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Part of
Landscapes of Realism: Rethinking literary realism in comparative perspectives
Edited by Dirk Göttsche, Rosa Mucignat and Robert Weninger
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXII] 2021
► pp. 761–774

Realism in Anglo-American crime fiction

For the century following the publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” in 1841 crime fiction would follow lines set by that foundational work: the main character must solve mysteries by the application of reason alone. In an effort to ennoble a genre of popular literature that had its roots in nineteenth-century sensational fiction, in which the otherworldly was commonplace, the Golden Age of the genre, the 1910s to 1930s, saw the emphasis on rational thought and realistic explanations become enshrined in rules that sought to root out any supernatural solution. This formula was criticized by Raymond Chandler in his article “The Simple Art of Murder” (1944 and 1950), which took stock of a new style of crime novels published in the previous decade and coined the term ‘hardboiled’ to define them: realistic depictions of criminals and their motivations, with a particular emphasis on realistic language. Realism based on the use of everyday language and the depiction of morally reprehensible behavior displaced realism based on rationality as the cardinal rule for the detective story. Upon closer inspection, however, the very novels championed by Chandler display inconsistencies: language is stylized and the detective is often portrayed as a romantic hero facing off evil. In both periods realism appears as a ploy to grant canonicity to a genre of popular literature.
Keywords: realism, crime fiction, popular literature, Raymond Chandler, film noir
Article outline
  • Poe, Conan Doyle, The Golden Age: Reason and detection
  • Hardboiled crime fiction: Language and morals
  • Moving beyond Chandler: Crime fiction’s going global
  • Note
  • Works cited
Published online: 21 April 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.xxxii.29val
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