Voice in literary journalism : Truman Capote, Joan Didion and David Foster Wallace

Abstract

This dissertation explores the role of voice in literary journalism. It is primarily interested in the power of words to convince, and thus argues and demonstrates voice’s ability to infuse works with an impression of truth. It also seeks to address some of the vagueness associated with the term ‘voice’. The first chapter introduces and discusses different theorisations of voice, building frameworks which are then drawn upon in each of the subsequent chapters. It differentiates between two approaches to voice, one grounded in narratological theory, and the other in pedagogical approaches to nonfiction writing, which are termed ‘narratological voice’ and ‘craft-oriented voice’ respectively. Narratological voice is grounded in approaches from Gérard Genette, Seymour Chatman and Monika Fludernik, and is primarily associated with the detectability of a ‘speaker’ within the text, most often the narrator. Craft-oriented voice is woven together from a larger set of theorisations, most prominently Ben Yagoda, Roy Peter Clark, Donald K. Fry, and the pairing of Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz. The latter conception of voice has strong overlaps with style, and is associated with individual writers’ idiosyncratic recognisability. The subsequent chapters analyse the ways different literary journalists use voice to create the semblance of truth in each of their works. Each chapter is dedicated to a different journalist, chosen deliberately to represent a shift in chronology and trajectory along one established branch of the genre – American literary journalism. Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood represents literary journalism’s (re)emergence as a popular form, Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem stands in for The New Journalism, and two of David Foster Wallace’s journalistic pieces, Consider The Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, epitomise the direction foregrounded by Didion. The general trend observed is an increasing prioritisation in the use of subjectivity as an appeal to truth. Capote represents the conservative end of the scale, attempting to appeal to truth by emulating the rationalistic objectivity associated with traditional news, while Wallace plies his work with extreme instances of self-revelation and recognisability, in order to create an impression of hyper-sincerity. The concluding chapter considers implications of voice’s ability to create appeals to truth in the contemporary post-truth news-scape.