The place of New Journalism in the US literary process of the 1960s-1970s

Abstract

The article examines the literary landscape in the United States at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. During this period, the realistic novel underwent a profound crisis, linked in part to its inability to reflect a rapidly changing social reality through traditional narrative conventions. The research aims to identify the role of literary nonfiction in the literary process of this era. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that, for the first time, the position of New Journalism is conceptualized within the context of the crisis of the realistic novel and the emerging postmodern aesthetic. The authors conclude that the rise of New Journalism was largely driven by the need to develop new approaches for analyzing and reflecting the “turbulent 1960s”, while simultaneously responding to the crisis of both the novel genre and traditional journalism. T. Wolfe, T. Capote, N. Mailer, and H. Thompson proposed an approach combining rigorous factuality and journalistic reporting with a realistic selection of data and a postmodern play with various genre forms and narrative strategies. This synthesis allowed for the reflection of the fragmentation, paradox, and absurdity of American reality during the period under study.

Research materials

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Author information

About this article

Publication history

• Received: December 15, 2025.
• Published: March 13, 2026.

Keywords

• художественно-документальная литература
• литература факта
• Новый журнализм
• смерть романа
• Великий Американский Роман
• literary nonfiction
• literature of fact
• New Journalism
• death of the novel
• Great American Novel

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