Seminar: The Long Goodbye
Vernon Shetley will place The Long Goodbye within the film noir tradition and the context of 1970s New Hollywood, exploring the reasons behind its initial failure at the box office and its subsequent critical elevation to one the most significant films of the neo-noir revival.
About Vernon Shetley
Vernon Shetley teaches literature and film at Wellesley College, with a particular focus on contemporary poetry and recent American cinema. His book on film noir from the 1970s to the present, Dark Film, Blood Money: The Economic Unconscious of American Neo-Noir Cinema, is forthcoming in 2026. The book explores neo-noir cinema as a response to and representation of anxieties around work, money, trust, and exchange as postwar prosperity was replaced by economic stagnation and social alienation. He has published essays on a range of film-related topics, including Blade Runner, Scarlett Johansson’s science-fiction films, and the Olsen Twins.
