The private eye as urbane

Chris McConville

doi:10.5204/mcj.1949

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Journal article

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The private eye as urbane

Chris McConville

M / C Journal, Vol.5(2)

2002

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.1949

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Abstract

Film, Television and Digital Media

Communication and Media Studies

Cultural Studies

genre

private eye genre

detective genre

It is in such a city, of the derelict and the displaced, that film-goers once encountered the private eye. And while we recognise the private eye as naturally urban, the 'hard-boiled' guys of Chandler, David Goodis and their imitators rarely appeal as urbane. Dictionary advice offers a neatly-plotted resolution to such a puzzle, informing us that 'urbane' is dependent on 'urban' in the manner that 'humane' is connected unavoidably to 'human'. As with much of the information scattered across a mystery narrative, such deduction may be too neat. The varying linkages of 'urban' and 'urbane' can be queried in that classic tale of the twentieth-century city, the detective story. In what sense is the detective, as urbane male hero, dependent on the urban world in which he moves?

Details

Title: The private eye as urbane
Authors: Chris McConville (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Publication details: M / C Journal, Vol.5(2)
Publisher: University of Queensland, Media and Cultural Studies Centre
Date published: 2002
DOI: 10.5204/mcj.1949
ISSN: 1441-2616
Copyright note: Copyright © 2002 The Authors. All articles published in M/C Journal are published under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivatives 3.0 Licence. This published version is reporduced in accordance with this policy.
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449744202621
Output Type: Journal article

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