Hardboiled
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Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence of organized crime that flourished during Prohibition in the United States (1920–1933) and its aftermath, while dealing with a legal system that has become as corrupt as the organized crime itself.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Rendered cynical by this cycle of violence, the detectives of hardboiled fiction are often antiheroes. Notable hardboiled detectives include Dick Tracy, Philip Marlowe, Nick Charles, Mike Hammer, Sam Spade, Lew Archer, Slam Bradley, and The Continental Op.
Genre pioneers
The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined by James M. Cain and by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s.<ref name ="mac">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> English writer Gerald Butler was referred to as the "English James M. Cain", and his characters were noted as hardboiled.<ref name=":10">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Its heyday was in 1930s–50s America.<ref>Template:Cite book.</ref>
Pulp fiction
From its earliest days, hardboiled fiction was published in and closely associated with so-called pulp magazines. Pulp historian Robert Sampson argues that Gordon Young's "Don Everhard" stories (which appeared in Adventure magazine from 1917 onwards), about an "extremely tough, unsentimental, and lethal" gun-toting urban gambler, anticipated the hardboiled detective stories.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia "Extremely tough, unsentimental and lethal, Everhard foreshadowed the hard-boiled characters of the following decade". </ref> In its earliest uses in the late 1920s, "hardboiled" did not refer to a type of crime fiction; it meant the tough (cynical) attitude towards emotions triggered by violence.Template:Citation needed
The hardboiled crime story became a staple of several pulp magazines in the 1930s; most famously Black Mask under the editorship of Joseph T. Shaw,<ref name="mac" /><ref name="budrys196510">Template:Cite magazine</ref> but also in other pulps such as Dime Detective and Detective Fiction Weekly.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia </ref><ref>Template:Cite web A brief survey of the genre's early days, focusing on Black Mask.</ref> Consequently, "pulp fiction" is often used as a synonym for hardboiled crime fiction or gangster fiction;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> some would distinguish within it the private-eye story from the crime novel itself.<ref>Template:Cite web Hardboiled/noir "family tree", by crime fiction author and scholar Megan Abbott.</ref> In the United States, the original hardboiled style has been emulated by innumerable writers, including James Ellroy, Paul Cain, Sue Grafton, Chester Himes, Paul Levine, John D. MacDonald, Ross Macdonald, Walter Mosley, Sara Paretsky, Robert B. Parker, and Mickey Spillane. Later, many hardboiled novels were published by houses specializing in paperback originals, most notably Gold Medal, and in later decades republished by houses such as Black Lizard.
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Photo by Paolo Monti, 1975
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Femmes fatales were standard fare in hardboiled fiction.
Relation to noir fiction
Hardboiled writing is also associated with "noir fiction". Eddie Duggan discusses the similarities and differences between the two related forms in his 1999 article on pulp writer Cornell Woolrich.<ref> Template:Cite journal</ref> In his full-length study of David Goodis, Jay Gertzman notes: "The best definition of hard boiled I know is that of critic Eddie Duggan. In noir, the primary focus is interior: psychic imbalance leading to self-hatred, aggression, sociopathy, or a compulsion to control those with whom one shares experiences. By contrast, hard boiled 'paints a backdrop of institutionalized social corruptionTemplate:'".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Resurgence
Since the 1980s, the stock character of the hardboiled detective has undergone a revival due in part to the popularity of Neo-noir movies like Chinatown, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, Dirty Harry, Nighthawks, and L.A. Confidential. Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Ace Hart from Dog City, Sam & Max, Nick Valentine from Fallout 4, and Velda Girl Detective all embody and sometimes parody the trope.
See also
References
Further reading
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- Template:Cite web An essay on the form's early history.
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- Template:Cite web History of the genre.
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- Template:Cite web A chronology of significant hardboiled novels, compiled by critic Geoffrey O'Brien for the 1981 edition of his Hardboiled America.
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External links
- Template:Cite web A list of hard-boiled and noir writers.
- Template:Cite web Comprehensive bibliographies.
- Template:Cite web Comprehensive bibliographies of many important hardboiled/noir authors.
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