L.A. Confidential as a Re-Creation of American Noir Tradition

Abstract

In contemporary literature and visual media one may encounter many references to hard-boiled fiction and film noir, yet the themes and characters depicted in the classic texts have been reinvented and altered. This article argues that L.A. Confidential may be perceived as a re-creation of American noir tradition and intends to prove that James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential may be classified as hardboiled literature. Moreover, it scrutinizes the figures of detectives presented in both the book and the film, and analyzes the work in terms of retro-noir, focusing attention on the figure of femme fatale, the notion of the city and the on-screen violence.