The Multi-angle Representations Of New Journalism, Feminism And Postmodernism In Joan Didion's Works

The 1960s bears witness that the United States has entered the postmodern era or the period of the late capitalism, an era characterized by alienation, anxiety, multiplicity and plurality. The characteristics of the special historical period produced new energies, new ideas and new conditions to American writers. American literature has developed in an unprecedented way. While the older generation were still wielding their pens in the field of literature, new writers emerged with uniqueness which identifies with the postmodern era. New genres went side by side with old ones and experimental writing techniques added to the brilliance of American literature. As far as the contribution to American literature is concerned, the works of the postmodernist writers are a force to be reckoned with. Among them is Joan Didion, a postmodern woman writer who is well-known for both her fiction and nonfiction.Joan Didion appeared in the American literary scene with her prolific writing in the 1960s. She has become an outstanding woman writer who has secured a distinctive position in contemporary American literature. With great advantages of being a journalist and a novelist, Joan Didion makes full play of her talent of literacy to describe what she has seen, heard and experienced. The result is her remarkable achievements on fiction, nonfiction as well as screenplays. As she writes with skill and ease, she has gained herself the name of a New Journalist, a brilliant stylist and a talented postmodernist novelist.This dissertation is an overall study on Didion's fiction and nonfiction. The multi-angle representations in Didion's works involve New Journalism, feminism and postmodernism. Theories used in this dissertation includeJean-Francois Lyotard's theory of "crisis of narrative" and "language games", Helene Cixous's theory of feminism and some theories of postmodernist writing techniques. Put in the context of the macrocosm of the postmodern world, Didion's works are analyzed in terms of her contribution to New Journalism, her great concern on morality and politics in her nonfiction books and the feminist perspective in her novels. In addition, her writing techniques in terms of postmodernism and linguistic skills are also taken into consideration.In the introduction, a general overview on Didion's accomplishments in literature is presented. Joan Didion is a writer whose works appeal not only to readers, but to literary critics as well. While enjoying a large readership in bookstores and libraries, she has got the attention of quite a few literary critics. Additionally, her essays and books have even become the indispensable classroom material in some colleges and universities in America. As time goes on, Didion has been acclaimed as the most popular postmodernist writer in America. However, like other famous or minor writers, Didion also confronts negative criticism while enjoying positive evaluation.As Joan Didion began her literary career as a journalist, her achievements in the genre of New Journalism are analyzed as a start. In the first chapter, the origin of New Journalism is traced and the characteristics of this new literary genre are provided. This genre has brought life to the old journalism since the 1960s. It is characterized by its emphasis of the self in the writing and the utilization of techniques in journalism that has previously been used only in fiction. Joan Didion is a precursor of New Journalism. With herself as the writer popping out in the scene to be reported, she has invented a range of experimental fictional and nonfictional styles to criticize the country'scommodity culture, thus becoming an essential commentator on cosmopolitan lifestyles and the global consequences of those lives. As a result, her journalistic and personal essays have become a beautiful landscape in American nonfiction writing.As a journalist before she became a novelist, Joan Didion is well known throughout the country for her nonfiction. Jean-Francois Lyotard's theory of "crisis of narrative" is used to analyze the...