1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452146003321

Titolo

The philosophy of TV noir / / edited by Steven M. Sanders and Aeon J. Skoble ; contributors, Jerold J. Abrams [and fifteen others]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Lexington, Kentucky : , : The University Press of Kentucky, , 2008

©2008

ISBN

0-8131-5678-5

0-8131-7262-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (284 p.)

Collana

Philosophy of Popular Culture

Disciplina

791.45/61

Soggetti

Detective and mystery television programs - United States - History and criticism

Fantasy television programs - United States - History and criticism

Film noir - United States - History and criticism

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes index.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half-title ; Title; Copyright; Contents; Preface and Acknowledgments; An Introduction to the Philosophy of TV Noir; From Film Noir to TV Noir; The Through-Line of Film Noir; Realism and Relativism; An Unreasoning Annihilation; Alienation and Moral Ambiguity; Sunshine Noir; Existentialism, Crisis, and Revolt; Nihilism, Noir, and The Sopranos; Postmodernism and Crime Story; Paranoia, Detection, and Crime Scene Investigation; Espionage, Science Fiction, and Realism; The Ambiguous Perspective on Life; Notes; Part 1: Realism, Relativism, and Moral Ambiguity

Dragnet, Film Noir, and Postwar Realism Realism and Documentary in the Film Noir; He Walked by Night; Dragnet: A Different Kind of Realism; ""The Story You Are about to See Is True""; Notes; Naked City: The Relativist Turn in TV Noir; The Relativist Turn; Relativism of Morality and Normality; Cultural Relativism; Problems with Cultural Relativism; Individual Relativism; Notes; John Drake in Greeneland: Noir Themes in Secret Agent; Why Drake Is Not Bond; The Influence of Graham Greene; Noir Themes in Secret Agent; Notes; Action and



Integrity in The Fugitive; Duty and Motivation

Angels Travel on Lonely Roads The White Knight; Never Stop Running; Notes; Part 2: Existentialism, Nihilism, and the Meaning of Life; Noir et Blanc in Color: Existentialism and Miami Vice; Amphetamine Theatre; Points on a Compass of Cultural Reference; Life Lessons and Death Sentences; Existential Errors; Miami Masquerade; An ""I"" Exam Is Existential; Two Existentialist Approaches; Out of Whose Past?; New Hope for the Living; Notes; 24 and the Existential Man of Revolt; 24 and Noir; Jack Bauer: Noir Protagonist; Camus' ""Man of Revolt""; Jack Bauer: Existential Hero; Notes

Carnivale Knowledge: Give Me That Old-time Noir Religion Carnivale and Religious Film Noir; Graham Greene's Whiskey Priest; Brother Justin's ""Fear and Trembling""; Notes; The Sopranos, Film Noir, and Nihilism; Nihilism and Film Noir; God and Gary Cooper Are Dead; ""It's All a Big Nothing""; Animals and Animosity; The Sad Clown; Notes; Part 3: Crime Scene Investigation and the Logic of Detection; CSI and the Art of Forensic Detection; The Corrupt City and CSI Storylines; CSI as Procedural Noir; The Investigative Team; Case Studies; Notes; Detection and the Logic of Abduction in The X-Files

Alien NoirThe X-Files Mythology; Mulder and Scully as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson; Mulder and Scully as Noir Detectives; Mulder and Scully and Clifford and James; The Logic of Abduction-the Other ""Abduction""; Detective Semiotics and the ""Absence Sign""; Mulder Thinks Outside the Paradigm; Return to the ""Will to Believe""; Scully and Mulder as One Mind; Notes; Part 4: Autonomy, Selfhood, and Interpretation; Kingdom of Darkness: Autonomy and Conspiracy in The X-Files and Millennium; Mr. (and Ms.) Noir; G-Men; ""Trust No One""; The Carceral Archipelago and the Panoptical Regime; Fugitives

Coda: A Noir World Order

Sommario/riassunto

The influence of classic film noir on the style and substance of television in the 1950's and 1960's has persisted to the present day. Its pervasiveness suggests the vitality of the noir depiction of human experience and the importance of TV for transmitting the legacy of film noir and producing new forms of noir. Noir television is also noteworthy for its capacity to raise philosophical questions about the nature of the human condition. Drawing from the fields of philosophy, media studies, and literature, the contributors to  The Philosophy of TV Noir illuminate the best of noir television, inc