The expression chick noir describes a type of novel which usually has a female author, features strong female protagonists¹ and is written with women as its target audience, but unlike the classically 'girlie' topics of love, romance and domestic humor, focuses on 'dark' themes – betrayal, murder, and even horror.

 

女性黑色小说（chick noir）指女性作者写的以强势女性为主角、且目标读者为女性的一种小说体裁，不过该体裁并不是以传统的爱情、婚恋以及家庭幽默为主题，而多为背叛、谋杀，甚至恐怖等“黑色”主题。

 

This is a new wave of writing in which there's no happy ending, child-rearing or emotional journey of unrequited love, but rather crime, mystery, plot twists and intrigue² – psychological thrillers³ in the truest sense. These stories are typically nestled between book covers which have swapped⁴ pastels, ethereal decoration and dreamy window-gazers for black, broken glass, and the faces of petrified⁵ females. Predictably, and in true 'chick' style, these stories usually have some kind of relationship at their core, and for this reason are sometimes described as marriage thrillers, often based on the idea that those closest to us might be harboring dark and unpleasant secrets.

 

这是一种新的写作风格，这种小说里没有皆大欢喜的结局、养育子女或者单相思的情感经历，内容都是有关犯罪、迷局，情节转折离奇，属于真正意义上的心理惊悚小说。这些故事的封面由以往女性小说常见的粉笔画、外部文字说明和梦幻的窗扉换成了黑色的、破碎的玻璃，而封底则是惊吓过度的女性面庞。可以预见的是，作为“女性”风格的文学，这些故事的核心通常会有一些感情纠葛，因此，这类故事有时也被称为婚姻惊悚小说，传达的理念通常都是，离我们最近的那些人可能恰恰隐藏着一些黑暗又不可告人的秘密。

 

The expression chick noir takes inspiration from the earlier term chick lit, which first appeared in the early nineties to describe a genre⁶ of novels designed to appeal to women, usually written by women and with female protagonists. The male equivalent is lad lit, and there have been further spin-offs too, such as gran lit for older female readers. Chick flick⁷ is the popular term for chick lit's movie counterpart.

 

Chick noir这个表达的灵感来源于上世纪九十年代初期出现的一个词chick lit，即由女性作者写的以女性为主角且面向女性的小说——女性文学。与其对应的男性文学为lad lit，其他衍生词还有gran lit，即老年女性文学。Chick flick则是指女性电影。

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