Abstract
Neo-noir has yielded some confusion about its generic identity, with a diverse background and increasingly disparate influences. The chapter considers the extent to which it challenges misconceptions about generic purity, having always been ‘hybrid’ to some extent, and asks what happens to thematic concerns when they are relocated to new genres. Examples are selected from the three genres typically appended to noir—the western, horror and SF genres—the last of which is deemed to be especially productive in enabling the expansion of imaginative parameters. Close attention is accordingly given to ‘tech-noir’, both in cinematic and televisual forms, noting the benefits of SF’s extrapolative tendencies in reinvigorating noir concerns about identity, manipulation and abuses of power—as well as affirming a capacity for resistance and hope.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Works Cited
Abrams, Jerold J., ‘Space, Time, and Subjectivity in Neo-Noir Cinema’, in The Philosophy of Neo-Noir, edited by Mark T. Conard (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2009), pp. 7–20.
Balsamo, Anne, ‘Reading Cyborgs, Writing Feminism’, originally published in Communication 1988, reprinted in The Gendered Cyborg, edited by Gill Kirkup, Linda Janes, Kath Woodward, and Fiona Hovenden (London: Routledge, 2000).
Borde, Raymond and Etiene Chaumeton, A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941–1953, trans. Paul Hammond (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002).
Bould, Mark, ‘Genre, Hybridity, Heterogeneity: Or, the Noir-SF-Vampire-Zombie-Splatter-Romance-Comedy-Action-Thriller Problem’, in A Companion to Film Noir, edited by Andrew Spicer and Helen Hanson (London: Blackwell, 2013), pp. 33–49.
Catsoulis, Jeanette, ‘A Hitman Finds Himself Stalked by Evil’ (2 February 2012), available at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/movies/kill-list-is-ben-wheatley’s-second-feature-film.html.
Dick, Philip. K., ‘The Android and the Human’, speech given at the Vancouver Science Fiction Convention in 1972, reprinted as the introduction to a collection of short stories entitled ‘How to Build a Universe that Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later’, in I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (London: Doubleday, 1985).
Durgnat, Raymond, ‘Paint It Black: The Family Tree of Film Noir’, originally published in Cinema (1970), republished in The Film Noir Reader, edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini (New Jersey: Limelight Editions, 1997), pp. 37–51.
Ebert, Roger, ‘Johnny Guitar’, Chicago Sun Times (8 May 2008), available at https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/johnny-guitar-1954.
Gates, Philippa, Detecting Men: Masculinity and the Hollywood Detective Film (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006).
Higham, Charles and Joel Greenberg, ‘Noir Cinema’, originally published in their book Hollywood in the Forties 1968, reprinted in Film Noir Reader, pp. 27–35.
Hirsch, Foster, Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir (New York: Limelight, 1999).
Kaplan, E. Ann, ‘The Dark Continent of Film Noir: Race, Displacement and Metaphor in Tournier’s Cat People (1942) and Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai (1948)’, in Women in Film Noir, originally published 1978, revised edition (London: BFI, 1998), pp. 183–201.
Naremore, James, More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts (London: University of California Press, 1998, revised 2008).
Schwartz, Ronald, Neo-Noir: The New Film Noir Style from Psycho to Collateral (Toronto: Scarecrow Press, 2005).
Short, Sue, Cyborg Cinema (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011a).
———, The Cult Telefantasy Series (Jefferson: McFarland, 2011b).
———, Fairy Tale and Film: Old Tales with a New Spin (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Somer, Eric, ‘The Noir-Horror of Cat People’, in Film Reader 4: The Crucial Films and Themes, edited by Silver and Ursini (New Jersey: Limelight Editions, 2004), pp. 191–205.
Ursini, James, ‘Noir Westerns’, in Film Reader 4 (New Jersey: Limelight Editions, 2004), pp. 247–259.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Short, S. (2019). Noir by Any Other Name?: Generic Confusion and Diffusion. In: Darkness Calls. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13807-3_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13807-3_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13806-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13807-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)