In Cold Blood as influential creative nonfiction and the applicability of nonfiction in critical writing instruction

摘要

The publication in 1965 of Truman Capote\u27s In Cold Blood re-familiarized America with the brutal slayings of a prominent rural Kansas farm family in November 1959. Since 1965, Capote\u27s account of the murder of the Herbert Clutter family, its investigation, and the arrest, trial, conviction, and execution of two ex-convicts for the killings has been the focus of much critical examination. The author\u27s blending of journalistic and novelistic writing styles in the book, along with his claim that it created a new genre, \u22the non-fiction novel,\u22 has prompted criticism from the worlds of both fiction and journalistic writing. This examination of In Cold Blood discusses Capote\u27s blending of fiction-writing and journalism and how through its blend of different genres of written discourse, it not only attracted the public\u27s attention--but serves as an effective pedagogical tool to examine rhetorical technique both singly and in comparison with other media formats. Its choice of subject matter, real-life brutal murders made more shocking by their locale and unlikely victims, and Capote\u27s blend of techniques from both fiction-writing and journalism are enough in themselves to hold students\u27 interest, even 50 years after the fact. However, students\u27 subsequent critical examination of this text as well as of the story\u27s recounting in other mediums adds the dimension necessary to transcend its status as just an entertaining literary work. Its applicability in implementing multiple literacies in the teaching of rhetorical analysis in post-secondary composition is demonstrated through an account of actual implementation in a freshman composition course at Iowa State University. The results demonstrate new and exciting pedagogical uses of Capote\u27s nonfiction novel and similar works and that examination of such techniques helps students become more discerning consumers of a variety of discourse.