The debate surrounding "fake news" versus "real" news is nothing new. From Jonathan Swift's work as an acerbic, anonymous journal editor-turned-novelist to reporter Mark Twain's hoax stories to Mary Ann Evans' literary reviews written under her pseudonym, George Eliot, famous journalists and literary figures have always mixed fact, imagination and critical commentary to produce memorable works. Contrasting the rival yet complementary traditions of "literary" or "new" journalism in Britain and the U.S., this study explores the credibility of some of the "great" works of English literature.

Taking a thematic approach, this new companion provides an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and international study of American literary journalism. From the work of Frederick Douglass and Walt Whitman to that of Joan Didion and Dorothy Parker, literary journalism is a genre that both reveals and shapes American history and identity. This volume not only calls attention to literary journalism as a distinctive genre but also provides a critical foundation for future scholarship. It brings together cutting-edge research from literary journalism scholars, examining historical perspectives; themes, venues, and genres across time; theoretical approaches and disciplinary intersections; and new directions for scholarly inquiry. Provoking reconsideration and inquiry, while providing new historical interpretations, this companion recognizes, interacts with, and honors the tradition and legacies of American literary journalism scholarship. Engaging the work of disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, African American studies, gender studies, visual studies, media studies, and American studies, in addition to journalism and literary studies, this book is perfect for students and scholars of those disciplines.

This cutting-edge research companion addresses our current understanding of literary journalism’s global scope and evolution, offering an immersive study of how different nations have experimented with and perfected the narrative journalistic form/genre over time. The Routledge Companion to World Literary Journalism demonstrates the genre’s rich genealogy and global impact through a comprehensive study of its many traditions, including the crónica, the ocherk, reportage, the New Journalism, the New New Journalism, Jornalismo literário, periodismo narrativo, bao gao wen xue, creative nonfiction, Literarischer Journalismus, As-SaHafa al Adabiyya, and literary nonfiction. Contributions from a diverse range of established and emerging scholars explore key issues such as the current role of literary journalism in countries radically affected by the print media crisis and the potential future of literary journalism, both as a centerpiece to print media writ large and as an academic discipline universally recognized around the world. The book also discusses literary journalism's responses to war, immigration, and censorship; its many female and Indigenous authors; and its digital footprints on the internet. This extensive and authoritative collection is a vital resource for academics and researchers in literary journalism studies, as well as in journalism studies and literature in general. Chapter 9 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Literary Journalism Goes Inside Prison: Just Sentences opens up a new exploration of literary journalism – immersive, long-form journalism so beautifully written that it can stand as literature – in the first anthology to examine literary journalism and prison. In this book, a wide range of compelling subjects are considered. These include Nelson Mandela and other prisoners of apartheid; the made-in-prison podcast Ear Hustle; women’s experiences of life behind bars; Behrouz Boochani’s 2018 bestseller No Friend but the Mountains; George Orwell’s artful writing on incarceration; Pete Earley’s immersion into the largest prison in the United States, The Hot House; Arthur Koestler and the Spanish Civil War; Ted Conover’s year as a prison guard in Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing and (most originally) Bruce Springsteen’s execution narrative Nebraska. This volume will benefit anyone who writes, studies or teaches any form of narrative nonfiction. Eleven international scholars articulate what makes the work they are analysing so exceptional. At the same time, they offer insights on a diverse range of vital topics. These include journalism ethics, journalism and trauma, media history, cultural studies, criminology and social justice.

Low pay. Uncertain work prospects. Diminished prestige. Why would anyone still want be a journalist? Drawing on in-depth interviews in France and the United States, Matthew Powers and Sandra Vera-Zambrano explore the ways individuals come to believe that journalism is a worthy pursuit—and how that conviction is managed and sometimes dissolves amid the profession’s ongoing upheavals. For many people, journalism represents a job that is interesting and substantial, with opportunities for expression, a sense of self-fulfillment, and a connection to broader social values. By distilling complex ideas, holding the powerful to account, and revealing hidden realities, journalists play a crucial role in helping audiences make sense of the world. Experiences in the profession, though, are often far more disappointing. Many find themselves doing tasks that bear little relation to what attracted them initially or are frustrated by institutions privileging what sells over what informs. The imbalance between the profession’s economic woes and its social importance threatens to erode individuals’ beliefs that journalism remains a worthwhile pursuit. Powers and Vera-Zambrano emphasize that, as with many seemingly individual choices, social factors—class, gender, education, and race—shape how journalists make sense of their profession and whether or not they remain in it. An in-depth story of one profession under pressure, The Journalist’s Predicament uncovers tensions that also confront other socially important jobs like teaching, nursing, and caretaking.

With an international focus, and a broad historical scope, this student-friendly book focuses on the neglected journalism of writers more famous for their novels or plays, and explores the specific functions of journalism within the public sphere, and the literary qualities of journalism.

Silent Film and the Formations of U.S. Literary Culture: Literature in Motion argues that the emergence of motion pictures constituted a defining moment in U.S. literary history. Author Sarah Gleeson-White discovers what happened to literary culture-both popular and higher-brow—when inserted into the spectacular world of motion pictures during the early decades of the twentieth century. How did literary culture respond to, and how was it altered by, the development of motion pictures, literature's exemplar and rival in narrative realism and enthrallment? Gleeson-White draws on extensive archival film and literary materials, and unearths a range of collaborative, cross-media expressive and industrial practices to reveal the manifold ways in which early-twentieth-century literary culture sought both to harness and temper the reach of motion pictures.

This book deals with an aspect of the Great War that has been largely overlooked: the war reportage written based on British and American authors’ experiences at the Western Front. It focuses on how the liminal experience of the First World War was portrayed in a series of works of literary journalism at different stages of the conflict, from the summer of 1914 to the Armistice in November 1918. Sara Prieto explores a number of representative texts written by a series of civilian eyewitness who have been passed over in earlier studies of literature and journalism in the Great War. The texts under discussion are situated in the ‘liminal zone’, as they were written in the middle of a transitional period, half-way between two radically different literary styles: the romantic and idealising ante bellum tradition, and the cynical and disillusioned modernist school of writing. They are also the product of the various stages of a physical and moral journey which took several authors into the fantastic albeit nightmarish world of the Western Front, where their understanding of reality was transformed beyond anything they could have anticipated.

Reader's Guide Literature in English provides expert guidance to, and critical analysis of, the vast number of books available within the subject of English literature, from Anglo-Saxon times to the current American, British and Commonwealth scene. It is designed to help students, teachers and librarians choose the most appropriate books for research and study.