The
European Roman Noir:
An Ill-Defined Genre
Fernando
Martínez Lainez
Trans.
Claire Gorrara - more info -
The
tendency to set out virtual borders and symbolic reference points
in order to create separate categories in the
literary field is probably
due to an understandable need to orientate the reader. However,
it also carries the risk of giving too much weight to conventions,
of
creating clichés (the great political and cultural deceit
of our times) and of making secondary commentary a utilitarian
reference point that does away with a direct and personalized reading
of the
authors that are included in a circumscribed group or school.
‘The internal logic of the evolution of Culture’ said
Vásquez Montalbán when talking of ‘isms’,
is not always strictly linear and undergoes interruptions, interconnections,
and social and historical influences’. If this is the case
for ‘isms’, the same could also be said for the concept
of the ‘European roman noir’ which has begun to create
a stir in the small Spanish community interested in this phenomenon.
We could take as our starting point the fact that
the roman noir is a North-American literary invention, a descendant
in many ways
of the ‘lost generation’ that marked, along with Joyce
and Kafka, the renewal of the novel in the twentieth century. Dos
Passos, Steinbeck, Hemingway, and to a certain extent Faulkner, opened
the way for a new behaviourist style, with an external focalisation,
that gave great importance to characters and dialogue and revolutionised
the use of language with precise descriptions that were shorn to
the essential. With this too, came a more flexible approach to syntax,
a realistic and critically informed way of posing problems, all of
which was not without parodic elements. The slippage of this new
type of novel towards the more populist crime novel, aided by the
cinema and ‘pulp fiction’, resulted in the roman
noir,
a form of writing that was immediately categorised as a minor genre
in the States and was only accorded a literary status in France thanks
to Gallimard’s Série noire.
It was in Europe that Himes, Chandler, Hammett, Cain and McCoy and
their like were rightly recognised as great authors. In truth, it
could be said that, although born of the American Depression, the
fact that we consider the roman noir to be a serious genre is a European
invention.
The Cultural Base
After
the break of the Second World War, the cultural heritage of the roman
noir, at first excessively imitative, produced magnificent
variations in Europe that, in many cases, surpassed the originals.
Authors like Simenon, Dürrenmatt, Auguste Le Breton, José Giovanni,
Sjöwall and Walhöö or Leonardo Sciascia rose head
and shoulders above the influx of American authors in the 1950s and
1960, due as much to the dramatic tone of their writing as to the
careful use of a style and language that, whilst not departing from
the great canon of noir writing, highlighted a different tradition
and inflection, in line with the context and unique character of
the criminal world in Europe. By applying the structures used in
the American mystery novel, they engaged in a debate about the possibility
of using the noir genre as a tool of investigation, a means of understanding
social change thereby, at least partially, going beyond the inadequacies
and failings of critical realism and a Marxist style of literary
sociologism that was in vogue in Europe until the end of the 1960s.
At this point, the events of May 68 fatally wounded the ideological
orthodoxy used by the Communist parties in thrall to the Soviet Union.
For the vast majority of European authors cited,
the cultural base is very important, a base that, in many cases,
is rooted in the Enlightenment
and the classic authors of the nineteenth century, such as Balzac
and Dostoievsky. From such origins can be traced the outline of a
roman noir able to establish a narrative model that describes the
chaos of a society crushed by the close relationship between politics
and crime, capitalist hyper-competitiveness (drawing on the legacy
of North-American capitalism), the all-consuming power of money to
degrade social relations, moral hypocrisy, and the manoeuvrings that
make the justice system the power house for alienating laws, a Leviathan
eating up everyone’s money but only benefiting those who know
how to control its workings.
Shifting the main features of the roman
noir to a
European context often translates into a different approach to
characterisation when
compared with the American model. In Europe, characters are less
individualistically drawn and are more closely connected to social
and philosophical positions. The influence of movements such as existentialism
or the theatre of the Absurd is notable and there is a greater emphasis
on political factors as a sign of collective identity. Also, more
verbal violence and sexual references are often found. ‘And
the criminal act is a mirror for examining society’ (Mankell).
You could say that the European roman noir adopts a more campaigning
spirit and is quicker to engage in social debate. It does not seem
to limit itself to the mere description of criminal events, as is
almost always the case in the States, and is resolutely focused on
influencing the mind of the reader or alluding to the thoughts and
opinions of the author. ‘Whatever I write’ says Mankell,
I want to make clear my views on what is happening in the world because
they are many things that horrify me’.
The great dangers in Europe as in the USA are seeing
things in black and white and stereotypes, both of which point
to a lack of imagination
and, when they are repeatedly used, dull the appetite of the reader
and destroy the potential vitality of the genre. Another danger is
the stupid assumption that a roman noir should be read in one sitting
as if reading were like following a horse race or the Olympic final
of the 100 meters. With the sole aim of reeling in the reader, the
roman noir often neglects other essential elements like the careful
use of style and language, a well honed plot line, structural coherence
and character development. When looked at like this, it is the time
to call to mind the reply of Juan Carlos Onetti who, during an interview,
when he was asked what crime fiction lacked in order to make it truly
artistic said: ‘It lacks nothing, but is too concerned with
keeping the reader hooked’.
Three
Trends
In
terms of the European roman noir, three main trends can be identified,
with the necessary caveats that this type of classification
implies as crossovers and overlaps are fairly common and there
is
no clear
separation between them.
Firstly, there is, what could be called, the novel
of Southern Europe or the Mediterranean which would include
authors like Jean Claude
Izzo, Thierry Jonquet, Jean François Vilar, Didier Daeninckx,
Yasmina Khadra, Andreu Martìn, Juan Madrid, Andrea Camilleri,
or Petros Markaris (the last two highly influenced by the late Váquez
Montalbán).
A
key feature of this school can be found in the disillusionment felt
as a result of the collapse of an ideology
very much linked
to the communist parties of Europe and the fact that many of these
authors were once militants, meaning that their works resonate with
a kind of political nostalgia. Other recurrent features of this school
include their social and realist base, and the close attention paid
to cooking ingredients as a means of revealing cultural traditions
(also influenced by Montalbán) ‘Whilst we, from the
Mediterranean, were used to seeing sleeves rolled up when the women
were in the kitchen, the northern feminists have done away with cooking… which
we will soon do ourselves’ (Markaris)
The second trend for the European roman
noir could
be termed ‘Northern-Slavic’ and
group together authors like Henning Mankell, Tim Krabbé, John
Connolly, Nicholas Freeling, Van de Wetering, Milos Urban, Boris
Akounine, Alexandra Marinina, Kjell Ola Dahl. Drawing on important
reference points, such as Simenon and Friedrich Dürrenmatt,
this group is characterised by a serious and methodical style of
writing and a greater interest in questions of suspense and introspection,
often using fantastical elements and a gothic atmosphere.
A third trend is that in Great
Britain, still very attached to the
mystery novel, to shady intrigues and to the thriller with a number
of world-class authors: Ian Rankin, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Denis
Mina, Phillip Kerr, Val McDermid or William McIllvanney.
In
conclusion, let’s say that, in Europe, we are used to considering
the roman noir as an excellent tool for investigating social change,
as a literary and political means of highlighting new trends in organized
crime, corruption, and socio-political break down which, day after
day, pop up in the media, in all sectors of activity and on the street.
It is in these terms that belief in the genre as a kind of disgusted
commentary on society seems unshakeable. ‘There is no better
way’ says Val McDermid, ‘of shining a light on society
than to resort to the roman noir. Every society reaps the whirlwind
of its crimes it deserves and, in this respect, we decide our own
destiny’.
However,
there is no literary identity for European noir, founded on clear
and sure characteristics that broker no
discussion. It would
be difficult to have one for the simple reason that Europe is not
a single entity, either politically, culturally or linguistically,
and makes no serious effort to be so. For the moment, Europe lacks
a core identity and, in spite of appearances, the end result is always
more or less the same – a conglomeration of different countries
with distinct interests. Of course, this is also the case for the
roman noir.
This
text was first published in the Spanish journal Quimera in
its July issue. We would like to thank warmly the writer
Fernando Martínez Lainez for giving us permission
to reproduce it here. Claude
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