Groundless Noir: Ontology and Latin American Crime Fiction

By Erik Larson

This philosophical study of Latin American noir fiction poses the question: what if precarity and uncertainty aren't just themes of the genre, but ways of being in the world? Emerging from a region immersed in violence, trauma, and political instability, the novela negra reveals not just disillusionment but a desire to adapt to, even dwell within, chaos. In the hands of writers like Ricardo Piglia, Roberto Bola o, and Patricia Melo, savvy detectives and antiheroes navigate a world in which meaning constantly shifts and certainty is elusive. Blending literary analysis with philosophical inquiry, Larson draws on Heideggerian ontology to demonstrate how the noir novel becomes a mode of existence--grounded in its very groundlessness. Rather than offering resolution, these novels embody a paradoxical desire: to engage crisis while also adapting to it. In doing so, they become both ideological and pedagogical--existential fiction for an uncertain world.

Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1684485908
• ISBN13: 9781684485901
• Release Date: May 2026
• Publisher: Bucknell University Press
• Age Range: 16 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 11 and higher