01:050:306 Fall 2006 American Detective in Fiction Tues, 1,2 Duus Food Sci 109

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1 01:050:306 Fall 2006 American Detective in Fiction Tues, 1,2 Duus Food Sci 109 My final conclusion is that the reading of detective stories is simply a kind of vice that, for silliness and minor harmfulness, ranks somewhere between smoking and crossword puzzles. --Edmund Wilson At its very best, where it grazes tragedy and transcends its own conventions, detective fiction can remind us that we are all underground men making a brief appearance from darkness to darkness. --Ross Macdonald READING ASSIGNMENTS: Tues., Sept. 5 Introduction FILM: Murder One Tues., Sept. 12 Elementary, my dear Watson. --Attributed to but never said by Sherlock Holmes except in films based on Arthur Conan Doyle s stories A.C. Doyle, Valley of Fear (1915) Pinkerton National Detective Agency at _ Agency Tues., Sept 19 The real life private eye is a sleazy little drudge from the Burns Agency, a strong-arm guy with no more personality than a blackjack. He has about as much stature as a stop and go sign. --Raymond Chandler The following readings are on electronic reserve at the Douglass Library:

2 01:050: Fall 2006 E.A. Smith, The Hard-Boiled Writer and the Literary Marketplace Ad: What Is a Bootlegger? (1923) C.J.Daly, Knights of the Open Palm (1923) R.Chandler, The Simple Art of Murder (1944) R. Chandler, Introduction to The Simple Art of Murder (1950) Tues., Sept 26 I haven t laughed so hard since the hogs ate my big brother. --The Continental Op D. Hammett, Red Harvest (1929) Tues., Oct. 3 Spade had no original. He is a dream man in the sense that he is what most private detectives I worked with would like to have been...for your private detective wants to be a hard and shifty fellow, able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with, whether criminal, innocent bystander or client. --Dashiell Hammett D. Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (1930) FILM: The Maltese Falcon (1941 PAPER #1 DUE Tues., Oct 10 If you ask me why Marlowe is a private detective, I can t Answer you. Obviously there are times when he wishes he were not, just as there are times when I would rather be almost anything but a writer. --Raymond Chandler R. Chandler, The facts of Philip Marlowe s life..., on electronic reserve R. Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely (1944) FILM: Farewell, My Lovely (1944) PAPER # 2 DUE

3 01:050: Fall 2006 Tues., Oct. 17 A thug and a brute, Hammer would have been the villain of most mysteries, but in Spillane he is the new superman, a plainclothes Nazi. --George Grella M. Spillane, I, the Jury (1947) PAPER #3 DUE Tues., Oct. 24 The typical detective hero in contemporary America speaks for our common humanity. --Ross Macdonald R. Macdonald, The Underground Man (1971) Tues., Oct 31 But that s you, Marlowe.... You ll never learn. You re a loser. --Terry Lennox FILM: The Long Good-bye (1973) Tues., Nov. 7 MID-TERM QUIZ FILM: Shaft (1971) Tues., Nov. 14 [Honey West] is the original Big Tease of Private Eyedom. G.G.Fickling, A Kiss for a Killer (1960) Tues., Nov. 21 Tues., Nov. 28 NO CLASS. DO THINGS THE RUTGERS WAY: GO TO THURSDAY CLASSES. HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Given the extreme individualism, violence, and outrageous social attitudes towards women... which writers like Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett, and Raymond Chandler often display, it is hard to imagine a form less susceptible to a feminist interpretation. --Rosalind Coward and Linda Sample S. Paretsky, Killing Orders (1985)

4 01:050: Fall 2006 FILM: V.I. Warshawski (1992) PAPER # 4 DUE Tues., Dec. 5 One of the big problems when starting to write about Black people is that it s very hard for those outside to understand out life because of the way the media deals with us. We re drug addicts, we re welfare people. --Walter Moseley W. Moseley, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) PAPER # 5 DUE Tues., Dec. 12 I hadn t heard a white person say [ nigger ] since I left the [Police] Department and heard it every day. --Tamara Hayle V.W. Wesley, When Death Comes Stealing (1994) Mon., Dec 18 FINAL EXAM, noon-3:00 p.m. COURSE WORK: 1. Two papers of 2-3 pages (25% each): (50%) a. One paper to be chosen from papers # 1, 2, and 3 (Due Oct , or 17) b. One paper to be chosen from papers # 4 and 5 (Due Nov. 28 or Dec One mid-semester quiz (20%) 3. One final exam, Dec. 18 (30%) NAME: Louise Duus OFFICE: RAB 017A OFFICE HOURS: Tuesday, 1:00-3:30 p.m. and by appointment duus@rci.rutgers.edu

5 01:050: Fall 2006 REQUIRED TEXTS: Chandler, Raymond, Farewell, My Lovely (1940) Doyle, Arthur Conan, Valley of Fear (1915) Fickling, G.G., Kiss for a Killer (1960) Hammett, Dashiell, Maltese Falcon (1930) Red Harvest (1929) Macdonald, Ross Underground Man (1971) Moseley, Walter, Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) Paretsky, Sarah, Killing Orders (1985) Spillane, Mickey, I, the Jury (1947) Wesley, Valerie Wilson, When Death Comes Stealing (1994 PAPER TOPICS: PAPERS MUST BE HANDED IN AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS ON THE DATE INDICATED. You are required to do two (2) and only two, papers. I. Paper # 1, due Oct. 3: Somerset Maugham, an English novelist, once described Sam Spade as a nasty bit of goods... an unscrupulous rogue and a heartless crook..... There is little to choose between him and the criminals he is dealing with. Would you agree with, disagree with, or wish to qualify Maugham s assessment of Spade? II.. Paper # 2, due Oct. 10 Women in hard-boiled detective fiction are generally either femmes fatales, like Brigid O Shaughnessy and Helen Grayle or good girls like Effie Perrine. Anne Riordan clearly does not fit either of these stereotypes. Indeed, she has a lot in common with Marlowe and helps him in his detecting. Yet he refuses to hire her as his assistant. Why? How does Anne Riordan see herself? How does Marlowe see her? III. Paper #3, due Oct. 17 On the basis of your reading of I, the Jury, would you agree with, disagree with, or wish to qualify George Grella s denunciation of Spillane s Mike Hammer quoted on the syllabus?

6 01:050: Fall 2006 IV. Paper # 4, due Nov. 28 How much like her male counterparts is the female private eye, V.I. Warshawski in Killing Orders? Is she simply a male in female clothing, or is she something new? Does she have to prove the same things to herself as e.g., Spade, Marlowe, and Hammer, have to prove to themselves? Does a change of gender inevitably necessitate a reshaping of the concept of the Private Eye? V. Paper # 5, due Dec. 5 Easy Rawlins in Devil in a Blue Dress isn t a professional private eye, but her performs a detective s role. How does his blackness both help and hinder his ability to function in that role?

ENG 399: American Detective Fiction Course Syllabus Summer 2013 CRN MTWR 12:00-1:50 p.m. 246 Gerlinger Hall

ENG 399: American Detective Fiction Course Syllabus Summer 2013 CRN 40861 MTWR 12:00-1:50 p.m. 246 Gerlinger Hall Instructor: Kathleen O Fallon Office: 256 PLC Hours: MTWTh 10:30-11:30 a.m. and by appointment