Martin Amis’s Night Train: a Pastiche of the Classical Detective Story or Hard-Boiling Metaphysics? (original) (raw)

2009, Anglica. Debating Literature and Culture. No 17. Edited by Andrzej Weseliński ISSN: 0860-5734, ISBN 978-83-235-0641

The purpose of this article is to examine the novel by Martin Amis Night Train with respect to the rules of modern and postmodern detective fiction. The introductory part of the article is devoted to the scrutiny of various modern and postmodern tendencies in crime literature, such as hard-boiled detective fiction, metaphysical detective stories and pastiche, analysed by theorists like Patricia Merivale, Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, Alain Robbe-Grillet and Fredric Jameson. The second and simultaneously main part of the article focuses on Night Train, examined both as a pastiche of the classical detective story and hard-boiling metaphysics. Finally, while exploring the thematic and structural complexity of Amis’s novel, the author of the article accentuates Night Train’s adherence to miscellaneous postmodern works and literary genres, such as an existential novel, a psychological book, black comedy, a noir police procedural, or a dark romantic novel Key words: M. Amis, P. Merivale, S. E. Sweeney, A. Robbe-Grillet, F. Jameson, hard-boiled fiction, metaphysical detective story, pastiche, existential novel