The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction

Catherine Ross Nickerson editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:8th Jul '10

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The Cambridge Companion to American Crime Fiction cover

This Companion examines the range of American crime fiction from execution sermons of the Colonial era to television programmes like The Sopranos.

This Companion demonstrates the importance of crime writing in American literature. Leading scholars introduce the range of American crime fiction from the execution sermons of the Colonial era to television programmes like The Wire and The Sopranos.From the execution sermons of the Colonial era to television programs like The Wire and The Sopranos, crime writing has played an important role in American culture. Its ability to register fear, desire and anxiety has made it a popular genre with a wide audience. These new essays, written for students as well as readers of crime fiction, demonstrate the very best in contemporary scholarship and challenge long-established notions of the development of the detective novel. Each chapter covers a sub-genre, from 'true crime' to hard-boiled novels, illustrating the ways in which 'popular' and 'high' literary genres influence and shape each other. With a chronology and guide to further reading, this Companion is a helpful guide for students of American literature and readers of crime fiction.

"Fourteen essays by academics include some valuable history and analysis..." -John L. Breen
..."the Companion succeeds in presenting the richness and diversity of works that form the genre, and the many ways in which crime fiction remains enormously relevant to the popular cultures of today." -Tarik Abdel-Monem,University of Nebraska-Lincoln

ISBN: 9780521136068

Dimensions: 227mm x 155mm x 10mm

Weight: 340g

208 pages