Art & Culture
THE NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES. FROM GOTHIC TO FILM NOIR 10/8/2016 al 14/9/2016
The aforementioned course, by Maria Negroni, had its axis set on the Gothic novel, born in the 18th century England, with the purpose of showing how its influence persists in European, Latin American and American literature and art. Through audiovisual material and film, the course showed how the most conspicuous topics of the Gothic novel -the black dwelling, urban phantasmagorias, the predilection for ruin and night, the conception of the artist as an orphan, the vampire and the criminal, and the endless opus nigrum of creation- reappear with subtle changes both in the American "crime novel" of the 1950s as well as in the cinema that derived from it: the film noir. Parallels and links were established between the urban underworld of crime and prostitution, alcohol and loneliness, the culture of cars and war, the realm of femme fatales and detectives and where the "policeman" manages to unmask the true face of the "American dream", with its hypocritical Protestant morality and its individualistic and efficient nightmare.
LECTURER
María Negroni has a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from Columbia University, New York. She has published numerous books, including El viaje de la noche (Lumen), Arte y Fuga (Pre-Textos), Buenos Aires Tour (Turner), Elegía Joseph Cornell (Caja Negra), Interludio in Berlin (Pre-Textos), Museo Negro (Grupo Editorial Norma), Galería Fantástica (Siglo XXI), Pequeño Mundo Ilustrado (Caja Negra), Cartas Extraordinarias (Alfaguara), La noche tiene mil ojos (Caja Negra), El arte del error (Vaso Roto), El sueño de Úrsula (Seix-Barral) and La Anunciación (Seix-Barral).
She has translated Louise Labé, Valentine Penrose, Georges Bataille, H.D., Charles Simic, Bernard Noël and Emily Dickinson. She has been awarded with numerous recognitions such as Guggenheim, PEN American Club New York, Octavio Paz Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, Civitella Ranieri, XXI Century International Essay Prizes, and the Konex Platino in Poetry (2014). Her work has been translated into English, French, Italian and Swedish. She currently directs the Master in Creative Writing at the National University of Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires.
COURSE PROGRAM
- Introduction. I. The crime scene. The black purple. Edgar Allan Poe: The Fall of the House of Usher. Horace Walpole: The Castle of Otranto. The cursed city of Metropolis. II. Orphans, vampires, doubles, collectors. Bram Stoker: Dracula. Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Robert L. Stevenson: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
- III. Childhood and creation. Gaston Leroux: The Phantom of the Opera. Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray. Henry James: The turn of the screw. IV. Opus nigrum. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein. The Golem. Aliens. Sheridan Le Fanu: Carmilla. Alejandra Pizarnik: The bloody countess.
- Origin and aesthetics of the crime novel and film noir. Historical and social context. The influence of German expressionism. The genre’s recurring topics. The characters: the night, the detective, the femme fatale and the city's underworld.
- Raymond Chandler. Goodbye Doll (Edward Dmytrik, Murder, My Sweet, 1944 with Dick Powell and Claire Trevor). Dashiell Hammett. The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, The Maltese Falcon, 1941 with Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor)
- James M.Cain. Blood Pact (Billy Wilder, screenplay by Raymond Chandler, Double Indemnity, 1944 with Fred Mac Murray, Barbara Stanwick and Edward G. Robinson)
- James M. Cain. The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1934, with Lana Turner and John Garfield). Tentative conclusions. Persistence of the crime novel and the film noir in literature and cinema.
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