Throughout this semester, we have been asked to form our own definition of noir. Now, as we near about two-thirds of the semester, we have come a long way since the once-empty information bank on the noir genre. However, I personally still feel as though I struggle to be able to actually define noir. I could list numerous characteristics and themes commonly found in noir, but I believe these fall short of establishing a full, all-encompassing definition. I feel as though I am failing to identify a foundational aspect of the genre that would bring all of these themes together into one distinguished category.
The theme that is most often referred to and seems to get closest to defining the genre is the descent into darkness. In every book we have read thus far, a character is pushed to the margins and forced to exist in the darkness of a marginalized society. We read about all different character experiences with the same dark outlook. In If He Hollers, Let Him Go, Bob begins in the darkness and experiences a deeper descent into the depths when he struggles with the paranoia of finding his manhood as a black man. He has a bleak outlook on life and falls victim to the gaslighting of society causing him to lose his ability to distinguish what is reality and what is just the chaos of his mind. Bob wants to be a man more than anything, but never finds the light because of his conviction that black men cannot escape their own doom. Similarly, Hugh, in The Expendable Man, comes to terms with his own racial limitations when he accused of murder and/or an illegal abortion because he was seen with a young white girl. Hugh’s descent into darkness was slightly different because he came from a higher class family and was privileged to receive more societal respect. However, his darkness prevailed when his class was trumped by race. Both of these experiences and those of all the other characters we have read about brought me as a reader into a darkness of topics that are rarely discussed. These ideas on the margins are largely what I think makes noir, noir.
While the descent into darkness and the play between the light and dark is a dominating feature of noir, to say that it defines the genre, I believe, would be too limiting. Themes like masculinity versus femininity, nostalgia, foreigners, time and space, construction and fetishizing of the other, and many more all major contributors to the books we have read and the construction of the plot. I could also be misunderstanding noir. It is possible that noir is defined by the interaction of light and dark and all the other themes I listed are just the implication of the interaction. This could be supported by Bob’s story because his struggle to find his masculinity does come from his insecurity about race. Bob believes that he will never be a man the way a white man is. However, I see Sam Spade’s masculinity in The Maltese Falcon as a more prominent theme above his descent into darkness. Regardless, I just feel like I am missing or not fully understanding some piece of noir that would be the clarification I need to confidently define what noir is.