Les ombres du polar

Abstract

By focusing on two notions, shadows and darkness, which are both prominent in US hardboiled/noir fiction from the1920s to the 1960s, this article offers two readings of the genre, as (1) the reenactment of an epic/shamanic narrative of incursion into the realm of the dead, or (2) the embodiment of the puritan ideology of predestination. The interplay between these two distinct narrative and philosophical traditions has, I argue, shaped the ambiguous aesthetics and ideology of hardboiled/noir fiction.

Keywords

• shadow
• darkness
• noir fiction
• hardboiled fiction
• crime fiction
• detectives