LibGuides: Film Noir: Books on Film Noir

General Books

Street With No Name: A History of the Classic American Film Noir by Andrew Dickos
Call Number: 791.43655 D561s
ISBN: 0813122430
This book traces the film noir genre back to its roots in German Expressionist cinema and the French cinema of the interwar years. The author describes the development of the film noir in America from 1941 through the 1970s and examines how this development expresses a modern cinema.
Hollywood’s dark cinema : the American film noir by R. Barton Palmer.
Call Number: 791.43655 P182H
ISBN: 0805793356
This book traces the beginning of film noir in the context of industry aims, target audiences, censorship, and the role Hollywood played in American society. The author also includes a review of the genre's identifiable elements of character, plot, and setting.

Academic monographs on film noir. You can use these books as "seed documents" mining bibliographies, citations, and footnotes to get your research going in the right direction.

More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts. by James Naremore
Call Number: 791.43655 N167m
ISBN: 0520212940
This work of cultural history provides production information and commentary on films from the classic film noir period up through more recent neo-noir. Author takes an interdisciplinary approach, including observations about television, literature, and fine art, in his discussion.
Voices in the Dark: The Narrative Patterns of Film Noir by J.P. Telotte
Call Number: 791.436 T239V
ISBN: 0252060563
Situates the noir within its historical context, focusing on postwar disillusionment, cold war anxieties, and changing social circumstances. The author also discusses the amount of narrative experimentation in noir films.
Film Noir by Andrew Spicer
Call Number: 791.43655 Sp41f
ISBN: 0582437121
Explores cinematic and technical aspects of nior.
Jazz Noir: Listening to Music from Phantom Lady to The Last Seduction. by David Butler
Call Number: 791.43657 B976j
ISBN: 0275973018
Explores the jazz featured as music in noir.

Femmes Fatals and Fast Talking Dames

Fast-talking dames by Maria DiBattista

Call Number: 791.43652042 D544f

ISBN: 0300088159

Although not specifically about film noir, DiSattista explores new innovations in the English language in the films of the 1940-50s, particularly focusing on female characters.

Women in film noir by E. Ann Kaplan

Call Number: 791.43 K142w1998

ISBN: 0851706657

Collection of feminist essays about film noir.
Dark city dames : the wicked women of film noir by Eddie Muller

Call Number: 791.43028082 M912d

ISBN: 0060393696

This book profiles six actresses--Jane Greer, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Savage, Coleen Gray, Audrey Totter, and Marie Windsor--who starred in many of the classic film noirs of the 1940s and 1950s. The author combines interviews with his subjects and an astute analysis of the social, political, and economic pressures of Hollywood and the film industry.
Noir Anxiety by Kelly Oliver

Call Number: 791.43655 Ol45n

ISBN: 0816641102

This academic work applies feminist and postcolonial psychoanalytic theory to traditional noir films, as well as some neo-noir films from the past three decades. The book focuses on anxiety about ambiguous sexual, racial, and national identities of the characters.

Gender Performance in Film Noir

The street was mine : white masculinity in hardboiled fiction and film noir by Megan E. Abbott

Call Number: 813.09 Ab28s

ISBN: 0312294816

This book analyzes the recurrent figure of the “tough guy” in American literature and film.
In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity by Frank Krutnik

Call Number: 791.43655 K947I

ISBN: 041502630X

This study argues for a reconsideration of the genre of film noir, focusing on the complex representation of masculinity in the "tough" thriller, and where and how gender interlocks with questions of genre.

Anthologies

Shades of noir : a reader by Joan Copjec
Call Number: 791.43655 SH12
ISBN: 0860914607
Collection of academic essays examines films from the classic film noir era, as well as more recent pictures with film noir elements.
Film noir reader by Alain Silver and James Ursini
Call Number: 791.436556 F487
ISBN: 0879101970
The first in a series of collected essays on film noir

Collections of academic essays on film noir. Includes the Film Noir Reader series. You can use these essays as "seed documents" mining their citations and bibliographies or as an introduction to different perspectives around the subject.

Film noir reader 2 by Alain Silver & James Ursini
Call Number: 791.436556 F4871999
ISBN: 0879102802
Second in a series of collected essays on film noir.
Film noir reader 3 : interviews with filmmakers of the classic noir period
Perspectives on film noir by R. Barton Palmer
Call Number: 791.43655 P432
ISBN: 0816116016
Collection of critical essays on classic and neo noir films. Contains English translations of important French essays on noir.
Noir Reader Three: Interviews with Filmmakers by Robert Porfirio, Alain Silver & James Ursini.
Call Number: For library holdings, ask at the Reference or Circulation Desks
ISBN: 0879101970
The third in a series. This collection contains Interviews with directions and cinematographers of classic noir films.
Film Noir Reader Four: by Alain Silver and James Ursini.
Call Number: 791.436556 F4872004
ISBN: 0879103051
Published in 2004, editors Silver and Ursini's most recent collection of academic essays on noir from around the globe.
Film theory and criticism : introductory readings by Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen
Call Number: 791.43 M39f2009
ISBN: 0195365623
Critical essays on theory and criticism of film. Not particularly about film noir, but a good introduction to film theory.