George,
Re your question below:
> Someone (Jim D.?) offered what I thought was
a
> pretty
> good definition of the difference between these
two
> terms some months back. You could check
the
> archives,
> or maybe he would be willing to post it
again.
What I said was that "hard-boiled" is about attitude while
"noir" was about atmosphere. They are not synonymous (despite
the fact that some people, particularly publishers, seem to
use them synonymously). Neither are they mutually
exclusive
(as some people on this list seem to think). That which is
tough and colloquial is hard-boiled. That which is dark and
sinister is noir. That which is tough and colloquial, and
dark and sinister, is both hard-boiled and noir.
> I believe his post was intended only as
an
> explanation
> of how the terms are used in the states, as
I
> understand Europeans may have slightly
differing
> views. But you'd have to ask him that.
I can't speak as to how Europeans use the terms. However I
will note that "noir," the French word for
"black," became associated with hard-boiled literature
through a French publisher which labeled its mystery line
"Serie Noir." Many American hard-boiled works were first
published in France under the "Serie Noir" line. Chester
Himes's Harlem cop novels were published in France as part of
the "Serie Noir" line before being published in the US.
In the early '60s, one of the French movie criticism
magazines (CAHIERS DU CINEMA perhaps?; one of our French
members probably knows) published an article entitled
something like, "America Has Noir Films, Too." It was a
survey of dark, hard-boiled crime films of the '40s and '50s
such as DOUBLE INDEMNITY, MURDER MY SWEET, THE ASPHALT
JUNGLE, etc. Shortly after this article was published the
term "film noir" entered the list of recognized cinematic
genres and eventually worked its way back to describing a
particular kind of crime prose fiction as well.
JIM DOHERTY
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