RARA-AVIS: THE FEMINIZATION OF THE HARD-BOILED DETECTIVE

From: E.Borgers ( wbac12034@tiscali.be)
Date: 10 Apr 2005


Vicky,

Not far from noir mystery ladies, there is a study made by Catherine A. Thompson : FROM MARLOWE TO MILLHONE: THE FEMINIZATION OF THE HARD-BOILED DETECTIVE. This is the text of her thesis to obtain her Master of Arts degree at the University od New Brunswick (Canada) in 1997. You may download the full text at my Web site : HARD-BOILED MYSTERIES Go to http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384 and select the chapter : Women in HB literature

Its an essay about female writers and female characters, but with the filter of a feminist view. Among other things, Miss Thompson in this text analyses in more details the approach and works by Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, and Karen Kijewski.

The abstract of the essay says:
As the title suggests, this thesis is a study of the changes that have been wrought in hard-boiled detective fiction by the influence of women, both writers and protagonists. Drawing on the work of theorists such as Alice Jardine and Laura Mulvey, the author examines some of the socio-economic elements from which the genre sprang, the place of women in those early novels, and the re-vision which began in the late 1970s. This thesis yields a new understanding of the genre. It also constitutes an academic study of representative novels by four of the most popular female authors of detective ficiton working in the hard-boiled mode today, and of their female protagonists.

I thought you could be interested.

E.Borgers HARD-BOILED MYSTERIES http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384

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