Date of Award
1-1-2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in English
First Advisor
Jay Watson
Second Advisor
Annette Trefzer
Third Advisor
Deborah Barker
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
This dissertation takes its cue from a recent geographical shift in twenty-first-century noir fiction and film in the U.S. Despite noir’s long-running affiliation with the world of the great “dark cities” of the twentieth century, a new school of noir authors have challenged this trope by producing, as author Daniel Woodrell once coined it, a distinctive “country noir” (or “rural noir,” as others now call it) in which rural America, rather than its urban counterpart, serves as the space for noir’s particular brand of darkness. I argue in this study, however, that many of the initial seeds of country noir can be traced as far back as noir’s first major artists. Much of classic noir, in short, is rural noir, and this overlooked context to noir’s extraordinary development has yet to be fully unveiled by scholars. The scope of this project, then, offers new insights on the shaping of classic American noir (ch. 1) and provides new avenues for exploring other lesser-known aspects of the genre, such as its imaginative investments in extractive industries in the nation’s rural hinterlands (ch. 2) and its problematic uses of the “hillbilly” and other poor-white rural stereotypes (ch. 3).
Recommended Citation
Agner, Jacob Kane, "Moonshine and Meanness: Unearthing Noir's Rural Roots, 1920-1955" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2906.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/2906