Designated hitters: The contract killer in twentieth-century American short fiction

Jay R Hopler, Purdue University

Abstract

Designated Hitters: The Contract Killer in Twentieth-Century American Short Fiction is a study of the ways in which twentieth-century American fiction writers used the character of the hit man and the ways in which that character came to embody the skilled American workers’ alienation from and dissatisfaction with America’s increasingly service-oriented economy. This study argues that twentieth-century American hit man fiction is not a subgenre of mystery, detective and crime fiction but is, rather, its own, independent literary genre. This study also suggests that the fluctuations in the popularity of hit man fiction over the course of the twentieth century are tied closely to fluctuations in the American economy that were taking place over roughly the same period of time.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Lamb, Purdue University.

Subject Area

American studies|American literature

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