An Interpretation Of The Armies Of The Night From The Perspective Of New Journalism

Norman Mailer is one of the most popular and controversial novelists in American literary world.He has obtained remarkable achievements during the past sixty years.Meanwhile,as a great journalist in the twentieth century,he succeeds in integrating the novelistic techniques into documentary works,which makes him one of the pioneers of New Journalism.The Armies of the Night is just a reportage whose subject is based on the anti-Vietnam War demonstration in which Mailer personally participated in 1967.This thesis takes The Armies of the Night as the object of study,exploring the features of New Journalism in this work.This thesis includes introduction,the main sections of this thesis,as well as a conclusion.The introduction part makes a brief introduction of the author,this masterwork,literature review,as well as the outline of this thesis.The first chapter introduces the theory of New Journalism,including its definition,background and its three distinct features.Firstly,New Journalists conduct intensive investigation and reportage on the interviewing objects,so as to ensure the authenticity of reporting contents.Secondly,New Journalists are skilled in giving play to their initiative in reporting the incidents.Thirdly,the practitioners of New journalism often borrow the skilled novelistic techniques to write reportage,making news more lively and vivid.The second chapter is to analyze how the text reflects the characteristic of intensive reportage.On the one hand,as a participant of the event,Mailer conducts in-depth and thorough reportage and analyses on the Vietnam War and the conditions of the anti-war demonstration.On the other hand,he boldly exposes the incorrect relative reportage which is cited from news press,combining these two sides to highlight the authenticity of this work.The third chapter is to interpret the embodiment of subjective tendencies in this work.To begin with,the subjectivity of this work is mainly reflected in the writer's arrangement for the reporting materials.Breaking through the boring historical narrative of traditional journalism,Mailer combines private recall with historical record and unifies objective sequence of time with the writer's subjective choices of scenes.In addition,Mailer conducts vivid and profound interpretations on the characters' inner world,which is another manifestation of the writer's subjectivity.And Mailer generates vivid associations and imaginations during the parade.The fourth chapter interprets the text from the aspect of writing skills,which analyzes the reflections of fictional techniques in this reportage.In this thesis,the author selects three fictional techniques which are revealed in this work,including recording the dialogue in full,the depictions of symbolic details,as well as the set of composite characterization.In this reportage,Mailer employs literary writing skills to record the event,which is another vital feature of New Journalism.In all,the author of this thesis will employ the features of New Journalism to interpret The Armies of the Night.By means of this literary approach,this thesis can restore Americans' violent emotion of anti-war in the 1960 s and disclose the intrinsic reasons of America to wage the Vietnam War.Meanwhile,in this way,it can show the blurry boundary between history and novel and embody the literary characteristics of this reportage.Therefore,the readers can realize the social significance and the aesthetic value of this masterpiece better.