Bill
The PhD divided Chandler's novels into two periods, early
(first four novels) and late (final three). I argued that
_The Little Sister_ is a transitional novel, marking
Chandler's attempts to come to terms with the collapse of
literary modernism (and incidentally the corruption of what
he saw as the hard-boiled genre - there's a scene in
_Playback_ where Marlowe picks up what sounds like a Mickey
Spillane paperback, and then throws it in the trash) and the
development of consumer culture. I linked this in with
changes in the way identity is constructed in consumer
culture, and Marlowe's realisation that heroes like him no
longer matter. The two articles are in _Clues_ and _Studies
in the Novel_ - the second being a development of some of the
ideas in the first, and I think a better piece of work. If
anyone's interested, the references are:
Routledge, Christopher. "Stepping on the Gas: The Motor Car
and Systems of Closure in Raymond Chandler". _Clues: A
Journal of Detection_. Vol 16.2 Fall/Winter 1995. pp
41-56.
Routledge, Christopher. "A Matter of Disguise: Locating the
Self in Raymond Chandler's _The Big Sleep_ and _The Long
Goodbye_". _Studies in the Novel_. Vol XXIX, Number 1. Spring
1997. pp 94-107.
Cheers Chris
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