Noir fiction, or roman noir, is a subgenre of crime fiction whose name comes from the French word for black, denoting a marked darkness in theme and subject matter, generally featuring a disturbing mixture of sex and violence. Its protagonists are typically victims, suspects or perpetrators, often self-destructive, forced to deal with a corrupt legal, political or other system through which they are victimized, victimize others, or both, in a lose-lose situation. Noir fiction is related to and frequently confused with hardboiled detective fiction, in part because hardboiled stories were regularly adapted in the film noir style, but the two are not the same, even though both are typically set against a backdrop of systemic and institutional corruption.
Facts
Place of OriginFrance, where the Paris-based publisher Gallimard first used the word noir in 1945 as the title of its Serie Noire crime-fiction imprint. 1 Notable ExampleCornell Woolrich's The Bride Wore Black (1940), the novel that began the noir tradition and was later adapted for film. 1 Defining TraitA protagonist who is a victim, suspect or perpetrator, often self-destructive, forced to deal with a corrupt legal or political system in a lose-lose situation. 1 FAQs
Did the word noir come from books or from film?
Both began in France: a publisher's crime imprint in 1945 and the term film noir in 1946.
Both uses began in France. The Paris-based publisher Gallimard used the word noir in 1945 as the title of its Série Noire crime fiction imprint. In the English-speaking world the term originated as a cinematic one, film noir, which first appeared in France in 1946 but did not enjoy wide use until the 1970s. Film noir refers to cinematic works based on novels of both the hardboiled and noir traditions.
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Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Noir Fiction (Wikipedia)tier 2
Sources
1. Noir Fiction (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationOrigins and later proponents section
Beginning with 1940's The Bride Wore Black, author Cornell Woolrich wrote a series of six unrelated noir novels with "black" in the title, three of which were adapted for film in the 1940s.
In Group: Detective and Crime Fiction Subgenres, Lead paragraph
is a genre of crime fiction marked by darkness in theme and subject matter
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