ROSS MACDONALD'S LEW ARCHER TALES: A STUDY IN RELIGION AND POPULAR CULTUR

In this dissertation Ross Macdonald's hard-boiled detective novels provide a test case for how a cross disciplinary method can lead to a deeper understanding of popular entertainments and their role in society, especially in relationship to the formation and expression of ethics and values.;The hard-boiled detective tale is presented as a reflection on the conflict within the moral life between the individual and society, and, following a survey or relevant critical literature, close readings are made of several of Macdonald's novels. The Underground Man is considered in light of H. Richard Niebuhr's concept of "the responsible self" as an examination of what it means to act responsibly in one's relations with others. Freud's discussion of the popular culture of his day and a freudian model of the personality are used to examine narrative conflict in The Moving Target. Robert Merton's paradigm for functional analysis clarifies and expands the range of social questions that can be asked of a popular text.;The specific readings of Macdonald's novels in combination with the more general considerations of his work, and of popular culture in general, lead to the conclusion that popular works fulfill a conserving function in society. That is, they tend to maintain the status quo or integrate new understandings into existing structures. This tendency is amplified by the absence of any clear source of ultimate values which might transcend those of the culture in which the work is created. In spite of its expression of alienation and social criticism, the hard-boiled detective tale serves to integrate the reader into society. Further, it is argued that Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer tales do this in a way which meets the unique social and psychological needs of the intellectual class and they thus serve to integrate a social group who experience high levels of alienation from their own society.;Following the conclusions an appendix considers the process of translating a tale from one medium to another in an examination of the three films which have been made of the Archer novels.