have passed, it is also interesting to address the presence of this noir style in literature and films of today.
1.7 Research Questions
The research questions I am interested in exploring related to film noir are: 1 To what degree is American film noir an extension of existentialism? 2 How is the spirit of film
noir still expressed in modern American society?
1.8 Methodology
In conducting the research, I will first scrutinize the sentiment of American society during the World War II period by examining various historical texts and noir literary works.
Then I will conduct a background study on American noir and its development. Next, I will observe the prominent American noir literature and screen adaptations of the 1940s. After
that, I will conduct a study of American noir characteristics in pre-determined Cain and Chandler literary works. As significant contributors to noir literature, Dashiell Hammett has
written many works that preceded those of Cain and Chandler and had a great influence on the two writers in the 1930s. Some of his more noteworthy literary works that have a noir
mood include Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, and The Maltese Falcon. From these novels it is possible to examine the thematic continuity of Hammett’s, Cain’s, and Chandler’s works
from the 1930s to the 1940s. As a comparative work, I will also read Patricia’s Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, which is considered a valuable work in the noir tradition with its own
screen adaptation. After these steps have been completed, I will conduct a literary criticism analysis of
existentialism from various perspectives. First, I will explore Schopenhauer’s standpoint on existentialism through his essay On the Vanity of Existence. As a founding existentialist,
Schopenhauer had a great influence on Friedrich Nietzsche. In examining Nietzsche’s existentialism perspective, several of his works will be briefly analyzed. One of these works
is Human, All too Human: A Book for Free Spirits. This book gives an insight into his way of thinking and affinity for Voltaire. This is divided into numerous aphorisms and related to
various aspects of human philosophy. Another work that will be delved into is The Portable Nietzsche, which is a compilation of Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, Nietzsche Contra
Wagner, and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. This compilation contains some of his basic beliefs on existentialism that will be used to analyze several noir literary works and their film versions.
This work is also essential to explore Nietzsche’s rejection of Western thought related to belief in God and overall concept of good and evil. He thinks of the Christian world as being
full of a false piety and infected with a slave morality. This notion can be used in investigating its application to noir literature. The last book of Nietzsche to be explored is On
the Genealogy of Morals. This work deals with the interpretation and history of ethics in relation to violence. This can also be connected with the themes of noir literature. In Hammer
of the Gods: Apocalyptic Texts for the Criminally Insane, Nietzsche discusses his various futuristic and apocalyptic philosophies against society, including the state and the masses.
Although Schopenhauer’s and Nietzsche’s works are written before the advent of noir literature, the basic philosophical concepts can be applied to it. After that, I will analyze
Albert Camus and his perspective of existentialism from two of his prominent stories: The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus. Camus is a significant bridge from Schopenhauer and
Nietzsche, because he shared many of their philosophical positions and was influenced by the American hard-boiled crime stories during the 1930s and 1940s, as Camus lived during the
same period as Cain and Chandler. Therefore, between the traditional existentialists and the modern crime writers, Camus was able to reveal existentialism as found in American society
from the past to the present. Finally, I will report on the spirit of noir still present in modern
American literature, film productions, and pop culture, as well as what the future holds for noir sentiment in the entertainment industry.
1.9 1940s American Sentiment
