Hardboiled fiction is a literary genre sharing some of its characters and settings with crime fiction, whose typical protagonist is a detective battling the violence of organized crime that flourished during Prohibition in the United States from 1920 to 1933 and its aftermath, while contending with a legal system grown as corrupt as the crime it prosecutes. Rendered cynical by this cycle of violence, hardboiled detectives are often antiheroes, a lineage that includes Dick Tracy, Philip Marlowe, Nick Charles, Mike Hammer, Sam Spade, Lew Archer, Slam Bradley, Dan Turner and the Continental Op.
Facts
Place of OriginUnited States, where the style flourished during and after Prohibition, 1920 to 1933. 1 Notable ExampleDashiell Hammett, who popularized the style over the course of the 1920s after Carroll John Daly pioneered it. 1 Defining TraitA cynical antihero detective who battles the violence of organized crime while contending with a legal system grown as corrupt as the crime it prosecutes. 1 Connections
Associated With
Form Of Genre
Sources
1. Hardboiled (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence of organized crime that flourished during Prohibition in the United States (1920-1933) and its aftermath, while dealing with a legal system that has become as corrupt as the organized crime itself.
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