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America Noir is a must for any student of the noir tradition in American culture....Entertaining and enlightening.
Book Description
How underground writers and filmmakers rebelled against the postwar era's antiseptic cheerfulness. At the height of the Cold War, ten writers and filmmakers challenged such social pieties as the superiority of American democracy, the benevolence of free enterprise, and the sanctity of the suburban family. Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone related stories of victims of vast, faceless bureaucratic powers. Jim Thompson's The Grifters portrayed the ravages of capitalism on those at the bottom of the social ladder. Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley featured an amoral con man in an international setting, implicitly questioning America's fitness as leader of the free world. These artists pioneered the detached, ironic sensibility, so prevalent today, through works that radically juxtaposed cultural references and blurred the distinctions between 'high' and 'low' art. Their refusal to surrender to political correctness and their unflinching portrayal of the underside of American life directly paved the way for the counterculture, which would explode in the 60s and forever change the way that America views itself.
About the Author
David Cochran teaches history at John A. Logan College in Carterville, IL. He lives in Herrin, IL.
American Noir: Underground Writers and Filmmakers of the Postwar Era FROM THE PUBLISHER
B-movies, crime novels, science fiction- all of these forms of mass media came into their own in the 1950s. Dismissed by critics as dehumanizing to both author and audience, these genres unflinchingly exposed the depths of American life at a time when it was not politically correct to do so.
David Cochran details how, at the height of the Cold War, ten writers and filmmakers challenged such social pieties as the superiority of American democracy, the benevolence of free enterprise, and the sanctity of the suburban family. Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone related stories of victims of vast, faceless bureaucratic powers. Jim Thompson's The Grifters portrayed the ravages of capitalism on those at the bottom of the social ladder. Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley featured an amoral con man who infiltrated the privileged class and wreaked havoc once there.
All of these artists helped to set the stage for the 1960s counterculture's challenge to the established order. In doing so, they blurred the lines between "high" and "low" art.
FROM THE CRITICS
London Review of Books
Detailing how ten writers and filmmakers probed such Cold War social pieties as the superiority of American democracy, the benevolence of free enterprise, and the sanctity of the suburban family, David Cochran argues that such artists as Patricia Highsmith and Rod Serling pioneered a detached, ironic sensibility that radically juxtaposed cultural references and blurred distinctions between 'high' and 'low' art.
Art & Photography
Book Info
