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Author:   Jonathan Auerbach
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.399kg
ISBN:  

9780822350064

ISBN 10:   0822350068
Pages:   280
Publication Date:   25 March 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Un-Americanness of Film Noir 1 1. Gestapo in America: Confessions of a Nazi Spy and Stranger on the Third Floor 27 2. White Collar Murder: Double Indemnity 57 3. Cuba, Gangsters, Vets, and Other Outcasts of the Islands: The Chase and Key Largo 91 4. North From Mexico: Border Incident, Hold Back the Dawn, Secret Beyond the Door, and Out of the Past 123 5. Bad Boy Patriots: This Gun for Hire, Ride the Pink Horse, and Pickup on South Street 155 Postscript: Darkness Visible 185 Notes 205 Bibilography 245 Index 261

Reviews

This terrific book offers fresh insight into both the genre of film noir and the cultural production of the postwar and early Cold War period. Through rich, historically contextualized readings of a range of noir films, Jonathan Auerbach shows how the genre captured the uncanniness of a time of suspicion and paranoia. By illuminating the uncanny figures (the immigrants, the aliens, the strangers) and spaces (national borders and urban zones) that characterize the noir affect, he shows how these films dramatized the national response to the changing terms of citizenship and subjectivity as the anxious fear of the stranger within. -Priscilla Wald, author of Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative While scholars have long attended to film noir as one of the preeminent genres of U.S. cinema, they ironically have rarely studied it in terms of its specific engagements with national self-identity and self-definition. Deftly employing his strong and reputed background in American studies to far-reaching ends, Jonathan Auerbach shows precisely how film noir was central to the country's self-questioning in the fraught times of the Cold War. This is a groundbreaking study that comes up with trenchant insights about a genre that one might have thought had nothing new to yield to critical inquiry. -Dana Polan, author of Julia Child's The French Chef Auerbach evokes the ever-present sense of fear existing in an early Cold War American public through his analysis of these films. Both insightful and unique in its undertaking, this book speaks openly and convincingly to the relationship between political agenda, disenfranchisement and art. -- Laura Crawford Media International Australia This insightful study wisely ranges beyond the genre's usual suspects. Recommended. All readers. -- M. Yacowar Choice Auerbach provides unique close readings of a select group of films that assist us in seeing film noir in relation to concerns over citizenship and Cold War paranoia. It provides a valuable starting point from which we can hope future scholarship will further delve into such connections. -- Christopher Robe Journal of American History [A] wholly original, ground-level reconsideration of noir's cultural setting... Auerbach's book augurs ...a theory-to-come of U.S. film that can leam to disable those old tropes and inspire truly fresh lines of aesthetic and political questioning. -- Matt Tierney Film Criticism [I]f you have an abiding interest in film noir ... you will find Dark Borders has a lot to offer. While most books on film noir take a rather broad approach in their examination of the genre, Auerbach chose a core of films to study in order to link the book's overriding theme. By concentrating on a handful of films, he provides a comprehensive insight to each one, and therein lies the strength of the book. -- Phil Stufflebean American Film Noir ]Auerbach's] rigorous and creative readings of these films will prove indispensable for serious students of noir... some of the most exciting moments to be noted in Auerbach's compelling book demonstrate nuanced uses of cultural history to inform his film analysis. Such exciting subjects include Lucky Luciano and the Second World War, Hemingway's annoyance over inefficient government help during the 1935 hurricane, and the emergence of corporate and managerial structures of power and identity. -- Sam B. Girgus American Literature Auerbach offers some significant fresh insights into territory one would have thought to now be fully excavated. -- Tony Williams Screening the Past The book as a whole is exemplary in its analysis of the interrelation between film noir and the social and political history of the 1940s and early 50s. -- Martin Fradley Film Quarterly

While scholars have long attended to film noir as one of the preeminent genres of U.S. cinema, they ironically have rarely studied it in terms of its specific engagements with national self-identity and self-definition. Deftly employing his strong and reputed background in American Studies to far-reaching ends, Jonathan Auerbach shows precisely how film noir was central to the country's self-questioning in the fraught times of the Cold War. This is a groundbreaking study that comes up with trenchant insights about a genre that one might have thought had nothing new to yield to critical inquiry. Dana Polan, New York University

While scholars have long attended to film noir as one of the preeminent genres of U.S. cinema, they ironically have rarely studied it in terms of its specific engagements with national self-identity and self-definition. Deftly employing his strong and reputed background in American Studies to far-reaching ends, Jonathan Auerbach shows precisely how film noir was central to the country's self-questioning in the fraught times of the Cold War. This is a groundbreaking study that comes up with trenchant insights about a genre that one might have thought had nothing new to yield to critical inquiry. Dana Polan, New York University This terrific book offers fresh insight into both the genre of film noir and the cultural production of the postwar and early Cold War period. Through rich, historically contextualized readings of a range of noir films, Jonathan Auerbach shows how the genre captured the uncanniness of a time of suspicion and paranoia. By illuminating the uncanny figures (the immigrants, the aliens, the strangers) and spaces (national borders and urban zones) that characterize the noir affect, he shows how these films dramatized the national response to the changing terms of citizenship and subjectivity as the anxious fear of the stranger within. oPriscilla Wald, author of Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative

Auerbach evokes the ever-present sense of fear existing in an early Cold War American public through his analysis of these films. Both insightful and unique in its undertaking, this book speaks openly and convincingly to the relationship between political agenda, disenfranchisement and art. -- Laura Crawford Media International Australia This terrific book offers fresh insight into both the genre of film noir and the cultural production of the postwar and early Cold War period. Through rich, historically contextualized readings of a range of noir films, Jonathan Auerbach shows how the genre captured the uncanniness of a time of suspicion and paranoia. By illuminating the uncanny figures (the immigrants, the aliens, the strangers) and spaces (national borders and urban zones) that characterize the noir affect, he shows how these films dramatized the national response to the changing terms of citizenship and subjectivity as the anxious fear of the stranger within. -Priscilla Wald, author of Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative While scholars have long attended to film noir as one of the preeminent genres of U.S. cinema, they ironically have rarely studied it in terms of its specific engagements with national self-identity and self-definition. Deftly employing his strong and reputed background in American studies to far-reaching ends, Jonathan Auerbach shows precisely how film noir was central to the country's self-questioning in the fraught times of the Cold War. This is a groundbreaking study that comes up with trenchant insights about a genre that one might have thought had nothing new to yield to critical inquiry. -Dana Polan, author of Julia Child's The French Chef [A] wholly original, ground-level reconsideration of noir's cultural setting... Auerbach's book augurs ...a theory-to-come of U.S. film that can leam to disable those old tropes and inspire truly fresh lines of aesthetic and political questioning. -- Matt Tierney Film Criticism Auerbach provides unique close readings of a select group of films that assist us in seeing film noir in relation to concerns over citizenship and Cold War paranoia. It provides a valuable starting point from which we can hope future scholarship will further delve into such connections. -- Christopher Robe Journal of American History The book as a whole is exemplary in its analysis of the interrelation between film noir and the social and political history of the 1940s and early 50s. -- Martin Fradley Film Quarterly This insightful study wisely ranges beyond the genre's usual suspects. Recommended. All readers. -- M. Yacowar Choice [I]f you have an abiding interest in film noir ... you will find Dark Borders has a lot to offer. While most books on film noir take a rather broad approach in their examination of the genre, Auerbach chose a core of films to study in order to link the book's overriding theme. By concentrating on a handful of films, he provides a comprehensive insight to each one, and therein lies the strength of the book. -- Phil Stufflebean American Film Noir ]Auerbach's] rigorous and creative readings of these films will prove indispensable for serious students of noir... some of the most exciting moments to be noted in Auerbach's compelling book demonstrate nuanced uses of cultural history to inform his film analysis. Such exciting subjects include Lucky Luciano and the Second World War, Hemingway's annoyance over inefficient government help during the 1935 hurricane, and the emergence of corporate and managerial structures of power and identity. -- Sam B. Girgus American Literature Auerbach offers some significant fresh insights into territory one would have thought to now be fully excavated. -- Tony Williams Screening the Past

Author Information

Jonathan Auerbach is Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the author of Body Shots: Early Cinema’s Incarnations; Male Call: Becoming Jack London, also published by Duke University Press; and The Romance of Failure: First-Person Fictions of Poe, Hawthorne, and James.

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