<p>This study is a conscious attempt at opening up the discussion on the Italian giallo film of the 1960’s & 1970’s. Part of its mission is examine views and writings currently available on the giallo and using these to analyse the body of films known as the giallo. It is also an attempt at the generic definition seeing the giallo as a series of thriller films according to Tzvetan Todorov’s model and in depth discussing the influence of the horror story and the whodunit. Beyond that it is a close look upon the form and devices of giallo narration, with focus upon the role of the eyewitness, focalization and point of view as first person narration. The study also traces the giallo’s influences interdisciplinary including placing it in the cultural context of the Italian adult comics known as fumetti neri. The study also includes a close look upon the idea of the eroticised violent set piece tracing it to the French theatre of horror – the Grand Guignol. Furthermore the study addresses the concept of seriality as understood in reference to the giallo. Finally the study examines the role of the giallo hero and suggests that the giallo is posing existential questions, and can be understood as existential suspense thrillers. The findings are exemplified through a wide scope of films including brief references and longer analytic examples elaborating on topical discussions in this developing field of study.</p>

This study is a conscious attempt at opening up the discussion on the Italian giallo film of the 1960’s &amp; 1970’s. Part of its mission is examine views and writings currently available on the giallo and using these to analyse the body of films known as the giallo. It is also an attempt at the generic definition seeing the giallo as a series of thriller films according to Tzvetan Todorov’s model and in depth discussing the influence of the horror story and the whodunit. Beyond that it is a close look upon the form and devices of giallo narration, with focus upon the role of the eyewitness, focalization and point of view as first person narration. The study also traces the giallo’s influences interdisciplinary including placing it in the cultural context of the Italian adult comics known as fumetti neri. The study also includes a close look upon the idea of the eroticised violent set piece tracing it to the French theatre of horror – the Grand Guignol. Furthermore the study addresses the concept of seriality as understood in reference to the giallo. Finally the study examines the role of the giallo hero and suggests that the giallo is posing existential questions, and can be understood as existential suspense thrillers. The findings are exemplified through a wide scope of films including brief references and longer analytic examples elaborating on topical discussions in this developing field of study.

Because of critical neglect, there is no established terminology to describe techniques of suspense. Borrowing from Aristotle, Koestler, and others, a new body of concepts is suggested and importantly, a distinction of tense is established, between types of suspense which relate to the narrative past, present, and future. The classical world's intuition of a connection between mental uncertainty and the physical state of hanging has conditioned Western man's notion of narrative suspense until a comparatively recent date. Eighteenth-century theories of the sublime helped to create an understanding that suspense was not necessarily painful. Through an analysis of novels by Jane Austen, George Eliot, Dickens, Hardy, and Conrad, an attempt is made to identify and evaluate the most common suspense strategies in the period's popular genres, notably the Austenian romance, mystery, and tragedy. The Austenian romance is compared to the detective story in that narrative presentation is determined by the need to control the reader's expectations, and to achieve an ending which is both satisfactory and surprising. The latter requirement may have contributed to the gradual disappearance of the authorial "voice" in the course of the nineteenth century, and a consequent reduction in the pleasures of irony and comedy. During the Victorian period, many genres are combined in the long novel, but mystery gradually advances in popularity and sophistication, to the point where narrative events are often inappropriately exploited as secrets. Tragedy involves a creative conflict between the reader's hopes and expectations, so he is permitted to glimpse the overall tragic process, and suspense is generated on the levels of theme and causaliy. The problems incurred by an inability or unwillingness to conclude structures of theme suspense are considered finally.

Ce travail est une étude des évolutions propres au roman policier rapportées au glissement de la modernité vers la postmodernité et de leur transposition dans la représentation du social propre à cette forme romanesque. Après deux premiers points préalables respectivement consacrés au développement genres que du roman policier – avec dans cet ordre le roman policier archaïque, le romanà énigme, le roman noir et enfin le néo-polar – depuis le milieu du XIXe siècle et à une mise en perspective des concepts de modernité et de postmodernité, il s’articule autour de trois axes choisis grâce auxquels pourra être établi le lien entre dimension évolutive du roman policier et substitution progressive de la modernité à la postmodernité. Ce lien n’est toutefois pas exclusif et il souligne un rapport d’interpénétration préalable entre les différents concepts.La première partie est consacrée à la notion de décomposition qu’elle étudie à différents niveaux : le premier est le niveau diégétique avec la décomposition narrative. Le roman policier est en effet souvent lié, par l’intermédiaire d’une énigme, à un mode de narration spécifique qui est explicité dans toute son ampleur et rapporté notamment à la notion de structure et de rapport au temps chronologique. Le deuxième point est consacré à la décomposition de la langue. C’est ainsi qu’il analyse les notions de langue au niveau diégétique et les relations entre parole et pouvoir au niveau intradiégétique, ainsi que les implications du pouvoir de la langue et de la parole sur l’image du social.Le troisième et dernier point de cette première partie est consacré à la décomposition du social que renvoie sa représentation via le prisme fictionnel. Il s’arrête plus spécifiquement, dans cet ordre, sur la représentation de l’autorité, sur les définitions des rapports sociaux et enfin sur son positionnement vis-à-vis du politique.La deuxième partie est consacrée aux mythologies du roman policier, aussi bien à celles qui lui sont propres qu’aux substrats qu’il réemploie, ce pour déterminer les modalités de repositionnement de ces éléments. Le premier est l’urbain : après une analyse des hypotextes mythologiques autour de l’urbain et de son rapport à l’humain, il est fait état des réalités socio-historiques liant urbanisation et criminalité avant que ne soit étudiée la redistribution de l’espace au sein de la sphère fictionnelle,notamment autour des concepts d’affect et d’appartenance. Le second est le social, qui est étudié aussi bien au niveau de son implantation idéologique que de son positionnement narratif, ainsi que des tensions sociales qui apparaissent dans la représentation, tensions qui culminent avec l’usage de la violence à différents niveaux. Enfin, le troisième élément est l’humain, qui bénéficie d’une évolution marquée dans son traitement via les figures humaines incarnées dans les personnages de la narration. / This paper is a study of the specific way in which the detective novel has evolved within thecontext of the shift from modernity to postmodernity, and of the manner in which its evolution isreflected within the social element that is peculiar to this fictional format. The paper tackles twoinitial aspects, the first being devoted to the development of the detective novel genre since the mid-nineteenth century, including that of its sub-genres, the roman policier archaïque, the whodunit, theroman noir and finally the neo-polar, and the second seeking to put into perspective the concepts ofmodernity and postmodernity. The focus then turns to three selected themes, which enables a link to beestablished between the evolution of the detective novel and the gradual shift from modernity topostmodernity. However, the link is not exclusive, and the paper emphasises the earlier interactionbetween the different concepts.The first section is devoted to the concept of deconstruction, which is studied at different levels,the first being the diegetic level including narrative deconstruction. In fact, the detective novel isfrequently associated with a specific method of narration, based on a conundrum, the full extent ofwhich is explained with particular reference to the concept of structure and relationship withchronological time. The second point deals with the deconstruction of the language. In doing so, itanalyses the concepts of language at a diegetic level and the relationships between the word andpower at an intradiegetic level, together with the implications of the power of language and the wordon the representation of the social context. The third and final point within this first section is devotedto the deconstruction of the social context that is reflected by its representation through the prism offiction. It focuses more specifically, in the following order, on the representation of authority, thedefinitions of social relationships and its position vis-à-vis politics.

This study b·aces the development of the Shona clctective story as a genre different from rhe mainstream Shona novel. The Shona detective story emerges from the non-detective traditional folktale and develops into rhree types, namely, the rudimentary form. the pure 'whoduniC, and the detectivethriller. An attempt is made to show that when the Shona detective story first appeared it was quite elementary and showed signs of me influence of Shona traditional folklore. But later on authors developed the detective narrative into pure 'whodunits' and detective-mrillers which showed influence of Western ftlms and English detective stories. The study ends with the argument that although at its highest level of development the Shona detective story manifests characteristics that make it a unique genre different from other Shona novels its treatment of female characters is not very different from their treatment in the mainstream Shona novel. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)

This study b·aces the development of the Shona clctective story as a genre different from rhe mainstream Shona novel. The Shona detective story emerges from the non-detective traditional folktale and develops into rhree types, namely, the rudimentary form. the pure 'whoduniC, and the detectivethriller. An attempt is made to show that when the Shona detective story first appeared it was quite elementary and showed signs of me influence of Shona traditional folklore. But later on authors developed the detective narrative into pure 'whodunits' and detective-mrillers which showed influence of Western ftlms and English detective stories. The study ends with the argument that although at its highest level of development the Shona detective story manifests characteristics that make it a unique genre different from other Shona novels its treatment of female characters is not very different from their treatment in the mainstream Shona novel. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)