Abstract

This study examines the literary and journalistic shifts occurring in the 1960s to which both the nonfiction novel and New Journalism arose in response. This thesis examines the two defining texts of this genre: Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Armies of the Night . I argue that the nonfiction novel was a natural extension of both Capote and Mailer's investments in and experiences with journalism and also provide literary analysis of their texts in light of these investments. The thesis establishes the context and scope of the nonfiction novel, not so much as a sub-category of New Journalism, but as a literary form unto itself with its own parameters, goals, and ambitions.