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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. 35 mm slides or 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Accessing theUMI World's Information since 1938 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA Order Number 8820363 Clients, colleagues, and consorts: Roles of women in American hardboiled detective fiction and film Ward, Kathryn Ann, Ph.D. The Ohio State University, 1988 Copyright ©1988 by Ward, Kathryn Ann. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 PLEASE NOTE: In all cases this material has been filmed in the best possible way from the available copy. Problems encountered with this document have been identified here with a check mark V . 1. Glossy photographs or _____pages 2. Colored illustrations, paper or______ print 3. Photographs with dark background_____ 4. 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Other________ ___________________ _______ ______________________ UMI CLIENTS, COLLEAGUES, AND CONSORTS: ROLES OF WOMEN IN AMERICAN HARDBOILED DETECTIVE FICTION AND FILM DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Kathryn Ann Ward, B.A., M.A. & * * * * The Ohio State University 1988 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Daniel Barnes Morris Beja Adviser Ernest Lockridge Department of English Copyright by Kathryn Ann Ward 1988 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 express my sincerest gratitude to my adviser, Professor Daniel Barnes, and to the other two members of my committee. Professor Morris Beja and Professor Ernest Lockridge. Thanks also to all of my very true friends--too many to name here--for support and encouragement throughout this project. Finally, I would like to thank the Graduate Secretary of OSU’s Department of English, Cartha Williams, for help and guidance throughout my graduate career. ii VITA 1972 ............................ B.A. in English, Capital University, Columbus, Ohio 1983 ............................ M.A. in English/Creative Writing, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Ma.ior Field: Modern Literature Studies in: American Literature, with Professors Thomas Cooley and Daniel Barnes; Creative Writing, with Professors Ernest Lockridge and William Allen; Drama, with Professors Robert Jones and Stanley Kahrl; Film, with Professors Morris Beja, Mojmir Drvota and Ronald Green; Rhetoric, with Professors Edward P.J. Corbett and Frank O ’Hare; Victorian Literature, with Professor Richard Altick. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................... ii VITA .................................................... iii CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION: THE HISTORY OF THE GENRE ......................................... 1 II. WOMEN IN SELECTED WORKS BY DASHIELL HAMMETT .......................................... 66 III. WOMEN IN SELECTED WORKS BY RAYMOND CHANDLER......................................... 122 IV. WOMEN IN SELECTED WORKS BY KENNETH MILLAR (ROSS MACDONALD) ..................... 164 V. CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE OF THE GENRE ........................................... 199 ENDNOTES.................................................. 223 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................. 229 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: THE HISTORY OF THE GENRE According to John G. Cawelti, detective stories (along with other "formulaic types," such as westerns, romances, spy stories, and so on.) "are artistic phenomena of tremendous importance." Just as children "clutch at the security of the familiar" in their love of hearing a favorite story over and over, so do "older children and adults continue to find a special delight in familiar stories"--in the familiar characters, environments, themes, tones, and situations found in a given fictional genre. "For many persons," says Cawelti, "such formulaic types make up by far the greater portion of the experience of literature,” and "an enormous percentage of books magazines, films, and television dramas depend on such formulaic structures" (1 ) . For Cawelti, genre stories are those "which have highly predictable structures that guarantee the fulfillment of conventional expectations" (1), Yet the generic limits are hard to define, especially in detective fiction. The very names given to this genre 1 in various languages suggest the vagueness of its boundaries: the French designation "roman policier" (and in Spanish, "la novella policiaca” ) is too narrow, since a given story may or may not involve the police. But the German "Kriminalroman" is too broad, since many novels involving criminal activity (Tom Jones or Huck Finn. for example) are out of place in this category. Our own language offers similar problems. Everyone knows what a "murder mystery" is, but not all generic examples involve murder. "Crime story" is widely used but has the same limitations as "Kriminalroman." "Detective story" seems better, but again not all examples of the form fit easily into this category: episodes of television shows about private eyes, such as The Rockford Files or Moonlighting, frequently involve scams, comedy, and/or romance, and a particular episode may or may not chronicle acts of detection, per s e . In one episode of Magnum, P.i.. for example, detective Thomas Magnum spends the entire show treading water and avoiding death from sharks and exhaustion as he remembers his childhood and his military father's death. The detective’s friends wonder where he is and eventually manage to locate him, solving the only "mystery" this episode offers. But the detective himself is unable to do anything to help them and demonstrates no powers of reasoning or cunning whatsoever. The strength of the episode lies in its human interest appeal as we see, through flashbacks, the small boy trying to please his father and to deal with the father’s absence and eventual death. The problem of generic boundaries is also confused by the fact that other genres are likely to trespass. Episodes of classic television Westerns often revolved around the solving of murders. Indeed, Westerns of all kinds (John Ford’s The Searchers, for example, or television’s Gunsmoke) frequently deal with the hunting down and/or outwitting of thieves or murderers, yet these are jobs that traditionally belong to the detective. Science fiction is also likely to encroach. The 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers is structured around the solving of a mystery: Dr. Miles Bennell, trying to discover what exactly is happening to his patients, assumes the role of detective. And complicating the problem further is the fact that authors of detective film and fiction are likely to dabble in more than one genre. Edgar Allan Poe, credited with creating the detective story, is best known for his tales of horror. Alfred Hitchcock also worked in both forms, and the generic boundaries of his films are especially inclined to overlap (Psycho. Frenzy. and Suspicion . for example). Dorothy L. Sayers has commented, "The story of detection and the story of horror form about as strong a contrast as it is possible to imagine. Their aims are, indeed, entirely opposed" (Murch 14). Yet she includes both types of stories in her Omnibus of Crime, which in the original British edition bears the title Great Short Stories of Detection. Mystery and Horror. The introductory chapter to A. E. Murch’s The Development of the Detective Novel addresses the problem of generic limitation, paying special attention to the interrelationships of the detective story, the crime story, and the mystery story, which are for Murch three distinct genres. According to her definitions, the detective story is one "in which the primary interest lies in the methodical discovery, by rational means, of the exact circumstances of a mysterious event or series of events." In the crime story, "studies of cunning criminals, reconstructions of ingenious