Silent Cowboys and Verbose Detectives

In the early part of the twentieth century, popular §fiction and film in the form of Westerns and the §noir detective story cultivated brands of §masculinity through archetypal male characters. §This project investigates the countervailing §tradition between the language-resistant cowboy §figure and his more verbally-inclined successor, the §detective fiction hero. The onslaught of §modernization that transformed the United States in §the early 1900s created a need for a new kind of §hero, one akin to the cowboy hero in character, §bravery, and wit, yet seemingly birthed from §urbanity as undeniably as the cowboy was birthed §from the open range. The primarily linguistic work §of Dashiell Hammett s Continental Op and Raymond §Chandler s Philip Marlowe indicates that the §detective s urbanite status necessitates a different §method of performing his work. Accordingly, he §negotiates his urban world with a linguistic prowess §quite different from the cowboy s preference for §action. The study further suggests a socio-§historical connection between a distinctly American §masculine code of silence and a lack of verbal §diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy.