Class, Masculinity, Crime: Sociology of Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction

계급, 남성성, 범죄 -하드보일드 추리소설의 사회학

This paper argues that the hard-boiled detective fiction is not a commercialized imitation of the classical detective novels but a revisionist detective fiction. Producing a radically different type of detectives from the traditional ones, the hard-boiled detective fiction provides a new, opposing paradigm of criminality, class, and masculinity to the classical detective fiction. Classical detective novels, through the heroic portrayal of high-class detectives capturing and punishing lower-class criminals, reassure class hierarchy. Hard-boiled detective novels, however, representing the ruling classes as the root of social oppression and political corruption, define the power elite as criminals. Whereas the classical detective fiction displays aristocratic masculinity, the hard-boiled detective fiction embodies working-class masculinity. The classical detective is generally represented as a genteel dilettante solving the mysteries of crimes, in his leisure time, through logical reasoning and scientific techniques. The hard-boiled detective, however, solves crimes by using violence and earns his living from catching criminals. The hard-boiled detective also maintains an absolute independence by keeping a distance from all forms of authority and connection. The representation of hard-boiled detective as a tough, rebellious, independent guy can be interpreted as a reaction to the advent of corporate capitalism and the rise of labor control in the 1920s.