City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2019 Transfigurations of the News: True Fictions, Strange Thresholds Jeffrey Peer The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3234 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] TRANSFIGURATIONS OF THE NEWS: TRUE FICTIONS, STRANGE THRESHOLDS by Jeffrey Peer A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2019 © 2019 Jeffrey Robert Peer All Rights reserved ii Transfigurations of the News: True Fictions, Strange Thresholds by Jeffrey Peer This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Comparative Literature in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date John Brenkman Chair of Examining Committee Date Giancarlo Lombardi Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Paul Julian Smith Bettina Lerner Noël Carroll THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Transfigurations of the News: True Fictions, Strange Thresholds by Jeffrey Peer Advisor: John Brenkman Abstract: This dissertation compares twentieth-century literary journalism from the U.S. and Mexico, with a focus on the nonfiction novel and the Mexican chronicle. The dissertation considers the two genres both historically and theoretically, in order to distinguish the borders between literature and unscrupulous journalism. North American journalism is at the heart of a crisis over the epistemological status of facts and their place in our political discourse. Some have argued that works of literary nonfiction can damage social norms like journalistic objectivity. Others argue that forms like the chronicle and the nonfiction novel can describe experience better than news reports. This dissertation engages with debates in and between the disciplines of history and theory of the novel, rhetorical and narrative studies of literature, philosophy of art and of literature, Latin American studies, Mexican studies and more, in order to investigate the boundaries of literature and journalism, art and representation, and fiction and fact. iv Preface Many excellent works of literary journalism did not find their way into this dissertation, simply because there were far too many for me to consider. Some of the books discussed here are quite famous, others deserve more attention, but there were certainly many more which I might also have included. I have preferred to read closely rather than widely. I have not done a quantitative analysis of literary journalism, so I cannot summon numerical statistics proving that these examples are representative of the genre, but I would like to think they are. I also have not posited a definition of literary journalism. Defining literary genres is always a tricky business and the boundaries of this one seemed too expansive and nebulous. Even the name is contentious. Though other critics prefer to call it literary nonfiction, documentary fiction, etc., I use the term literary journalism, unless I am referring to examples that seem to me to borrow the form of the novel. In those cases, I will use another confusing – but now canonical – term: the nonfiction novel. Beginning by defining the form would be more typical procedure in a work of analytic philosophy and this dissertation is certainly not that, though I am deeply indebted to the works of several analytic philosophers whom I very much admire. I engage with many arguments across a number of disciplines, ranging from: novel studies, rhetorical studies and narratology; to philosophy of art and philosophy of literature; to Latin American and Mexican studies. I do not claim to analyze any of these arguments conclusively, but I do hope that my analysis sheds some light on them, their subjects and on the field in general. v This dissertation, you will find, is divided into two parts and four sections. Though these divisions may appear somewhat capricious, they follow a plan which, whether or not I have managed to follow it, made good sense at the outset of the project. The first division I made was between works of literary journalism written in English and published in the U.S.A. (Part One) and works written in Spanish published in Mexico (Part Two). I have kept these parts separate because I feel strongly that, despite some Mexican readers of the U.S. literary journalists, the two traditions are essentially distinct and need to be considered on their own merits. I see this as respecting the histories of the two traditions and cultures. But my hope is that the conclusions I draw in the two sections will reverberate across the division, and that a more expansive sense of what these literary journalisms have in common will result from my respecting their differences. The second division readers of this study will encounter is between historiographical (Sections One and Three) and analytical (Sections Two and Four) critical approaches. It seemed important in each case to consider these works first diachronically, that is, as a history to be elucidated and explored. In Section One, I have investigated the precedents for what would come to be known in the U.S.A., in 1965, as the nonfiction novel. This required sketching a general history of twentieth-century literary journalism in the U.S.A. and some discussion of what has been called the objectivity norm. In Section Three, I have linked three texts and three writers spanning nearly a century of Mexican literary history, revealing a literary genealogy while also outlining a tiny bit of the long history of a classic Mexican literary form. Sections Two and Four approach literary journalism as a question rather than as a history. In Section Two, I arrive at what might be described as something resembling a theory – vi though I doubt it deserves to be called one. In simplified terms, it is an argument for the value of employing skepticism when reading certain genres. Readers will find much of the theoretical part of my discussion in this section, especially in the chapter “The Nonfiction Novel and the Debates on Fictionality.” Readers interested in the importance of journalism as a social institution will find the problem outlined in “John Hersey’s Reversal: Fake News and Mimesis.” Section Four turns to one of the central works of contemporary Mexican literature, Elena Poniatowska’s Massacre in Mexico (1971). This section considers that book skeptically, while analyzing some assumptions about its genre that previous readers have made. But after considering literary and cultural studies of the 1968 Student Movement in Mexico, and after referring to a famous, perhaps analogous veracity debate in Latin American literature, I arrive at a surprising conclusion. Rather than simply reinforcing the conclusions reached in Section Two about the need for skeptical reading, this investigation suggests that skepticism should be used responsibly, with a nuanced understanding of genre and context helping to determine which texts deserve our belief, and which our admiration. vii Table of Contents Part One Section One Reporters-at-Large: John Hersey, Lillian Ross, Truman Capote and the Novel of Facts 1. The New Yorker and the Origins of Contemporary American Literary Journalism 1 2. John Hersey and the Fog of War 14 3. Lillian Ross and the Problem of the Art Industry 45 4. Why Not Make A Good Thing Better? Truman Capote’s Artistic License 63 5. Conclusion 72 Section Two Blurred Mirrors: The Nonfiction Novel and the Fake News 1. John Hersey’s Reversal: Fake News and Mimesis 81 2. The Nonfiction Novel and the Debates on Fictionality 92 3. Janet Malcolm, Joe McGinniss and the Journalist as Confidence Man 109 4. Truman Capote and the Ambiguities of Literary Character 121 5. Norman Mailer and the Novel as History 136 6. Conclusion: Skeptical Reading 151 Part Two Section Three Riding the Bus: Tracing a Legacy of Influence in Three Mexican Urban Chronicles 1. Origins and Idiosyncrasies of the Contemporary Mexican Chronicle 163 2. Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera and “The Novel of the Streetcar” 179 3. Salvador Novo and “Oh Mexico! A Novel in Which Nothing Happens” 194 4. José Joaquín Blanco Visits “Plaza Satélite” 212 5. Conclusion 234 Section Four Testimony and Literature: An Argument for Responsible Skepticism 1. Elena Poniatowska’s Massacre in Mexico as Problematic Literary Journalism 238 2. Critical Approaches to ’68 and its Legacy 259 3. Rigoberta Menchú, David Stoll and Literary Authority 273 4. Conclusion: Responsible Skepticism 289 Conclusion 293 Notes 297 Illustrations 307 Works Cited 309 viii List of Illustrations Exhibit A 307 Exhibit B 308 ix Part One Section One Reporters-at-Large: John Hersey, Lillian Ross, Truman Capote and the Novel of Facts 1. The New Yorker and the Origins of Contemporary American Literary Journalism Joseph Mitchell might be regarded as the finest writer of nonfiction ever to publish in the pages of the New Yorker magazine, which would be no small praise, among that company, except for the shrill voice and the raised hand in the back of the room intruding upon our ceremonies with an unforeseen objection: that Mitchell’s work was not nonfiction. Secretly, Mitchell was writing something more like fiction. The controversy began in 1944 at the height of Mitchell’s success. Among his most popular New Yorker pieces were a series of profiles of Hugh G. Flood, an elderly gentleman, retired owner of a house-wrecking company, who was spending his golden years down at the Fulton Fish Market. Mitchell’s profiles of Flood revealed the ninety-three-year-old’s odd habits and curious character.