THE HARD-BOILDED DETECTIVE MYSTERY

Kelsey RaganNoelle Jobe

Joseph de Alcuaz

THE ERA

• The Roaring Twenties• World in a Depression • Prohibition Laws• Increased Crime Rate• Al Capone

COMMON THEMES• Hardboiled stories are of

a gritty nature• Typically a thug

protagonist and antagonist

• Dialogue usually of lower class and less sophisticated

• Main character is a vagabond, dedicated to his work and perception of justice

• Troubled, but strong (and lovely) heroine

• Antagonist motivated by personal gain and disruption of social order

LITERARY MOVEMENT

• Printed in popular magazines on cheap paper, “pulps”

• The Black Mask magazine• Mix of adventure, mysteries, romances, and

stories about the occult • New editor Joseph Shaw• “He believed that crime fiction could promote

the ideal of justice on the increasingly lawless streets of America. It could show criminals for the spineless villains they were, and restore the tarnished image of law enforcement (Deutsch).”

DASHLELL HAMMETT

• Dropped out at thirteen• Freight clerk, railroad

laborer, messenger boy• Pinkerton Agency• World War I• Black Mask• The Maltese Falcon

(1930)

HARD-BOILED DETECTIVES

Basic characteristics of the hard-boiled detective:

• male• white• heterosexual• loner• drinker

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHQvqZwRwsM

• P.I.• Works & Lives in an urban center• Tough and unsentimental• Moral, but willing to break the law or

resist authorities for a just cause• Beset by attractive, but morally

compromised women• Typically the narrator

HARD-BOILED DETECTIVES

HARD-BOILED POP CULTURE

• Themes prevalent in hardboiled literature permeate alternative styles of art, typified by romanticized struggle between good and evil

• Many hardboiled style heroes immortalized in novels, short stories, comic books, movies, etc.

• Batman, Dick Tracy, & Dirty Harry are examples of modern Hardboiled characters

RESOURCESBatman. Digital image. Fanpop. Web. <http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/2900000/Detective-Comic-covers-batman-2961665-365-567.jpg>.

Characters from the Maltese Falcon. Digital image. San Francisco Sentinel. Owen Smith. Web. <http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/owen-smith-e28093-characters-from- the-maltese-falcon.jpg>.

"Dashiell Hammett." American Masters. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/dashiell-hammett/about-dashiell-hammett/625/>.

Deutsch, Keith A. "Black Mask." Black Mask. 2004. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. <http://www.blackmaskmagazine.com/>.

Ogdon, Bethany. Hard-Boiled Ideology. Critical Quarterly (CritQ). 1992 Summer; 34 (2): 71-87.

Smith, Johanna M. Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction: Gendering the Canon. Pacific Coast Philology, Vol. 26, No. 1/2 (Jul., 1991), pp. 78-84 Published by: Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Stable

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1316558

"The Maltese Falcon." YouTube. 5 Nov. 2009. Web. 4 Feb. 2010. <theauteurscinema>.

Nyman, Jopi. Men Alone. Atlanta, 1997. Print.