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LiteraryStudies Journalism Return address: Literary Journalism Studies State University of New York at Cortland Department of Communication Studies P.O. Box 2000 L Cortland, New York 13045-0900 J U.S.A. S Literary Journalism Studies Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 2011 Engaging civic life . Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 2011 2011 Fall 2, No. 3, Vol. Published at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University 1845 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208, U.S.A. The Journal of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies Credit: U.S. General Services Administration. In the public domain. Cover art: Fourteenth Street and Sixth Avenue, painting by John Sloan, 1934. Part of the New Deal arts program to put artists to work during the Great Depression by engaging them in civic life. On loan to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Literary Journalism Studies The Journal of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 2011 ––––––––––––––––– Contents Information for Contributors 4 Note from the Editor 5 ––––––––––––––––– The Underwater Narrative: Joan Didion’s Miami by Christopher P. Wilson 9 Radio and Civic Courage in the Communications Circuit of John Hersey’s “Hiroshima” by Kathy Roberts Forde and Matthew W. Ross 31 Making Overtures: Literature and Journalism, 1968 and 2011— A Dutch Perspective by Thomas Vaessens 55 Literary Journalism and the Drama of Civic Life: Keynote address, IALJS, Brussels, Belgium, May 13, 2011 by John J. Pauly 73 The 2011 Keynote: An Appreciation by Richard Lance Keeble 83 Book Reviews 89 Selected Bibliography of Scholarship and Criticism Examining Literary Journalism by Miles Maguire and Roberta Maguire 125 ––––––––––––––––– Mission Statement 128 International Association for Literary Journalism Studies 129 2 Literary Journalism Studies Copyright © 2011 International Association for Literary Journalism Studies. All rights reserved. Website: www.literaryjournalismstudies.org Literary Journalism Studies is the journal of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies and is published twice yearly. For information on subscribing or membership, go to www.ialjs.org. Member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals Published twice a year, Spring and Fall issues. Subscriptions, $50/year (individuals), $75/year (libraries). ISSN 1944-897X (paper) ISSN 1944-8988 (online) 3 Literary Journalism Studies Editor John C. Hartsock State University of New York at Cortland, U.S.A. Associate Editors Bill Reynolds William Dow Ryerson University, Canada American University of Paris, France Jenny McKay Miles Maguire University of Sunderland, U.K. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, U.S.A. Roberta Maguire University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, U.S.A. Book Review Editor Thomas Connery University of St. Thomas, U.S.A. Publisher David Abrahamson Northwestern University, U.S.A. Editorial Offices Literary Journalism Studies State University of New York at Cortland Department of Communication Studies P.O. Box 2000 Cortland, New York 13045–0900 U.S.A. Email: [email protected] Published at the Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University 1845 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208, U.S.A. 4 SUBMISSION INFORMATION ITERARY JOURNALISM STUDIES invites submission of original scholarly L articles on literary journalism, which is also known as narrative journalism, liter- ary reportage, reportage literature, New Journalism, and the nonfiction novel, as well as literary and narrative nonfiction that emphasizes cultural revelation. The journal has an international focus and seeks submissions on the theory, history, and pedagogy of literary journalism throughout the world. All disciplinary approaches are welcome. Submissions should be informed with an awareness of the existing scholarship and should be between 3,000 and 8,000 words in length, including notes. To encourage international dialogue, the journal is open to publishing on occasion short examples or excerpts of previously published literary journalism accompanied by a scholarly gloss about or an interview with the writer who is not widely known outside his or her country. The example or excerpt must be translated into English. The scholarly gloss or interview should generally be between 1,500 and 2,500 words long and in- dicate why the example is important in the context of its national culture. Together, both the text and the gloss generally should not exceed 8,000 words in length. The contributor is responsible for obtaining all copyright permissions, including from the publisher, author and translator as necessary. The journal is also willing to consider publication of exclusive excerpts of narrative literary journalism accepted for publica- tion by major publishers. Email submission (as a Micsrosoft Word attachment) is mandatory. A cover page indicating the title of the paper, the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and con- tact information, along with an abstract (50–100 words), should accompany all sub- missions. The cover page should be sent as a separate attachment from the abstract and submission to facilitate distribution to readers. No identification should appear linking the author to the submission or abstract. All submissions must be in Eng- lish Microsoft Word and follow the Chicago Manual of Style (Humanities endnote style)<http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html>. All submis- sions will be blind reviewed. Send submissions to the editor at <literaryjournalism- [email protected]>. Copyright reverts to the contributor after publication with the provision that if re- published reference is made to initial publication in Literary Journalism Studies. OOK REVIEWS are invited. They should be 1,000–2,000 words and focus on Bthe scholarship of literary journalism and recent original works of literary jour- nalism that deserve greater recognition among scholars. Book reviews are not blind reviewed but selected by the book review editor based on merit. Reviewers may sug- gest book review prospects or write the book review editor for suggestions. Usually reviewers will be responsible for obtaining their respective books. Book reviews and/ or related queries should be sent to Thomas B. Connery at <[email protected]>. 5 Note from the Editor… ngage: to connect, to share, to rub shoulders. I’m having my ESaturday morning cup of coffee and thinking how I might define the verb “engage.” I put down the cup and reach for the closest dictionary at hand, Webster’s Seventh (I know, dated, but closest at hand): One definition resonates: “to induce, to partici- pate.” Two synonyms: “involve, entangle.” What is impressed upon my mind is how much the verb “engage” is at the cen- ter of what literary journalism attempts to do—to engage, to involve, to entangle. And if, as suggested elsewhere, literary journalism is (among other things) about cultural revelation, then it is about engagement of the cultural, the social, the civic in their different colors, shades, degrees, and gradations. I especially like the synonym “involve” because it suggests another central quality to literary journalism. Alan Tra- chtenberg, in his discussion of Stephen Crane, identified that quality of the genre as the ability to engage “in an exchange of subjectivities,” when contrasted with the mainstream models of journalism extant at the end of the nineteenth century and which dominated much of the twentieth, models that in their claims to “objectivity” objectified experience and alienated readers. t is that sense of alienation that has contributed to the rise of the “civic journalism” Imovement in the United States (among other places) in recent years, the sense that readers and viewers were separated or alienated from the larger world out there that is the subject of journalism. Certainly there has been a response: Newspapers, for example, have created citizen focus groups. They invite citizen authors and journalists as regular contributors in an incremental evolution beyond the old-fashioned letters- to-the-editor sections of newspapers. And, they routinely offer blogs on their web sites in cyberspace where the citizenry can comment on issues of civic concern, much as did the good citizens who gathered in the Forum Romanum when news from the Senate was posted on the alba (“What’s black and white and re[a]d all over?” goes the tired, worn out Forum joke. “The alba, of course”). The result, to be sure, was civic engagement in the discussions that followed while drinking a good cup of the best Falernian vintage, or perhaps some fine imported from Lesbos. There are, of course, different ways to realize civic engagement in journalism— including in the discussions over wine or beer at the local tavern. But what has struck me across the years is how what has been missing from the discussion of civic journal- ism is the contribution literary journalism can make precisely because the genre’s sin qua non is the attempt, however imperfect, to close the gap or distance between alien- ated subjectivities—even if the full exchange of subjectivities is ultimately impossible, a I have long insisted. At the least, one gains a better understanding or insight or em- pathy into those once alienated subjectivities so often consigned to the cultural Other. Literary Journalism Studies Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 2011 6 Literary Journalism Studies At last May’s conference of the International Association for Literary Journalism Studies in Brussels, John J. Pauly, provost at Marquette University in Milwaukee, but, more important, one of the pioneers of