Nature as Noir
Kem Nunn’s California, “Where the Sewage Meets the Sea”
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8862444 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dana Phillips (Towson University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 412-425 |
| Publication date | 2018-05-19 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | English Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-838X • E-ISSN: 1744-4217 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0013838x.2018.1464778 |
| OpenAlex | W2810057638 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
This essay questions what relevance the genre of noir might play in the representation of today’s degraded environments. I argue that Nunn’s novels offer readers an important and startling alternative model of California to that suggested by the mythology of the Golden State—an idyllic paradise that provides its inhabitants with daily doses of sunshine, ocean breezes and avocado. In Nunn’s surf novels, California is a violent and unpleasant space, in which even the most isolated and exurban natural environments are fallen worlds marred by unlimited development. I argue that noir—a genre that has not yet played a large role in ecocritical analysis—is a useful lens with which to read Nunn’s storyworlds. I also read Nunn’s noir novels refractively, exploring the new directions they suggest that this classic genre may take in its representation of today’s “dark” nature
Archaeology · Art · Art history · Literature · Mythology · Natural (archaeology · Paradise · Political science · Politics · Relevance (law · Representation (politics · Crime and Detective Fiction Studies · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Modern American Literature Studies · History · Law
| Highly cited | No |
|---|