The Cambridge companion to American crime fiction / edited by Catherine Ross Nickerson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Nickerson, Catherine Ross.

Series:

Cambridge companions to literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Detective and mystery stories, American--History and criticism.

Detective and mystery stories, American.

Physical Description:

xii, 190 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Companion to American crime fiction

American crime fiction

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Summary:

"From the execution sermons of the Colonial era to television programs like The Wire and The Sopranos, crime writing has played an important role in American culture. Its ability to register fear, desire and anxiety has made it a popular genre with a wide audience. These new essays, written for students as well as readers of crime fiction, demonstrate the very best in contemporary scholarship and challenge long-established notions of the development of the detective novel. Each chapter covers a sub-genre, from 'true crime' to hard-boiled novels, illustrating the ways in which 'popular' and 'high' literary genres influence and shape each other. With a chronology and guide to further reading, the Companion is a helpful guide for students of American literature and readers of crime fiction"--Provided by publisher.

"When coroners and medical examiners decide that the corpse before them is the victim of homicide, they announce their findings with a ringing locution: "by a person or persons unknown." And while the identity of the killer may truly be a cipher in the real world, within the confines of a detective novel, the perpetrator is known to us. He or she is hiding in plain sight among the array of characters in the book"--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : the satisfactions of murder / Catherine Ross Nickerson

Early American crime writing / Sara Crosby

Poe and the origins of detective fiction / Stephen Rachman

Women writers before 1960 / Catherine Ross Nickerson

The hard-boiled novel / Sean McCann

The American roman noir / Andrew Pepper

Teenage detectives and teenage delinquents / Ilana Nash

American spy fiction / David Seed

The police procedural in literature and on television / Eddy von Mueller

Mafia stories and the American gangster / Fred L. Gardaphe

True crime / Laura Browder

Race and American crime fiction / Maureen T. Reddy

Feminist crime fiction / Margaret Kinsman

Crime in postmodernist fiction / Susan Elizabeth Sweeney.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780521199377

0521199379

9780521136068

0521136067

OCLC:

499740949

Online:

Cover image