Writing in the borderlands : a critical review of literary journalism and historiography, 1989-2011

• Main Author: Wheelwright, Julie
• Published: City University London 2014
• Subjects: 070.9; PN Literature (General)
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.600669

In this review of a body of literary journalism and historical writing over three decades, the author identifies shared epistemological and methodological challenges between these areas. The research questions arose out of the author’s three historical books, ‘Amazons and Military Maids: Women Who Dressed as Men in Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness’ (1989), ‘The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage’ (1992) and ‘Esther: The Remarkable True Story of Esther Wheelwright: Puritan Child, Native Daughter and Mother Superior’ (2011) and a selection of related journalism. The research questions related to how historians and literary journalists identify subjects as marginal and central; what methodologies are employed in their investigations and their writing; the centrality of an inter-disciplinary approach to narrative writing in both fields and how the professional authority faces significant challenges of identity and methodology in the digital age.