It Didn't Mean Anything: A Psychoanalytic Reading of American Detective Fiction by Howe, Alexander N - 2008

Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers, 2008. Paperback. Very Good+/None. 2008 Our photos depict the actual book offered. Bright and clean pictorial softcover with yellow, uncreased spine. Interior is clean and unmarked. 8vo. Ships from our family-owned bookstore in the US. BOOK INFO: This critical study of American detective fiction examines the history and development of the detective genre through the lens of psychoanalysis. Applying the ideas of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the author identifies and categorizes popular works according to the fictional protagonist's hysteria, obsessive neurosis, perversion or psychosis. The first chapter identifies several instances of hysteria within the fiction of two of the genre's pioneers, Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle. Chapter Two traces the development of the hard-boiled detective's code of honor through the works of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane, identifying the often-paradoxical… Read More

paperback. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.