Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema

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Elyce Rae Helford (Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University) Christopher Weedman (Assistant Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University.)

Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema

Name: Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema
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ISBN: 9781474498159

Elyce Rae Helford (Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University), Christopher Weedman (Assistant Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University.)

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English

Edinburgh University Press
01 February 2026

Films, movies & cinema; Film theory & criticism; Individual film directors, film-makers; Film & movie: styles & genres

Series: Traditions in World Cinema

While few can deny its incalculable influence on popular filmmaking during and after World War II, film noir has been and remains one of the most contentious categories of cinema, involving more debates than consensus about what constitutes a noir. This collection explores the amorphous parameters of this dark cinematic phenomenon by utilising an expanded, nuanced definition of film noir, which reaches beyond traditional conceptions of genre, style, and cycle to examine its complex international origins and emphasis on issues of liminality. Through illuminating case studies of single films from nations including Argentina, the former Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, Poland, Spain, and the US, authors consider elements of genre hybridity, border crossing, boundary breaching, and other signifiers of liminality to reassess classical-era films that defy conventional generic and stylistic categorisation.

Edited by: Elyce Rae Helford (Professor of English Middle Tennessee State University), Christopher Weedman (Assistant Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University.)
Imprint: Edinburgh University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781474498159
ISBN 10: 1474498159
Series: Traditions in World Cinema
Pages: 232
Publication Date: 01 February 2026
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction - Elyce Rae Helford and Christopher Weedman Part I. Exposing Cultural Anxieties 1. The Despair of the Noir Generation: Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds - Alan Woolfolk 2. The Fleap being Neither Flea nor Fly: Ida Lupino’s Interrogations of Female Trauma in Never Fear - Julie Grossman 3. Running Aimlessly: Camino Cortado and Autarkic Spain - Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns 4. Race and the Noir Western: Navigating The Walking Hills - Elyce Rae Helford Part II. Reconceptualising National Cinemas 5. ‘My Mama Done Tol’ Me’: Jewish Émigré Noir, Hybridity, and Black-Jewish Relations in Blues in the Night - Vincent Brook 6. Expressionism, Existentialism, and Socialism in Scars of the Past - Milan Hain 7. The Deadly Seduction of a Rake: British Costume Melodrama, Noir, and the ‘Othered’ Woman in The Gypsy and the Gentleman - Christopher Weedman 8. Argentine Gothic-Noir Fusion in The Black Vampire - Osvaldo Di Paolo Harrison and Nadina Olmedo Part III. Aesthetics and Antecedents 9. A ‘Feeling of Suspension’: Tradition and Modernity in La Pointe Courte - Alicia Byrnes 10. Dostoyevsky ‘58: Richard Brooks’s Brothers Karamazov as Baroque Noir - Matthew Sorrento 11. Men in Black: I Confess, the Hitchcock Noir, and the American Gothic - David Greven Index

Elyce Rae Helford, Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University. Christopher Weedman, Assistant Professor of English, Middle Tennessee State University.

Reviews for Liminal Noir in Classical World Cinema

Paves the way for renewed and enriching interpretations of noir, marking a significant stride toward more globalized interpretations of this genre.--Dávid Szőke ""Film International"" The anthology is a welcome addition to the ongoing discourse on the liminal variations on noir and its myriad incarnations. --Sheri Chinen Biesen, author, Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir, Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films What if noir is not just a category and corpus, but a sensibility, an attitude, a resonance? How might that change our understanding of Varda and Wajda? Of films made in exile or under dictatorship? Of transnational stories? Of minor works? Helford and Weedman have gathered some startling answers to their remarkable proposition. --Mark Bould, University of the West of England