Peripheral Noir, Mediation, and Capitalism: Noir Form, Noir Mediascape, Sociological Noir

This chapter reframes noir from the semi-peripheral space of Mexican cinema. The chapter studies noir in Mexican cinema and literature in the context of the history of Fordist capitalism, American-style modernization, and contemporary neoliberalism. Drawing on readings of a range of different films, the chapter charts the historical arc of Mexican noir as a cultural form that captures the affective registers of Mexican capitalist modernity on three levels: first, fear and loss in relation to the tension between capitalism and tradition in post-revolutionary Mexico; second, a globalization of affective registers as noir connects Mexican to transnational circuits of affect and emotion; third, the creation of an affective polity through the deployment of sentimentalism and melodrama as part of the emergent mediatization and commoditization of the masses’ affects in the new urban settings.