Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular CultureIn this first general theory for the analysis of popular literary formulas, John G. Cawelti reveals the artistry that underlies the best in formulaic literature. Cawelti discusses such seemingly diverse works as Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Dorothy Sayers's The Nine Tailors, and Owen Wister's The Virginian in the light of his hypotheses about the cultural function of formula literature. He describes the most important artistic characteristics of popular formula stories and the differences between this literature and that commonly labeled "high" or "serious" literature. He also defines the archetypal patterns of adventure, mystery, romance, melodrama, and fantasy, and offers a tentative account of their basis in human psychology. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 5 | |
2 Notes toward a Typology of Literary Formulas | 37 |
3 The Mythology of Crime and Its Formulaic Embodiments | 51 |
4 The Formula of the Classical Detective Story | 80 |
5 The Art of the Classical Detective Story | 106 |
6 The HardBoiled Detective Story | 139 |
7 Hammett Chandler and Spillane | 162 |
Other editions - View all
Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture John G. Cawelti No preview available - 1976 |
Common terms and phrases
action adventure Agatha Christie ambiguous American archetypal artistic attitudes audience basic become best-seller Chandler characters Christie classical detective formula classical detective story complex conflict confrontation contemporary conventional Cooper corruption crime criminal Dashiell Hammett detective's developed dime novel Dorothy Sayers dramatic effective embodied evil feelings fiction film formulaic literature gangster genre Godfather Grey and Hart Hammett hard-boiled detective hard-boiled detective story hard-boiled story Harold Robbins hero heroine Ibid important individual interest investigation involved Irving Wallace kind Leatherstocking literary major Maltese Falcon Marlowe melodramatist Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer moral fantasy murder mystery mystification myth narrative Natty nineteenth nineteenth-century novel pattern Philip Marlowe plot protagonist psychological Purloined Letter Raymond Chandler reader Red Harvest role romance seems sense sexual significance social melodrama society Spillane Spillane's structure success symbols tension theme traditional twentieth century University villain violence Virginian vision West western formula Wister writers York Zane Grey