Modern Chivalric Romance In Tough American Reality

Since its emergence from pulp magazines in the 1920s, the hard-boiled detective fiction has been regarded as a distinct American form as opposed to the British puzzle tradition. Though Dashiell Hammett was the real inventor of the subgenre, Raymond Chandler was given credit for refining the hard-boiled formula. The writer of the thesis attempts to examine how Chandler transcends the conventions of the classical detective fiction and creatively contributes new dimensions to the hard-boiled detective fiction by elaborating Chandler's two novels, The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye, with occasional references to his other novels.The writer reviews the emergence of the hard-boiled detective fiction and draws an outline of Chandler's life and his major novels. The pattern analysis of the hard-boiled detective fiction and comparison with the classical detective fiction prove that Chandler's hard-boiled fiction differs from the classical detective fiction in characterization, the process of crime solving, narrative point of view, and setting.Chandler is not only a great exponent of the hard-boiled detective fiction but also an important American novelist. Although he wrote in a popular form, he aimed to transcend the limitations of genre and make it into literature. First, he tries with great efforts to construct an American voice. His use of slang and street talk, his addiction to clever similes and his employment of other devices such as irony, hyperbole and understatement all testify to his status as a master of the American style. Second, he creates the symbol of the perfect private eye: Philip Marlowe, the modern knight. The central theme of his novels is the knightly errantry in quest of truth and justice. The convention of chivalric romance plays a more than casual role. He evokes images of chivalry and alludes to romance to identify his detective's relation to the new urban environment. He consciously inverts the will-fulfillment form of romance in order to express his deep moral concern. Third, Chandler brings Los Angeles into focus. He makes this region where crime and corruption occur on a large scale a fertile place for Marlowe's investigations and expresses serious social commentary which is relevant to the tensions of the time. For millions of people around the world, he defines not only a city, but the subgenre of the hard-boiled detective story.