Graham Greene and the Politics of Popular Fiction and Film

One of the most popular, respected and controversial writers of the twentieth century, Greene's work has still attracted relatively little scholarly comment. Thomson charts the intricate dance between his novels and screenplays, his many audiences, and an intellectual establishment reluctant to identify the work of a popular writer as "literature." One of the most popular, respected and controversial writers of the twentieth century, Greene's work has still attracted relatively little scholarly comment. Thomson charts the intricate dance between his novels and screenplays, his many audiences, and an intellectual establishment reluctant to identify the work of a popular writer as 'literature'. When a writer produces a novel that is both denounced as Communist propaganda and extolled as the ideal travelling companion for hearty venture capitalists looking to conquer the untapped markets of Southeast Asia, one would expect to see a troupe of post-modernist scholars scrambling to be the first to point out the textual ironies at play. Strangely, however, this has not been the case for Graham Greene, author of The Quiet American and several dozen of the twentieth-century's most critically acclaimed bestsellers. Graham Greene and the Politics of Popular Fiction and Film examines why contemporary scholars have largely ignored the popular and wildly controversial writer. It explores how the evolution of literature as a discipline helped entrench intellectual biases against popular fiction, how the post-war economy and the collapse of the Hollywood studio system conspired to transform The Third Man from a thriller into the work of an auteur, and why movie critics felt that The End of the Affair was sexually obscene while priests celebrated God's belated cameo on cinema screens Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction: The Politics of Reading Greene 10 Part I: From Failed Novelist to Popular Writer 26 1 Institutional and Critical Priorities at the Beginning of Graham Greene’s Career 28 2 The Failed Novelist 41 3 Readers and Generic Processes in Stamboul Train 54 4 Cinema as a Strategy of Containment 66 Part II: From Popular Writer to Author 72 5 Cinematic Evasions After Stamboul Train 74 6 Greene and Genre 87 7 Strategic Moves: Genres, Brands, Authors and The Third Man 94 8 Amateurs and Professionals, Auteurs and Intellectuals 109 Part III: From Author to Contested Authority 126 9 Auteurism and the Study of Greene 128 10 Our Man in Havana and Auteurism 144 Part IV: The Polemical Battlefield 162 11 Greene and the Polemics of Canonical Reading 164 12 Depopulating the Common: Reading The End of the Affair 174 13 Liberal Commitment: Reading The Quiet American 190 14 Appropriating Greene: Re-Reading The Quiet American and The End of the Affair 203 Conclusion: The Problem of a ' Better Case' 222 Notes 229 Index 249 A 249 B 249 C 250 D 250 E 250 F 251 G 251 H 252 I 253 J 253 K 253 L 253 M 254 N 254 O 254 P 255 Q 255 R 255 S 256 T 256 U 257 V 257 W 257 Y 257 0230228542,9780230228542 Palgrave Macmillan Thomson charts the intricate dance between [Greene's] novels and screenplays, his many audiences, and an intellectual establishment reluctant to identify the work of a popular writer as "literature."