Reinventing the Feature Story: Mythic Cycles in American Literary Journalism

Although literary journalism is now widely accepted as an integral part of all American prose literature, there has been scant examination of its underlying themes, which have remained constant even as the literature itself has evolved. By looking at literary journalism as narrative - the artifact of myth - its cultural power and history are revealed. As a vehicle of myth, literary journalism's growth corresponds to the progression of myth through its primary, romantic and consummatory stages. Each stage of literary journalism is a tool for converting readers through sensational example to the moral values and social obligations of a particular myth stage. Each stage of myth creates the need for the subsequent stage in a continual literary cycle.