Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Forms of Labor in Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest

1991; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 106; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/462658

1938-1530

Carl Freedman, Christopher Kendrick,

Gothic Literature and Media Analysis

utopias. HAT KIND OF WORK does a detective do when he det tects? Dashiell Hammett's most complex novel, Red Harvest, suggests some interesting answers. Originally published in book form in 1929, it counts as one of the first attempts-and perhaps still the greatest attempt-to forge a type of detective fiction that contrasts sharply with the classic deductive tradition most centrally identified with Sherlock Holmes. The new variety has been generally associated with the adjective hard-boiled and, especially during the 1920s and 1930s, with the American magazine Black Mask. Perhaps its most obvious innovation was the abandonment of the intellectualpuzzle formula as the basis of narrative construction. Although Red Harvest is not without puzzles, its main interest lies elsewhere, and one can adequately summarize the text without even mentioning a problem of the Sherlockian type. Red Harvest is set in Personville, also known as Poisonville, a small industrial city in the western United States. The workers at the Personville Mining Corporation, owned by Elihu Willsson, had been represented by the IWW, but the union local was crushed during a strike and the tough Wobbly leader, Bill Quint, was defeated. To beat the union, however, Elihu Willsson had enlisted the help of several gangster leaders and their thugs, and since their victory they have refused to leave and have insisted on taking a share in running the town. As the novel opens, an operative of the Continental Detective Agency has been summoned by Donald Willsson, Elihu's son and Personville's reform-minded newspaper editor. When Donald is killed before meeting with the Continental Op, Elihu himself hires the detective to clean up the town, that is, to remove the gangsters who have usurped much of Elihu's power and profit. The main action of the novel concerns the Op's successful efforts to carry out his charge. He consults with Bill Quint, forms a useful friendship with the community's leading courtesan, Dinah Brand, and, in general, acquires pertinent information about the structures and personalities of the town. Working his way into the highest levels of the gangster establishment, he eventu-