الفهرس 
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Abstract
The three works covered in this study present different nonfictional writing; a novel, a book that reads like a novel, and a collection of essays. Though they vary in length, form, and prospective, they all grouped under the rubric of new journalism and the nonfiction. The three writers have tackles their subjects from three distinct perspectives: an absent/ silent narrator (Capote), a detached/observer narrator (Wolfe), and first person narrator /involved narrator (Didion). The three works share the sixties as a common background. Simultaneously, they present a disturbing image of the turbulent sixties; a shocking murder, a psychedelic movement, and hippie society. Thematically speaking, the selected works attempt to diagnose sociological problems, to illuminate the crisis of the American personality to be tested against the new reality of the American society, and reevaluate the American dream. In their works, they try to depict accurately damage, corruption, violence, and duplicity that flourished in the American society at the1960s.
All the three writers, in varying degrees, bring the turbulent sixties into the focus of their narrative. They condemn the American community in many forms. America is presented as guilty of committing atrocities as going to the Vietnam War, popularizing a materialistic version of the American dream, and misleading a whole generation of young men. The persistent question that keeps haunting the three writers is raised on the tongue of Didion; “what goes wrong?” What can create counterculture movement, separate communities and closed societies of young men independent from the mainstream of the American culture and morals? Among the lines, one can sense the painful feeling of nostalgia. This sense can be detected in obvious longing for stability; the ethos of family; and moral values of old America. The reader can sense an unmistakable disparity between American ideals and American realities.
The New Journalism provides the perfect medium for handling such kind of themes. With the insight of journalists and the sense of the sociologist, the writers provide an in depth coverage of these themes. The New Journalists reveal both the brightness and the darkness of society. They sought the changing of manners and morals in America at that age. Through the means gained by saturation (deep) reporting, they tried to make these unfamiliar manners and styles of life comprehensible of the society and their readers. sometimes, this extensive research prolonged to years as In Cold Blood. All these topics are treated in depth and authenticity that can be done only through the form of New Journalism and nonfiction novel. Despite all the drawbacks of the New Journalism, it has created new opportunities for creative writers. These writers have brought journalism to the level of art and made the factual experience meaningful. Besides, they bring a distinct set of cultural and social concerns to their work.
New Journalism draws its strength from applying techniques of realistic novel. Many scholars see the nonfiction as a natural development of the American realist novel. Journalistic novel or nonfiction novel makes use of the vitality of journalism and the effect of literary fictional devices in attracting a larger number of readers. It also deals with subjects and themes in depth and insight that traditional journalism and novel lack. Despite its detractors, New Journalism filled the void left by the retreat of the traditional novel in the sixties. Though the death of the novel proved its futility the novel is no longer the main vein of literary prose.
The appearance of hybrid forms of expressions results from a distinctive scene. The appearance of the hybrid forms of the novel must be read in its right context: the outcome of collective factors that started long before the sixties in the early fifties. These factors include the social, political, psychological disturbances, and the unleashing of the buried forces of the American psyche. Besides, an ontological shift that was the outcome of tragic experience in the history of humanity as WWI, and WWII. Such experiences left unhealed scars on the psyche of human consciousness. The appearance of new ontological reality caused a new distribution of narrative energy in post World War II. Such changes have pushed the traditional novel into the background and brought to prominence new forms of narrative, especially the nonfiction novel. The Nonfictional novel did not replace the realistic novel, but it provides new forms of creativity.
New Journalism has been praised and criticized severely. There have been long arguments about its novelty, origin and definition. The 1960s version of New Journalism has been liable for fierce attack for many reasons: its misnomer, the excessive use of New Journalism techniques, and displaying sensational subjects. The 1960s version represents an avant-garde movement. Every subsequent development of the new Journalism started from where it ends. Through the creativity of distinguished names as Capote, Wolfe, Didion, New Journalism and nonfiction novel gain the formal recognition as notable genre.
Every phase of New Journalism is different in its scope and aim. They all have shared in developing the tradition of the literary journalism in its current form. The 19th century new journalists- as Crane and Lincoln Steffen -addressed social and political concerns.The1960s generation experimented with the form. Each generation of journalists has developed a style of his own, but surely every generation makes use of the methods and techniques of previous trials of the new journalism and built his achievement on the heritage of their predecessors. Tom Wolfe’s generation battle of legacy was a fierce but rewarding battle for the next generation of literary journalists. Since the sixties, new journalists, have granted legitimacy over their existence in the literary field. Wolfe’s generation obtained a social status exclusive for novelists.
The New Journalism is not a homogeneous movement. It includes variety and range of techniques and stylistic devices. Each of these techniques has been employed individually by new journalists. The individuality in employing these techniques allows a different and distinguished outcome that varies from one to another. Though this variety provides New Journalism with the richness and diversity of styles, it makes generalization impossible. It also makes consensus on one unifying definition of the form difficult. Tom Wolfe sets the major technical devices of the form: The Dramatic scene, Recording Dialogue in full, Status Details, Point of View. Each of these techniques has been employed individually by new journalists. The individuality in employing these techniques allows a different and distinguished outcome that varies from one writer to another. There is an important question that critics neglect to explore is the peculiarity of the American experience in the new journalism and nonfiction novel.
Though the early trials of new journalism appeared in England, the real development of the genre has been achieved by American writers and novelists. In America, this genre spreads widely, and acquires its formal recognition as a literary movement. In addition to the fact that the largest number of studies of the new journalism was done by American scholars. The American experience becomes part and parcel and the cornerstone of any subsequent studies or critical development of the genre.
The American experience in the new journalism and nonfiction writing is worthy of study. The New Journalism seemed to flourish almost exclusively in America during the second half of the twentieth century. Neither Europe, nor South America embraced literary non-fiction the way the American did. This suggests that, there is something peculiarly American about the form. New Journalism is more closely tied to American Literature than scholars have traditionally recognized.
The growing importance and popularity of the nonfiction novel is away from being a circumstantial. The nonfiction novel is a logical development of the traditional novel; it will never replace the traditional novel. Both types share some of the generic features of the narrative form but they are surely differing in the area they cover. It will be easier if critics and scholars accept and recognize this opinion.