MAPPING NONFICTION NARRATIVE: Towards a new theoretical approach to analysing literary journalism

Abstract

Thomas B. Connery states that ‘Although much has been written about a type of writing that contains elements of journalism and fiction, consensus has not emerged as to what to call it or how to define it.’ This thesis addresses this issue by proposing a broad theoretical framework and approach for defining and analysing a wide variety of books in the genre, using David L. Eason’s typology of realist literary journalism (RLJ) and modernist literary journalism (MLJ). This is the first time that Eason’s theory has been applied in close readings of literary journalism texts. Rather than being two distinct subgenres, Eason’s categories of RLJ and MLJ are two ‘modes’ of responding to and organising the experience of reporting, which narrate highly personalised, interpretive and evocative accounts of reality. However, due to the widely differing aesthetic styles and approaches found in this genre, these categories have been refined and supplemented using Joseph M. Webb’s theory of rationalism and romanticism in journalism. This thesis combines Eason and Webb’s theories to create a spectrum—ranging from ‘objective’ to ‘subjective’—in order to locate the six primary texts analysed in this thesis, depending on how influenced they are by either rationalism or romanticism. This is another original contribution made by this thesis. Norman Sims argues that many literary journalism theorists and critics have based their scholarship of the genre on literary criticism and theory, and warns that ‘We must be careful that our scholarship does not mimic that of one sector of the academy.’ Although the interpretive methodology used in this thesis is textual analysis, this thesis makes use of Anabela Carvalho’s critical discourse analysis, developed for close readings of media texts, because it offers strategies to ensure the factual referentiality of the six primary texts is respected, and the analyses are informed by key contextual factors. Also, the close readings draw heavily from the interdisciplinary subfield of narratology, so Risto Kunelius’ narrative perspective on journalistic discourse is adopted in order to provide a focused and systematic approach to the narratological analysis of the six primary texts. Literary journalism is an evolving genre that resists narrow definitions. Accordingly, the methodology applied in this thesis is flexible and broad so that it can be applied to virtually any text in this genre, yet still be a useful tool for analysing the unique characteristics of each text in detail. The innovate combination of Eason’s typology as refined by Webb, with the reading practices of Carvalho and Kunelius offers an original, inclusive and flexible means to explore the in many ways still uncharted territory of literary journalism.