Registry
Module Specifications
Current Academic Year 2012 - 2013
Please note that this information is subject to change.
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We try to define what 'literature' is and what 'journalism' is. Isn't there a truth-discipline to journalism? Unfortunately, accounts The relationship between what generally constitutes 'literature' and what usually is considered 'journalism' has, since the Modernists, been fraught. Journalism proclaims to be the "language of democracy" (it isn't). We begin at Daniel Defoe and record how early journalism was made for the ear rather than the eye. In the 1960s & 70s, especially in the United States, journalism became part of the counter culture. It challenged the way we tell stories. Government was known to be liars; the military; the police were known to be corrupt. So 'official sources' were not to be trusted. We study the 'New Journalism' of the 1960s & 70s - Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, Hunter S. Thompson, Gay Talese and others; c15 in all.We look at the British (mostly Granta) and Irish scenes (mostly The Bell). Interestingly, Swift, Yeats, Joyce, Wilde, Shaw realised the power of the press and had respect for it despite their pronouncements. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1. Recognise literary journalism. It generally takes about seven years of regular, even very regular, writing to reach your peak. The student should practice this type of writing. If one of them gets to 'The New Yorker' say, it will have been worth it. 2. Students will also recognise there is more than one way to tell a story. The 'inverted pyramid' can hide as much as it discloses. 3. The crux comes when to believe the 'institutional' voice against the 'individual' voice of journalism. 4. One of the four 'devices', identified in Tom Wolfe's renowned Introduction to 'New Journalism' (Picador, 1975), to make it read like a novel yet be all 'fact' bothers me. It's well-meant but I fear it breaches the truth-discipline of journalism. 5. There is emphasis placed on 'The Bell' to show how literary journalism reacted in the 1940s and half the 50s to a rigid Ireland. Young people seldom realise just the way 'The Bell' was sold - in brown paper bags and a general air of 'under the counter'. At least, in the smaller towns of Ireland, it was sold like this. 6. The greater amount of time is spent though on American 'New Journalism' because young students can identify with it. Students also get to do Memoir, [Literary] Travel writing or a second essay (very few choose the essay). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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