{"title":"Inherent Vice, Bleeding Edge, and Thomas Pynchon's Hardboiled","authors":"Eric Sandberg","doi":"10.1353/pan.2020.0006","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The critics have noted that Thomas Pynchon's work tends to center around attempts to unravel mysteries, yet, these would-be etective plots have generally been associated with epistemological or ontological quest narratives rather than with crime fiction. However, Pynchon's two most recent novels, Inherent Vice (2009) and Bleeding Edge (2013), engage directly and openly with the conventions of the hardboiled. This paper explores Pynchon's use of the form, examining contributions that it has made to his recent work—a strong narrative framework, access to a set of powerful yet flexible generic tropes, and an anti-authoritarian interest in systematic corporate and governmental corruption. Pynchon's hardboiled, I conclude, is an elegiac yet radical fictional mode highly suitable for his critical analysis of American history.","PeriodicalId":42435,"journal":{"name":"Partial Answers-Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas","volume":"114 1","pages":"125 - 148"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2019-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Partial Answers-Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pan.2020.0006","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERARY THEORY & CRITICISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:The critics have noted that Thomas Pynchon's work tends to center around attempts to unravel mysteries, yet, these would-be etective plots have generally been associated with epistemological or ontological quest narratives rather than with crime fiction. However, Pynchon's two most recent novels, Inherent Vice (2009) and Bleeding Edge (2013), engage directly and openly with the conventions of the hardboiled. This paper explores Pynchon's use of the form, examining contributions that it has made to his recent work—a strong narrative framework, access to a set of powerful yet flexible generic tropes, and an anti-authoritarian interest in systematic corporate and governmental corruption. Pynchon's hardboiled, I conclude, is an elegiac yet radical fictional mode highly suitable for his critical analysis of American history.
期刊介绍：
Partial Answers is an international, peer reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that focuses on the study of literature and the history of ideas. This interdisciplinary component is responsible for combining analysis of literary works with discussions of historical and theoretical issues. The journal publishes articles on various national literatures including Anglophone, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Russian, and, predominately, English literature. Partial Answers would appeal to literature scholars, teachers, and students in addition to scholars in philosophy, cultural studies, and intellectual history.
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