One of the answers, by Matt Stevens:
>Well, as you probably know, Robert Parker has thought
aloud about this
>topic. He has an essay about it in the collection,
MURDER INK. He claimed
>that it is (or was) common to think of the hard-boiled
detective in Marxist
>terms (as "the honest proletariat"), a view he
strongly objected to.
>Unfortunately, I can't find any additional references
in his article.
The reference to Marxist theories is interesting, as indeed
in the 70's and
80's a lot of popular arts were receiving such a 'class'
treatment by
sociologists and others scholars, wearing Marxist coloring
glasses.
All had to fit their class theories based mainly on
economical segregation.
Most of the time their illustrations and knowledge of the
media they were
scrutinizing was pathetic, if not ridiculous.
One of the best examples: Ernest Mandel, French Marxist
economist that
applied the treatment to the mystery and detective novels in
1986, in a book
being a vast demonstration about his low knowledge of the
genre.
Of course when he claimed - as others- that most of the
detection novels
illustrate the feelings and views of the bourgeoisie, as most
of their
writers are issued from that class, the statement is true but
we are not far
from tautology!
Back to hard-boiled, I feel that speaking of class
consciousness, in the
Marxist way, is a wrong approach.
Most of the time, HB fiction uses individualistic heroes and
personal
actions to solve crisis of morality, justice or ethics. IMO
they are not
motivated by a way to defend their class, but by more broader
values they
feel necessary for survival.
I should say their approach is certainly more close to an
Anarchist point of
view than a Marxist one ( Anarchist is a word to be taken
here in its
political sense, coming from the anti-authority political
movements of the
late 19th and early 20th Century in Europe; Marxists seeing
Anarchists as
worse enemies than capitalists).
If we leave the Marxist notion of class and check the
American society,
besides the evident classes created by power and money that
HB novels
denounce when they are corrupted, there is a class of
American citizens by
which HB novels were used as a 'class' action: the Black
Americans.
Most of their authors, even in HB, were making with their
works a kind of
statement against the White supremacy they felt in the
society they lived
in. This could be, I think, a segment of HB literature to
explore for
"class consciousness" .
Donald Goines, Iceberg Slim, and even Chester Himes, could
certainly be
proofs of that point of view. There are certainly other Black
American
authors that could be taken as examples.
E.Borgers
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