Abstract
Reddy offers a possible model for teaching crime fiction through an understanding of gender and sexuality as performative, following Judith Butler’s theoretical perspective. Using one course syllabus, the chapter discusses teaching both the traditional hardboiled, such as works by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and its later feminist revisers, such as Sara Paretsky and Paula L. Woods.
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Notes
- 1.
Judith Butler, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” Theatre Journal, 40, no. 4 (1988), 519–531.
- 2.
Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (New York: Random House, 1992), 160.
- 3.
Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1988), 100.
- 4.
Raymond Chandler, “The Simple Art of Murder,” Trouble is My Business (New York: Random House, 1992), vii.
- 5.
See chapter one of Maureen T. Reddy, Traces, Codes, and Clues: Reading Race in Crime Fiction (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003), 6–40, for a more nuanced and detailed argument on this point.
- 6.
See the “Loners and Hardboiled Women” chapter of Maureen T. Reddy, Sisters in Crime: Feminism and the Crime Novel (New York: Continuum, 1988).
- 7.
Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949), trans. Constance Borde (New York: Vintage, 2011), 439.
- 8.
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v “Representation.” Accessed May 6, 2017.
- 9.
Janey Place, “Women in Film Noir,” in Women in Film Noir, ed. E. Ann Kaplan (London: British Film Institute, 1978), 47–68.
- 10.
Jennifer Gonzalez, “The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies,” Cult of Pedagogy, October 15, 2015, http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/.
Works Cited
Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal, 40, no. 4 (1988): 519–531.
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 1988.
———. “The Simple Art of Murder.” In Trouble Is My Business. New York: Random House, 1992.
de Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Trans. Constance Borde. New York: Vintage, 2011.
Gonzalez, Jennifer. “The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies.” Cult of Pedagogy. October 15, 2015. http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/.
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon. New York: Random House, 1992.
Place, Janey. “Women in Film Noir.” In Women in Film Noir, edited by E. Ann Kaplan, 47–68. London: British Film Institute, 1978.
Reddy, Maureen T. Sisters in Crime: Feminism and the Crime Novel. New York: Continuum, 1988.
———. Traces, Codes, and Clues: Reading Race in Crime Fiction. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2003.
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Reddy, M.T. (2018). Teaching Crime Fiction and Gender. In: Beyer, C. (eds) Teaching Crime Fiction. Teaching the New English. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90608-9_4
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