AMERICAN CRIME NOVELS (1946 – 1969) 

A week-long immersion in American crime fiction, concentrating on the first two decades following WW II,with special emphasis on minority writers.

13 June  In a Lonely Place – Dorothy B. Hughes (1947)
14 June  A Rage in Harlem (orig. title: For Love of Imabelle) – Chester Himes (1957)
15 June  We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson (1962)
16 June Pop. 1280 – Jim Thompson (1962)
17 June The Tremor of Forgery – Patricia Highsmith (1969)

Students need to:

1) inform me by email of the book(s) they will give their Referat on no later than 6 June (4 presentations a class, so first-come-first-serve),
2) read each novel in advance of the course,
3) be prepared for a specific reading quiz on each novel (character identification, who said what, leitmotifs, themes),
4) turn in a             2500 – 4000       word critical essay (deadline: 1 October 2011).

The 20 – 30 minute Referat should deal with one or more of the course books or the following recommended titles:

Dark Passage – David Goodis (1946)
Nightfall – David Goodis (1947)
Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly – John Franklin Bardin (1948)
The Little Sister – Raymond Chandler (1949)
The Killer Inside Me – Jim Thompson (1952)
Savage Night – Jim Thompson (1953)
The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler (1953)
The Hot Spot (orig. title: Hell Hath No Fury – Charles Williams (1953)
Beast in View – Margaret Millar (1955)
Shoot the Piano Player (orig. title: Down There) – David Goodis (1956)
Bunny Lake is Missing – Evelyn Piper (1957)
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov (1955/1958)
The Black Mass of Brother Springer – Charles Willeford (1958)
The Hunter - Richard Stark (1962)
The Instant Enemy – Ross Macdonald (1968) 
Blind Man with a Pistol – Chester Himes (1969) 
It Happened In Boston? – Russell H. Greenan (1969)