A poor man's existentialism: Film noir and hard -boiled fiction

Abstract

This dissertation aims at establishing the presence of existentialism in the early decades of the 20^th century in the United States in the form of film noir and hard-boiled fiction. The thesis of this dissertation challenges the position that existentialism is a strictly European phenomenon. This dissertation examines the existential metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics of film noir and hard-boiled fiction, and analyzes why this form of existentialism did not appear in academic philosophy, but instead appeared in popular film and fiction.