption)

Lonely quest (making

something of oneself in West)

Sublime (monstrous yet

beautiful in Nature)

Hero type Experience quest

=

=

=

Doyle’s

Study in

Scarlet

combines

Films High

Noon &

Touch of Evil

combine

Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre; Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights;

NORTHROP FRYE - ROMANTIC HERO

“outside the structure of civilization and representing the

force of physical nature, amoral or ruthless, yet with a sense

of power and often leadership, that society has

impoverished itself by rejecting"

Introspective individual triumphs over social conventions

Wandering, melancholy, misanthropic, alienated, isolated ->

regret for actions, self-critical, self-sacrificing

Estranged from his grounded/realist family -> solitary life ->

Long-suffering love interest victimised by hero’s rebellion ->

Fates intertwined often until death

Rochester, Jane Eyre; Ahab, Moby Dick; Heathcliff Wuthering

Heights

ROMANTICISM: SUBLIME & SCARY

What does the Romantic hero pursue? Sublime beauty

Edmund Burke (1756):

Whatever excites ideas of pain and danger, is terrible, induces pain, fear and pleasure simultaneously is the sublime

Pleasure from viewing sublime from a safe vantage

Rejects Ancient-Classical beauty as “lovely” (symmetrical) = “pleasurable”

Modern seeks out - proximity to danger, fear, ugly, loss of boundaries = excitement, thrill, vitality

WHAT IS ROMANTIC?

"Romanticism" (1770 – 1860)

Refers to an art movement ->

5 I’s -> individualism, imagination,

idealism, inspiration, intuition

Genius, high-feeling, adventure, Nature’s

forces, Antiquity

Examples: Beethoven, Napoleon

ROMANTIC SUBLIME – 19TH C.

ROMANTIC SUBLIME & GROTESQUE

The “Grotesque” is a sub-set of Sublime:

Strange, mysterious, magnificent

Fantastic, hideous, ugly, unpleasant

Distorted forms – animals/plants combined

Twins, mixes, transitional creatures

Grotesque can be further divided into “Uncanny” –demonic, familiar-unfamiliar, otherworldly, taboo

Medieval Grotesque is comedic -> 19thc. Grotesque = pitiable, sympathy for malformed

ROMANTIC GROTESQUE

QUESTIONS: BLACK & BLUE

Romantic hero seeks out sublime and grotesque

experiences, rejects social norms and classic

“pleasure.” Sublime and grotesque are

frightening, sinister, compelling, often pitiable.

What is the villain Bible John like?

How has Scotland changed from Bible John to

Johnny Bible’s times?

How is Rebus’ mind affected by Bible John?

POST-CHRISTIE FICTION CLIMATE

1950s = Post-colonial independence surge; art

and pop culture express regional identity/issues

Tartan noir = Uses Noir elements (hardboiled,

crisp prose, police procedural, realistic

setting/character) and adds Scottish regional

flavour (issues, romantic-sublime aesthetic)

Others: Muriel Spark, Val McDermid, Philip Kerr,

Iain Banks, Ian Rankin

Legacy: R. L. Stevenson, A. C. Doyle, J.M. Barrie,

Josephine Tey

RANKIN’S ROMANTIC SCOTLAND

REBUS = PUZZLE

Heraldic, Middle Ages, to denote surnames

Puzzle combining pictures and letters to depict

word or phrase

Example: Word "been" is depicted by a

bumblebee next to plus sign + and letter "n"

Three salmon denote the surname "Salmon"

Non verbis, sed rebus = ”Not by words but by

things”

IAN RANKIN

1960, Born Fife, Scotland in

mining village.

1982, Finishes undergraduate degree.

1983-1986, Attends PhD program at

University of Edinburgh.

1986, First novel, The Flood.

1987, First Rebus, Knots and Crosses.

IAN RANKIN

1986-early 1990s, Marries, works

various odd jobs.

1988-present, Hawthorne Fellow,

Chandler Fulbright Award, CWA Short

Story Dagger Awards.

1997, Publishes Black and Blue;

shortlisted for Edgar Award; wins CWA

Gold Dagger for Black and Blue.

IAN RANKIN

1998, The Hanging Garden.

2000, Set in Darkness.

2002, OBE.

2003, Grand Prix Aus Roman Noir (Fr).

2005, CWA Diamond Dagger, Lifetime

Achievement.

2015, Royal Society of Edinburgh.

RANKIN CHARACTERISTICS

Context: Centred in Edinburgh;

depicts “gothic” Scotland → darker,

more dangerous than tourist image;

19th-c. mix of proper and perverse.

Influences: Contemporary literature,

film, music; Scottish authors R.L.

Stevenson and Murial Spark; Scottish

political/social issues.

RANKIN CHARACTERISTICS

Themes: Connection between past

and present Scottish social/political

history; links between crimes and

corrupt police/financial/political elite.

Class struggles, development of

Scottish economy, international

influences, political scrambling.

RANKIN CHARACTERISTICS

Style: Quick paced prose; absurd

situations and humour; later novels use

narrative peppered with musical

references = time and place in which

Rebus lives.

Narrative: Mostly 1st person omniscient

from Rebus viewpoint; brief glimpses of

other characters’ viewpoints.

RANKIN CHARACTERISTICS

Structure: Crime linked to social issue

begins story; Rankin develops story

threads as he writes it.

Rambling quality as story grows in

complexity, layers = different skins

applied to basic crime (political,

economic, social links), enlarge original

problem.

BLACK AND BLUE

Detective: Access to high/low in

society; does/says things others will not, no

fear of consequences; guilty conscience,

compassion for victims; sweet wrapped in

prickly; problems with authority; few

personal relations.

Secondary characters: Tension with police

colleagues/superiors.

BLACK AND BLUE

Criminals: Bible John, Johnny Bible; mob

circle and henchmen.

Victims: Oil rig worker, club women.

Citizens: Cabbies, barmen, security guards,

drinking friends, kids on the street.

Workers: Environmentalists, rig workers,

executives, pilots/stewardesses, journalists,

bartenders.

SETTING

New vs. Old Edinburgh: City is a

character itself; Rebus like a tour-guide;

sense of patriotism, love of the city.

Also exposing dirty underbelly of the pretty

rivers, castles, cobbled streets.

Other Scottish cities: Rivalry, differences.

Inner city vs. gentrified areas: Influx of new

money changes areas, crime.

SETTING

Pubs: Refuge for Rebus; culture of

drinking in Scotland; social hub.

Police station: Home for Rebus; source of

tension and release; problem with

superiors.

Apartment: Chair/music/drink main

comforts; not fully domesticated. Progress

in story to rehabilitate Rebus.

PLOT

Murder of oil rig worker connected to

drugs cartel, environmentalism, 1960s

Bible John serial murders.

Copycat murderer = Johnny Bible.

Rebus personally linked to crimes = old

partner’s possible corruption reopened.

Rebus’ suspicion of police corruption

complicates effort to solve crimes.

ISSUES

Corruption at all levels “a worm in

the fabric of society” (Massie).

The respectable as unrespectable, criminal.

Intermingling of oil/drugs/politics and

police protection of crime and sex abuse

Foreign money investment into Scotland =

instability, dependency.

Gentrification vs. poorer neighbourhoods.

ISSUES

Detective opposed to slavish superiors

bowing to authority, political pressure.

Fraught personal and professional

relationships; unable to maintain warmth.

Sensitivity to crime; feeling personal

responsibility for victims; depression.

Inside mind of killer = no one understands

the impulses – shared narrative with Rebus

REBUS & FILM

TV series, John Hannah

Other Rankin:

Writing Scotland: Sense of Place (BBC)

Newsnight Review (BBC2)

Ian Rankin’s Hidden Edinburgh (BBC4)

WHAT IS THE GOTHIC?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNohDe

gnaOQ

Up to 3:22 –7:00 approx.

Next week: Pirie and Gothic Horror - the

legacy of Romantic sublime-grotesque