Raymond Chandler: The Detections of TotalityThe master of literary theory takes on the master of the detective novel Raymond Chandler, a dazzling stylist and portrayer of American life, holds a unique place in literary history, straddling both pulp fiction and modernism. With The Big Sleep, published in 1939, he left an indelible imprint on the detective novel. Fredric Jameson offers an interpretation of Chandler’s work that reconstructs both the context in which it was written and the social world or totality it projects. Chandler’s invariable setting, Los Angeles, appears both as a microcosm of the United States and a prefiguration of its future: a megalopolis uniquely distributed by an unpromising nature into a variety of distinct neighborhoods and private worlds. But this essentially urban and spatial work seems also to be drawn towards a vacuum, an absence that is nothing other than death. With Chandler, the thriller genre becomes metaphysical. |
What people are saying - Write a review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - pomo58 - LibraryThingIn Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality Fredric Jameson returns to his work on the detective novel, focusing this time on Chandler. As usual Jameson makes nuanced observations and posits very ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - Welsh_eileen2 - LibraryThingAn interesting critique of Raymond Chandler and his novels. I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Verso Books via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review. Read full review
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actants aesthetic Almore already Altman’s American Angeles Big Sleep brandnames Brasher Doubloon Chandler’s books Chandler’s novels Chandlerian chapter characters classical detective story closure detective story Dick Powell diegetic dimension dwelling Eddie Mars episodes equivalent example experience eyes Farewell Fawn Lake figure film formal Frederick Lewis Allen function fundamental Geiger’s George Anson gigolos Grayle hardboiled Harry Jones Heidegger’s Heideggerian High Window historical human Humphrey Bogart ideological intellectual involve kind landscape language latter’s least Little Sister lived logic Long Goodbye look Lovely Marlowe Marlowe’s material Meanwhile Morningstar’s office murder mystery narrative nature nostalgia objects organic particular peculiar perception plot police political pop art primal scene problem purely radically Raymond Chandler reader reality relationship seems semiotic sense social society sociological somehow Southern California space spatial specific Sternwood structural suggests symbolic things types typology urban various whole
Bibliographic information
| Title | Raymond Chandler: The Detections of Totality |
| Author | Fredric Jameson |
| Publisher | Verso Books, 2016 |
| ISBN | 1784782173, 9781784782177 |
| Length | 96 pages |
| Subjects | › › Literary Criticism / American / Regional Literary Criticism / Comparative Literature Literary Criticism / Mystery & Detective |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |