This is an excellent re-view of the question...to further
fill the
'definition gap'...and to add an active view on the subject
among French critics and writers themselves I bring forward
the definition given by J.P. Manchette, the most famous
'n鯭noir' writer and analyst among the new generations of
'polar' writers in France: Manchette in an essay written on
Sunday Sept 15, 74, published recently with his postusmous
novel "La princesse du sang" (Gallimard-2005), divides the
crime novel in two
'sections' along the idea of the law and the social
order...
In one case novels deal with the restoring of order and the
punishment of a criminal and we are witnessing an 'interior
(i.e. intellectual) exercise about the price payed by society
for the restoring of order that covers both the punishment of
the criminal and also the 'suffering' of the one who
enforces/manages this restoring/punishment. This suffering
can go from simple description of the life of the
cop/investigator (bad salary in a rotten environment....), to
the most interesting cases where he/she suffers in his/her
own soul and takes within himself the sins that he has to
deal with (Holmes who plays violin to escape and takes drugs
to be able to bear his work)...
In other cases the novel (and Manchette calls this the 'roman
noir') is going to desbribe socially and historically the law
and the social order at the time of the crime and the novel
will underline the vast differences between the daily life of
citizens (either those who serve the social order or those
who oppose/transgress it) and the domain of the law
('juridiction')...and "we are therefore in the social novel,
which is not necessarely from/of the left, but which can be
called 'noir' insofar that it considers society as filled
with darkness, that the law is immoral and that the
delinquants have reasons to be opposed to the law" (my
translation)...
As Etienne points out it is extremely hazardous to bring a
strict definition of the genre, at best the area is made of
different shades of grey and this is also valid for the
'noir' films....The Manchette definition has the merit to
take it to a larger level and not confine it to the strict
literary (i.e. Academic) definitions and therefore seems more
apt to cover a larger ground than such superficial adjectives
as gloomy, dark etc....that normal/standard academic and
often journalistic circles tend to attribute to this literary
phenomenon.
For further readings and very interesting articles about the
whole genre go to the following website created under the
leadership of Claude Mespl褥 that some of you have quoted and
know:
http://www.europolar.eu.com/
where very important interviews and analysis are translated
in multiple languages including English of course.
Steve Novak Montois de D鴲oit
On 10/1/05 8:05 AM, "E.Borgers" <
webeurop@yahoo.fr> wrote:
> I didn¹t read the lastest 25 or so R-A messages I
just received, so I
> react here only after reading Juri¹s.
>
> ³Noir² is definitely a French adjective, which means
³black² for its
> first most common use.
>
> This word had also, a rather negative meaning,
something like gloomy,
> sinister even ³evil² (this last signification comes
from older times).
> Noir, at least since the end of 18 th century, was
already applied to a
> certain kind of literature in these days, butŠ it
was to identify the
> ³gothic literature² (mainly German at first and then
English) and other
> things alike.
>
> Noir was after this also used to qualify something
negative, dark,
> linked to gloomy *events* -but had also in another
meaning: things
> illegal or underground (as in black market) as in
other languages.
>
> ³S鲩e noire² is an expression in French that means: a
succession of bad
> events, repeated bad luck Šetc; this is where
Duhamel picked the title
> of his famous books series, and it was a play of
words between the
> meaning of the expression and evoking of a
literature that was not
> conformist, darkŠ
> Duhamel wanted to underline the break from
traditional detection
> mysteries, British style, in 1945 when he created
his imprint.
>
> ³Noire² is the feminine version of the word ³noir²;
in French the
> adjective is always depending on the genre of the
name related to it.
> ³S鲩e² is a feminine word.
>
> All this explains also why, *outside the criminal
and mystery
> literature*, the qualification of ³noir² was also
kept for another
> branch of literature in France, based on the
³gothic² lit and having
> similarities, close or loose, with its style,
intent, ambianceŠ and it
> evolved to the meaning we use now to qualify a
³literary² noir novel
> (roman noir). Today, the borderline between the two
branches is thinner
> than ever, and highly controversial.
>
> ³Noir², for cinema. Yes, it was a French critic who
coined ³film noir²,
> for a certain breed of ³films policiers² during the
end of the forties,
> stuck by common basic characteristics of a lot of
³thrillers², gangster
> films, detective stories, coming from the USA. Do
not forget that
> because of the war, a lot of American films of the
late thirties and
> forties came late to France. This critic was Nino
Frank, IIRC.
>
> Hope this will clarify a little which are the French
origins of the use
> of the word ³noir².
>
> As for the use of the word Noir in our circles, I do
not agree with
> restrictive definitions, as I explained it many
times here; it¹s not a
> set of characteristics that make a novel belong to
the noir domain. Only
> a few traits and some intentions. I¹m even
supporting the idea that, in
> the end, hard-boiled is part of the noir territory.
I do not want to put
> strict borders to the genre, a genre which is
universal as we can see it
> more clearly now since the nineties, and which has
highly diversified
> roots and influences.
> It¹s also, IMHO, one of the very few paths that
could make the novel, a
> literary form, to survive our present days as a
literary genre and to
> delay its full sclerosis.
> The alternative is that the novel will just be a
mere glorified
> ³entertainment² genre in the future, repeating its
forms and contents
> endlessly.
>
> E.Borgers
> Hard-Boiled Mysteries
> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
> Polar Noir
> http://www.geocities.com/polarnoir
>
> Juri Nummelin :
>
>> The French critics used the word "noir" already
earlier before
>> the WWII to describe some of the films that were
made in the
>> country, such as Marcel Carn駳 PORT OF SHADOWS.
The films were
>> also called the poetic realism: dark, gloomy,
atmospheric, and
>> also with a sense of doom.
>>
>> I don't know who coined the term first in the
thirties, but I'd
>> suggest everyone read James Naremore's excellent
study of the
>> subject, MORE THAN NIGHT, which discusses
largely the birth of
>> the definition of noir (and many of its later
uses - it's mainly
>> about movies, though).
>>
>> I know one thing where Jim Doherty was wrong.
Marcel Duhamel's
>> line of books was Serie Noire, not Serie
Noir.
>>
>> Juri
>> http://pulpetti.blogspot.com
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
> RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
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