It didn't mean anything
Subtitle: a psychoanalytic reading of American detective fiction
By: Alexander N. Howe.
Publisher: McFarland & Co.
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Jefferson, N.C
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
ISBN-13: 9780786434541
Subjects: Detective and mystery stories, American -- History and criticism; Psychoanalysis and literature -- United States; American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism; American literature -- Psychological aspects
Description: "This critical study of American detective fiction examines the history and development of the detective genre through the lens of psychoanalysis. Applying the ideas of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, the author identifies and categorizes popular works according to the fictional protagonist's hysteria, obsessive neurosis, perversion, or psychosis"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : reading the detective and the analyst encore; title: The classical detective : truth, knowledge, and the imbecility of the master; title: "Protective thinking" : obsessional neurosis, analysis and the hard-boiled detective; title: Hysteria, paranoia, and love in Philip K. Dick's anti-detective fiction; title: Remembering, repeating, and working through : traumatic narrative in the hard-boiled fiction of Marcia Muller.