Phenomenological Reproduction in Thompson and Mailer's New Journalism

Abstract

In this essay, I seek to interrogate the New Journalism of Hunter S. Thompson and Norman Mailer (exemplified in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas [1971] and The Armies of the Night [1968] respectively) through the lens of David L. Eason’s concepts, “cultural phenomenology” and “the image-world.” In doing so, I delve deeply into questions of epistemological authority, examining the methods and success of each writer in his attempts to communicate experience to the reader, as well as the relevance of this endeavor to Thompson and Mailer’s historical moment. By placing these two writers in conversation, I hope to identify areas of con- and di-vergence in order to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each writer’s approach. Through this method, New Journalism’s inner workings, which operate at the crossroads of phenomenology, journalism, and literature, come to the fore, illuminating the representational limits of the genre.