Tennessee Noir, or William Gay’s “The Paperhanger”
William Gay’s “The Paperhanger,” which was first published in the February 2000 issue of Harper’s Magazine, was then included in the 2002 collection of short stories entitled I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, which develops its own powerful version of Tennessee blues. Set at the heart of Gay’s...
Uloženo v:
| Vydáno v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse, |
|---|---|
| Hlavní autor: | |
| Médium: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jazyk: | Anglais |
| Vydáno: |
Journal of the Short Story in English
2024
|
| On-line přístup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| id |
openedition-oai:revues.org:jsse_3949 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
openedition |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:jsse_3949 en https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/3949 2024-04-02T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/w5jf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Tennessee Noir, or William Gay’s “The Paperhanger” Journal of the Short Story in English Presses universitaires de Rennes info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1969-6108 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/0294-0442 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse Spill, Frédérique William Gay’s “The Paperhanger,” which was first published in the February 2000 issue of Harper’s Magazine, was then included in the 2002 collection of short stories entitled I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, which develops its own powerful version of Tennessee blues. Set at the heart of Gay’s rural Tennessee, the story follows a rather traditional crime story pattern: a little girl, four years old, mysteriously disappears on the construction site where her well-off Pakistani parents have a big house built by a herd of workers; the place and neighboring woods are searched by the law for hours that turn into days, but she is never found. Unable to cope with their grief and loss, the parents split and experience an inexorable downfall. As, a few of months later, the mother, revisits the abandoned place where “she lost her daughter,” the mystery is solved and the chilling circumstances of the girl’s disappearance revealed. Starting with a brief introduction of the author’s career and with tentative definitions of noir as a genre, this paper aims to show how “The Paperhanger” interweaves Gay’s own brand of southern Noir with a (rather) traditional crime story plotline, addressing questions of class conflict and retaliation, through a subtle combination of horror and poetry. La nouvelle de William Gay intitulée “The Paperhanger” initialement publiée dans le numéro de février 2000 de Harper’s Magazine, a ensuite été incluse dans le recueil de nouvelles qui a pour titre, I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, paru en 2002, et où l’auteur développe sa version singulière du Tennessee blues. Située au cœur du Tennessee rural de Gay, l’histoire semble suivre la trajectoire d’un récit policier : une petite fille de quatre ans disparaît mystérieusement sur le chantier où ses parents, des Pakistanais aisés, font construire une grande maison par plusieurs cohortes d’ouvriers ; le site et les bois avoisinants sont fouillés par la police pendant des heures qui se transforment en jours, sans qu’on ne la retrouve jamais. Incapables de faire face à leur chagrin et à leur perte, les parents se séparent et font l’expérience d’une chute inexorable. Lorsque, quelques mois plus tard, la mère revisite le lieu abandonné où « elle a perdu sa fille », le mystère est résolu et les circonstances effrayantes de la disparition de la petite fille sont révélées. Après avoir brièvement présenté le parcours de William Gay et proposé quelques définitions provisoires du noir en tant que genre, cet article vise à montrer comment “The Paperhanger” associe le southern noir caractéristique de l’œuvre de Gay à une intrigue de roman policier (plutôt) traditionnelle et aborde les notions de conflit de classe et de représailles, à travers un mélange subtil d’horreur et de poésie. |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| description |
William Gay’s “The Paperhanger,” which was first published in the February 2000 issue of Harper’s Magazine, was then included in the 2002 collection of short stories entitled I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, which develops its own powerful version of Tennessee blues. Set at the heart of Gay’s rural Tennessee, the story follows a rather traditional crime story pattern: a little girl, four years old, mysteriously disappears on the construction site where her well-off Pakistani parents have a big house built by a herd of workers; the place and neighboring woods are searched by the law for hours that turn into days, but she is never found. Unable to cope with their grief and loss, the parents split and experience an inexorable downfall. As, a few of months later, the mother, revisits the abandoned place where “she lost her daughter,” the mystery is solved and the chilling circumstances of the girl’s disappearance revealed. Starting with a brief introduction of the author’s career and with tentative definitions of noir as a genre, this paper aims to show how “The Paperhanger” interweaves Gay’s own brand of southern Noir with a (rather) traditional crime story plotline, addressing questions of class conflict and retaliation, through a subtle combination of horror and poetry. |
| author |
Spill, Frédérique |
| spellingShingle |
Spill, Frédérique Tennessee Noir, or William Gay’s “The Paperhanger” |
| author_facet |
Spill, Frédérique |
| author_sort |
Spill, Frédérique |
| title |
Tennessee Noir, or William Gay’s “The Paperhanger” |
| title_short |
Tennessee Noir, or William Gay’s “The Paperhanger” |
| title_full |
Tennessee Noir, or William Gay’s “The Paperhanger” |
| title_fullStr |
Tennessee Noir, or William Gay’s “The Paperhanger” |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Tennessee Noir, or William Gay’s “The Paperhanger” |
| title_sort |
tennessee noir, or william gay’s “the paperhanger” |
| publisher |
Journal of the Short Story in English |
| publishDate |
2024 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/jsse |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/3949 |
| _version_ |
1877292466663587840 |