“A Jaguar is an Awful Cat”. Animals and Animal Metaphors in James M. Cain’s Novels

Giulio Segato

doi:10.7358/ling-2017-002-sega

“A Jaguar is an Awful Cat”. Animals and Animal Metaphors in James M. Cain’s Novels

Giulio Segato

Abstract

James M. Cain is often linked with hard-boiled writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Actually, he wrote a different kind of novels, where there are no ‘private eye’ detectives and very few murders. Robert Polito describes them as Noir Novels, using a term normally associated with the famous Hollywood genre, because of their particular emphasis on psyche and drama issues – distinctive elements of the Film Noir Era.

Keywords

JAMES CAIN – NOIR NOVEL – ANIMALS – AMERICAN NOIR – THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RING TWICE – SERENADE – MILDRED PIERCE – ANIMAL METAPHOR – VIOLENCE – AMERICAN ROMAN NOIR

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References

Cain, James M. 2010. Serenade. London: Orion

Cain, James M. 2003. The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and Selected Stories. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Forter, Gregory. 1996. “Double Cain”. NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, 29 (3): 277-298.

Hoopes, Roy. 1982. Cain. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Madden, David, and Kristopher Mecholsky. 2011. James M. Cain: Hard-Boiled Mythmaker. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.

Marling, William. 1995. The American Roman Noir. Hammet, Cain, and Chandler. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

O’Brien, Geoffrey. 1997. Hardboiled America. Lurid Paperbacks and the Masters of Noir. New York: Da Capo Press.

Polito, Robert. 2003. Introduction to The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and Selected Stories by James M. Cain. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Rzepka, Charles J. 2005. Detective Fiction. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Linguæ & - Rivista di lingue e culture moderne
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