The Noir Atlantic

With the publication in 1953 of his Harlem Domestic series, African American noir writer Chester Himes became a cult figure for a generation of Parisian readers—many of whom appreciated his work as much for the break it represented from the dominant colonial-era literary paradigm as for Himes’s characteristic blend of violence and dark wit. The Noir Atlantic examines the crucial role played by Himes and others in the emergence of crime fiction across francophone Africa. Through careful textual analysis, Pim Higginson charts the emergence of African noir over the past two decades and redefines the key African and American authors in a broader global context.