On The New Journalistic Writing Techniques Of Joan Didion's The White Album

As a novelist, a playwright and an essayist, Joan Didion is well known in America. Her memoir won the Non-fictional Reward of America in 2005, and one of her most remarkable works named The White Album brought her to the leading position of new journalism. The White Album is outstanding for its unique narrative perspective, accurate writing style and profound theme. Both the work and its author Didion have attracted critical attention. The White Album is considered as a masterpiece in both literary and journalistic fields. Based on textual analysis, the thesis intends to interpret the manifestation of new journalistic writing techniques as reflected in the book and their connection with the theme.This thesis consists of five parts. Introduction gives a brief description of Didion's status in America, literature review about her and her works, and two research questions of this thesis. Chapter One analyzes social and historical background of new journalism and makes a comparison between new journalism and conventional journalism to emphasize Didion's reasons for choosing it. Chapter Two focuses on the adoption and the function of new journalistic writing techniques in The White Album. Chapter Three moves to the close relationship between new journalistic writing techniques and the theme.It is concluded that the adoption of new journalistic writing techniques is an effective way of combining the dissemination of facts with manifestation of personal views. Didion puts emphasis on social issues in The White Album in terms of writing techniques and theme strengthening. She successfully blends factual truth and subjective review together, and makes a record of social phenomena of America in the 1960s to the 1970s.