Black novel

Cover Spicy Detective Stories (1935).

The black novel (French: roman noir) or hard-boiled is, as defined by Raymond Chandler in his essay The Simple Art of Killing (1950), the novel of the professional world of crime. It owes its name to the fact that it was originally published in the magazine Black Mask in the United States and in the collection Série Noire of the French publisher Gallimard, but also to the dark nature of the environments in which it takes place, far from the manor houses that were the setting for the typical detective novels of the time. Others prefer the name crime novel.

The term is associated with a type of detective novel in which the resolution of the mystery is not the main objective and the arguments are usually very violent; the division between good and bad of the characters is blurred and most of its protagonists are defeated and decaying individuals in search of the truth or, at least, some glimpse of it.

Features

Cover Detective Book (1949).

The black novel presents a suffocating atmosphere of fear, violence, injustice, insecurity and corruption of political power that reflects the first decades of the 20th century in the United States, when the economic crisis unleashed after the First World War (1914-1918) and the Great Depression of 1929 gives rise to detective stories inspired by the entry into force of the dry law (1920-1933) and the subsequent development of organized crime and gangsterism.

It is originally disseminated through cheap paper, pulp or pulp magazines, in English, to a working class or proletarian audience, so its language is not rich in flourishes, there is genuine concern social, setting, naturalistic, urban descriptions in marginal environments such as the underworld and the suburbs, but also in the apparently most colorful of political and moral corruption.

On the other hand, the development of the action is fast, hectic and frequently violent, not as intellectual and inquisitive as in English detective fiction. Contrary to this one, the crime is returned to the degraded environments where it is committed more frequently and the resolution of the crime is not a primary objective, but rather the non-explicit elucidation of its moral motivation. Both the detective and the criminals often cross the line between good and evil, but the detective is often portrayed as a cynical failed character who narrowly escapes in the end thanks to a rudimentary sense of personal honor.

The motivation or motive of the crimes is always some human weakness: anger, lust for power, envy, hatred, greed, lust, etc. For this reason, crude language appears in the dialogues, often street slang, and more importance is given to the development of the action than to the analysis of the crime, although a naturalistic and sometimes impressionistic description of the scene is also important. society where, rather than being born, criminals are made together with a reflection, almost always not made explicit, of ethical deterioration.

Typology

There are currently four types of thriller:

• Novel of action with the detective as the protagonist.
• Novel from the criminal's point of view.
• Novel from the victim's point of view.
• Novel from the judge's point of view.

Creators of the genre

The parents of the genus are:

• Carroll John Daly, with his detective Race Williams, creator of the main stereotypes of hard boiled gender since 1922 and imitated and perhaps overcome by his followers Hammett and Chandler.
• Dashiell Hammett: Detectives Sam Spade, Nick Charles and the Continental agent. He wrote five novels: Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The curse of the Dain, The thin man and The glass key. His stories, published in the magazine Black Mask in the twenties, they have been collected under the generic title of The Continental Detective. They have also been published in Spanish under the titles Blood money and The big blow. He was the first writer of police novels who took into account the social stratum where the crime was most generated, in the low funds, who knew well for being a private detective of the Pinkerton agency. His style is laconic, impressionist.
• Raymond Chandler: his main detective is Philip Marlowe, taken to the cinema by Bogart and Robert Mitchum, among others. It is the protagonist of The Eternal Dream, Bye, doll., The long goodbye and The sinister window (o) High window), The lady on the lake, Playback and The younger sister (o) Little sister). In his accounts, mostly published in the Tell me Detective MagazineOther detectives, John Dalmas and John Evans, appeared, which, when mixed up, resulted in Philip Marlowe. It is characterized by an ironic and cynical style, of ingenious and acidic phrase.

Associations and awards

• The most important associations are the English Detection Club and the Mystery Writers of America. The Edgar Prize, in all its forms, is considered the most important award in the United States.
• The International Association of Police Writers awards the International Dashiell Hammett Novel Award during the Black Week of Gijón to the best police novel written in Spanish.