Research Archives - IALJS: The International Association for Literary Journalism Studies

Looking for Uncle Tom’s Cabin

I live in Natchitoches, Louisiana, in the parish of the same name; in Louisiana, we have parishes and not counties. After my landlord and neighbor gave me a copy of a little travelogue published in 1892 titled A Visit to Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Daniel B. Corley, a judge and former mayor of Abilene, Texas, I went looking…

Brian Gabrial

The Rapid Media Change Theory of the History of American Literary Journalism

Literary journalism emerges during times of rapid media change This essay is excerpted and adapted from Jonathan D. Fitzgerald’s forthcoming book How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, July 2023). When I was in graduate school and beginning to approach the field of literary journalism studies, I was…

Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

Literary Journalism In Fin-De-Siècle Vienna

A cultural tradition of newspapers. *Editor’s note: This article is from our archives. It originally appeared in Literary Journalism vol. 12, no. 2 (2018). Newspapers may not be the first cultural output that springs to mind in connection with Vienna, a city best known for its artistic and intellectual accomplishments over the last century. Instead,…

Kate McQueen

Literary Journalism in Twentieth Century Turkey

Literary journalism in twentieth century Turkey can be divided into two periods: pre-1950, when the first reportages were published, and post-1950. After 1950, examples of direct literary journalism began to proliferate. There are about fifteen direct literary journalism examples in this century ranging in topic from adventure to torturing. Some of these studies are: Ben…

Ömer Özer

The Lettered City

How the Crónicas of Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora helped shape New Spain *Editor’s note: This article is from our archives. It originally appeared in Literary Journalism vol. 14, no. 2 (2020). In Latin America, the crónica is an historical matter. Everything starts with the Crónicas de Indias, a group of texts written by conquerors, soldiers and…

Sac-Nicté Calderón

The Footprints in the Text

How do we keep an eye on process behind the product of literary journalism? I should start by acknowledging that I came to literary journalism studies per se (hereafter LJS) through something of a side-door: from American Studies, where I had been most recently writing about police power. And aside from an unabashedly partisan stint…

Chris Wilson

New Insights on Orwell as a Literary Journalist

George Orwell is one of the most researched authors on the planet. But immerse yourself in the man’s life and writings and new insights emerge. Since becoming a sub-editor on my local newspaper in Nottingham in 1970, and being inspired by George Orwell, the wonderfully creative and radical, committed journalist, I had always wanted to…

Richard Lance Keeble

Torturous Paths for Historical Research

Beyond a normative ontology of literary journalism *Editor’s note: This article is from our archives. It originally appeared in Literary Journalism vol. 12, no. 3 (2018). The aim of this text is two-fold. On the one hand, I want to give an account of my doctoral research project. On the other hand, this is a…

Hendrik Michael

Literary Journalism in Japan

*Editor’s note: This article is from our archives. It originally appeared in Literary Journalism vol. 4, no. 4 (2010). Virtually all literary varieties known in the Western world—novels, poems, dramas—exist in Japan in some form, with some dating back to the eleventh century, when the popular Tale of Genji was produced. Likewise, journalism’s various forms…

Miki Tanikawa

“In Dialogue with a Living, Breathing Tradition”: a Foreword to The Routledge Companion to American Literary Journalism

*Editor’s note: The Routledge Companion to American Literary Journalism is an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and international study of American literary journalism, written and edited by many longtime members of the IALJS. We’re republishing the book’s foreword to commemorate its new availability in paperback. American academia and journalism have long had an awkward relationship. An offspring of…

Robert S. Boynton