Research Guides: HC 301H Literary &amp; Cinematic Noir: Background information

Background Information

Use these sources to find background and overviews about Hollywood, the studio system, and the film industry in general.

AFI Catalog
Profiles of every American film from 1893 to 1975, with full or short records for films from 1976 to Present. Most records include extensive plot summaries, production histories, and bibliographies of primary sources.

Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics This link opens in a new window
Scholarly overviews of authors, movements, genres, periods, and national literatures.

Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film
Call Number: eBook
This reference provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to film and film studies, covering such aspects as production, national traditions, studios, genres, critical theory and film history.

The UO Libraries has a number of books about film noir and and noir fiction. Some examples are below.

America Is Elsewhere: The Noir Tradition in the Age of Consumer Culture
Call Number: eBook
Examines hard-boiled crime fiction and the film noir tradition within related postwar contexts, including the rise of consumerism, changing notions of masculinity.
Creatures of Darkness: Raymond Chandler, Detective Fiction, and Film Noir
Call Number: eBook
The literary vision of Raymond Chandler comes into sharp focus in this analysis of the books and films that introduced noir to the American consciousness.
Film Noir
Call Number: eBook
Film Noir provides a useful overview of the genre's historical evolution and the many critical debates over its stylistic elements.
Neo-Noir
Call Number: eBook
This wide-ranging collection maps out the terrain of neo-noir, combining genre, stylistic and textual analysis with Marxist, feminist, psychoanalytic and industrial approaches.