This is not America: pulp fiction, westerns and crime novels in 1960’s Portugal

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37508/rcl.2025.n53a1334

Keywords:

Pulp, Western, Crime Fiction, De-personalization, Stream of Consciousness

Abstract

This text will focus on the pulp tradition which, having reached its peak of popularity in the pre-WWII period, dispersed after the war into fantastic literature, western, crime fiction and noir; and the ways that Roussado Pinto and Dinis Machado, in 1960’s Portugal – with all its political, social and cultural idiosyncrasy – shaped the genre clichés to construe plots, and protagonists, who were, all together, erring and machine-like, local and universal, photographic and cinematic; thus rendering their novels simultaneously into copies of the model and familiar reflections of everyday life, in all its ineffable and desolate squalor.

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Author Biography

Ricardo Namora, Universidade de Coimbra (UC)

É doutorado em Teoria da Literatura pela Universidade de Lisboa. Ensinou nas universidades de Coimbra e Estocolmo (Suécia), e é autor de 40 anos de Teoria da Literatura em Portugal (2011), Teoria da Literatura e Interpretação: o século XX em três argumentos (2014), Before the Trenches: a mapping of problems in Literary Interpretation(2017) e Uma coisa chamada hermenêutica (2018).

References

BORGES, Jorge Luís. Pierre Menard, autor do Quixote (trad. José Colaço Barreiros). In: BORGES, Jorge Luís. Ficções. Lisboa: Quetzal Editores, 2013.

GOLD, Frank. Eu, Ross Pynn. Odivelas: Europress/Coleção BolsoNoite, 1985.

MCSHADE, Dennis. Mão direita do Diabo. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2008a [1967a].

MCSHADE, Dennis. Requiem para D. Quixote. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2008b [1967b].

MCSHADE, Dennis. Mulher e arma com guitarra espanhola. Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2009 [1968].

PYNN, Ross. “So Long” Jim. Odivelas: Europress/Coleção BolsoNoite, 1982a [1964].

PYNN, Ross. “So Long” Jim Matou. Odivelas: Europress/Coleção BolsoNoite, 1984 [1964].

PYNN, Ross. O caso da mulher nua. Amadora: Íbis, 1962. PYNN, Ross. O caso da mulher deportada. Amadora: Íbis, 1964.

PYNN, Ross. O caso da mulher das meias negras. Amadora: Íbis, 1965.

PYNN, Ross. O nome dela é Claire. Odivelas: Europress/Coleção BolsoNoite, 1982b [1968].

SILVA, Luís Filipe (org.). Os anos de ouro da pulpfiction portuguesa:os melhores contos do séc. XX. S. Pedro do Estoril: Edições Saída de Emergência, 2011.

capa da Convergência Lusíada 53

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Published

2025-01-08

How to Cite

Namora, R. (2025). This is not America: pulp fiction, westerns and crime novels in 1960’s Portugal. Converência Lusíada, 36(53), 222–241. https://doi.org/10.37508/rcl.2025.n53a1334

Issue

Vol. 36 No. 53 (2025): Rethinking Camilo Castelo Branco

Section

VARIA

License

Copyright (c) 2024 RICARDO NAMORA

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