On the night of November 14, 1959, a sleepy Kansas town was rudely awakened by the mass murder of the Clutters, a local farming family. "A wealthy wheat farmer, his wife and their two young children were found shot to death today in their home," The New York Times reported. "They had been killed by shotgun blasts at close range after being bound and gagged. There were no signs of a struggle, and nothing had been stolen. The telephone lines had been cut." The Clutter murder attracted the attention of a young, ambitious, and exceptionally creative writer named Truman Capote. Capote convinced his editors at The New Yorker to let him cover the story, and set off for Kansas. The rest is history. In Cold Blood became an instant best seller when it was published in 1965. It launched Capote into the first ranks of American writers. And it marked the invention of a new, singularly significant genre: the nonfiction novel.

Since then, some of America's sharpest, most innovative authors have been practitioners of narrative nonfiction, a style that melds fact and fiction and that requires writers to be both expert researchers and compelling narrators. In this course, we will watch this unusual and unlikely genre evolve, asking why the nonfiction novel emerged when it did, what its strengths and weaknesses are, and how it manages to hover between two seemingly opposed styles: imaginative storytelling and objective journalism. Our concern throughout will be to discover how--and whether--such a paradoxically conceived genre works, while at the same time making it the basis for a broader investigation of what narrative is.

Required Texts (available at the Penn Book Center):
Boynton, Robert, The New, New Journalism
Capote, Truman, In Cold Blood
Krakauer, Jonathan, Into the Wild
Mailer, Norman, The Executioner's Song
Orlean, Susan, The Orchid Thief

Requirements:
One short paper (5-7 pages), due February 28
One longer research paper (15-20 pages), due April 24
Weekly weblog postings
Various short, informal writing and research exercises

Schedule of Readings

January 8 Introduction
January 10 In class: "What is narrative?" Outside class: Read In Cold Blood

January 15 MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
January 17 In Cold Blood

January 22 In Cold Blood
January 24 In Cold Blood

January 29 In Cold Blood
January 31 Discuss Capote
ASSIGNMENT: Scan for stories

February 5 "Frank Sinatra Has a Cold"; Outside class: Read Executioner's Song
February 7 Essays on the new journalism; Outside class: Read Executioner's Song

February 12 Executioner's Song
February 14 Executioner's Song

February 19 WORKSHOP: In-class writing
February 21 Executioner's Song

February 26 WORKSHOP: In-class writing
February 28 FIRST PAPER DUE

March 5 SPRING BREAK
March 7 SPRING BREAK

March 12 Into the Wild
March 14 Into the Wild

March 19 Into the Wild
FINAL PAPER TOPIC DUE
March 21 Into the Wild
RESEARCH EXERCISE

March 26 Into the Wild
March 28 Susan Orlean, "Orchid Fever"

April 2 The Orchid Thief
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND RESEARCH PLAN DUE
April 4 The Orchid Thief

April 9 The Orchid Thief
April 11 Adaptation

April 16 Workshop
April 18 Last day of class

April 24 FINAL PAPER DUE