Witnessing the Sixties

This volume focuses on the convergence between journalism and literature in the 1960s. The sixties is shorthand for a ubiquitous social, political and cultural upheaval in the Western world with its culmination point in 1968. The changes in society were so encompassing and impressive that many considered traditional ways of making sense of the world no longer sufficient; accepted cultural forms suddenly seemed to lose their capacity to interpret reality. While witnessing and experiencing the reshaping of society both journalists and novelists - as well as film makers and artists - had to find new ways to describe what was happening. Imagination and commitment, subjectivity and performativity were pervading literary and journalistic representations alike. The contributions in this volume explore how journalistic and literary norms, practices and forms got entwined in the 1960s and how the limits of both domains were stretched.