Journalism and the Novel: Truth and Fiction, 1700-2000

by Doug Underwood

Overview

Literary journalism is a rich field of study that has played an important role in the creation of the English and American literary canons. In this original and engaging study, Doug Underwood focuses on the many notable journalists-turned-novelists found at the margins of fact and fiction since the early eighteenth century, when the novel and the commercial periodical began to emerge as powerful cultural forces. Writers from both sides of the Atlantic are discussed, from Daniel Defoe to Charles Dickens, and from Mark Twain to Joan Didion. Underwood shows how many literary reputations are built on journalistic foundations of research and reporting, and how this impacts on questions of realism and authenticity throughout the work of many canonical authors. This book will be of great interest to researchers and students of British and American literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780511736810
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/20/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	611 KB

About the Author

Doug Underwood is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Washington.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Journalism and the rise of fiction, 1700–1875: Daniel Defoe to George Eliot; 2. Literary realism and the fictions of the industrialized press, 1850–1915: Mark Twain to Theodore Dreiser; 3. Reporters-turned-novelists and the making of contemporary journalistic fiction, 1890–today: Rudyard Kipling to Joan Didion; 4. The taint of journalistic literature and the stigma of the ink-stained wretch: Joel Chandler Harris to Dorothy Parker and beyond; Epilogue: the future of journalistic fiction and the legacy of the journalist-literary figures; Appendix: the major journalist-literary figures: their writings and positions in journalism.

Editorial Reviews

"Underwood has written a carefully researched volume on practitioners of both journalism and novel writing from 1700 to almost the present day....Highly Recommended."
- M.W. Cox, University of Pittsburgh, Choice

"[A] thorough and meticulous work"
American Journalism, Madeleine Blais, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

"...students and general readers will find much to admire about the book...Underwood’s anecdotal flair, coupled with his conversational prose style, is congenial and informative."
-Jack Vespa, nbol-19.org

From the Publisher