Adventure, Mystery, and Romance

In this first general theory for the analysis of popular literary formulas, John G. Cawelti reveals the artistry that underlies the best in formulaic literature. Cawelti discusses such seemingly diverse works as Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Dorothy Sayers's The Nine Tailors, and Owen Wister's The Virginianin the light of his hypotheses about the cultural function of formula literature. He describes the most important artistic characteristics of popular formula stories and the differences between this literature and that commonly labeled "high" or "serious" literature. He also defines the archetypal patterns of adventure, mystery, romance, melodrama, and fantasy, and offers a tentative account of their basis in human psychology.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Design of This Book
The Study of Literary Formulas Formulas, Genres, and Archetypes The Artistic Characteristics of Formula Literature Formulas and Culture
Notes toward a Typology of Literary
Formulas Adventure Romance Mystery
Melodrama Alien Beings or States
The Mythology of Crime and Its Formulaic Embodiments
The Godfatherand the Literature of Crime
Elements of the New Formula
The Cultural Function of Popular Crime Formulas
The Formula of the Classical Detective
Story Patterns of the Formula Cultural
Background of the Formula
The Art of the Classical Detective
Story Central Artistic Problems of the Genre
Artistic Failures and Successes: Christie and Sayers
The Art of Simenon Detective Stories and Detection as an Element in Other
Literary Genres
The Future of the Classical Detective Story
The Hard-Boiled Detective Story Hard-boiled and Classical
Detective Stories Patterns of the Formula
Cultural Backgrounds of the Formula
Hammett, Chandler, and Spillane
The Western: A Look at the Evolution of a Formula Cooper and the Beginnings of the Western
Formula Nick of the Woodsand the
Wister's Virginian and the Modern Western
The Romantic Western of the 1920s
The Classic Western: John Ford and Others
The Jewish Cowboy, the Black Avenger, and the Return of the Vanishing
American: Current Trends in the Formula
The Best-Selling Social Melodrama
The Social Melodrama
The Aesthetics of Social Melodrama
The Evolution of Social Melodrama Irving Wallace
Conclusion
Notes Bibliographical
Notes Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

Adventure, Mystery, and Romance

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials