Conference: Noire is the new Noir

"Noire is the new noir: the Série Noire and the Franco-American detective traditions"

Plenary speakers: Aurélien Masson, director, Gallimard Série Noire; Dominique Jeannerod (Queens University Belfast)

Distinguished guest: Dominique Manotti, novelist

In 2015, the Série Noire, Gallimard’s iconic crime fiction imprint celebrated its 70th birthday. Throughout its history, the collection has published cult and classic texts from authors as diverse as Raymond Chandler and Chester Himes to Jean-Patrick Manchette and Thierry Jonquet in its distinctive yellow and black covers. Some of its writers were destined for mainstream and literary recognition outside the world of detective fiction, others, such as James Hadley Chase, James Gunn and Jean Amila were to remain appreciated only by a narrow, but voracious band of crime aficionados.

Best known for its compelling depictions of detectives striving to close cases in murky and ambiguous moral milieux, the novels of the Série Noire also maintain a consistent dialogue – both explicit and implicit – between France and the USA. While the early years of the collection post World War II saw pro-American feeling manifest through the popularity of US writers, the Série Noire gradually became more critical of American culture, politics and society as time progressed through 1968 and towards a contemporary networked and late capitalist world of American hegemony. If, as Dennis Porter argues, the figure of Chandler’s Philip Marlowe brandishing a Colt Detective pistol is quintessentially American, what are the implications when the image is doubled in a French setting by Manchette’s Martin Terrier? What does it mean when French language detective fiction is translated and filmed by Hollywood?

This one-day conference at the American University of Paris (AUP) will consider how the Série Noire reflects the dynamics of the relationship between France and the USA. It will explore how the novels of the Série Noire can be understood as a prism through which the social, political and cultural links between the two nations can be better understood. 

This conference is jointly organised by the AUP departments of Comparative Literature and English and Film Studies. For further information, please contact Russell Williams (rwilliamsaup.edu). 

To look at the full conference program, click here.