Intro; Contents; Chapter 1 Introduction: In Pursuit of the Neo-Noir; The Critical Profile Built-And Its Shortcomings; Why Is It Noir and How Is It New?; The Aims and Outline of This Investigation; Works Cited; Chapter 2 Crime, Corruption and Social Critique: A Thematic Overview of Noir; What Counts as a Counter Cinema?; Common Themes and Tropes; Heists and Hold-Ups; Vigilante Justice; Killers We Don't Necessarily Condemn; Home Invasion; Assassins; The Threat of Duplicitous Women; Shady Spouses and Surreptitious Suitors; Miscarriages of Justice; A Corrupt Legal System

Cover-Ups and ConspiraciesTainted Treasure; Lovers on the Run; New Developments and Departures; Gender, Race and Sexuality; Metaphysical Concerns; Works Cited; Chapter 3 Conflict and Crisis: Masculinity and Noir; The 'Crisis' Argument Reconsidered; Performativity and Reclaimed Machismo; Reluctant Avengers and the Rejection of Violence; Works Cited; Chapter 4 Fear and Fantasy: Women in Noir; The Femme Fatale: A Figure of Antipathy or Potential Identification?; Avengers, Assassins, Amnesiacs and Outlaws; Heroic Helpers and Dogged Detectives; Works Cited

Chapter 5 Noir by Any Other Name?: Generic Confusion and DiffusionNothing New: A History of Hybridity; In League with the Devil or Doing God's Work?: Some Big Questions in Horror-Noir; Misused Power and Manufactured Realities: SF-Noir; Works Cited; Chapter 6 A Lighter Shade of Noir: Differing Uses of Comedy; A Sign of Exhausted Ideas or Renewed Inventiveness?; Mordant Mirth and Cruel Comedy; From Fear to Absurdity: Outlandish Extremes and Parodic Twists; Works Cited; Chapter 7 Fatalism vs Free Will: Nihilism and Noir; The Labyrinth and Existential Malaise

Altruism Versus Egotism-Noir's Competing ImpulsesThe True Proof of a 'Counter Cinema': Lighting the Darkness; Works Cited; Filmography; Index