Książki

For more than 40 years, the radically subjective style of participatory journalism known as Gonzo has been inextricably associated with the American writer Hunter S. Thompson. Around the world, however, other journalists approach unconventional material in risky ways, placing themselves in the middle of off-beat stories, and relate those accounts in the supercharged rhetoric of Gonzo. In some cases, Thompson's influence is apparent, even explicit; in others, writers have crafted their journalistic provocations independently, only later to have that work labelled "Gonzo." In either case, Gonzo journalism has clearly become an international phenomenon.

In Fear and Loathing Worldwide, scholars from fourteen countries discuss writers from Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australia, whose work bears unmistakable traces of the mutant Gonzo gene. In each chapter, "Gonzo" emerges as a powerful but unstable signifier, read and practiced with different accents and emphases in the various national, cultural, political, and journalistic contexts in which it has erupted. Whether immersed in the Dutch crack scene, exploring the Polish version of Route 66, following the trail of the 2014 South African General Election, or committing unspeakable acts on the bus to Turku, the writers described in this volume are driven by the same fearless disdain for convention and profound commitment to rattling received opinion with which the "outlaw journalist" Thompson scorched his way into the American consciousness in the 1960s, '70s, and beyond. Hunter Thompson once told a young audience in Boulder, Colorado, not to trust him. He 'used to test drugs at Rolling Stone Magazine,' for heaven's sake. Don't trust anyone, he said. Go find out for yourself. His advice has been taken by the contributors to this volume, which revives the legacy of the good Doctor of Journalism all around the world. * Norman Sims, author of True Stories: A Century of Literary Journalism *

Fear and Loathing Worldwide: Gonzo Journalism Beyond Hunter S. Thompson

Introduction

Robert Alexander (Brock University, Canada)



Part I: First Waves, Currents of Tradition



1. Gonzo Down Under: Matthew Thompson and the Literary and Political Legacy of Hunter S. Thompson

Christopher Kremmer (University of New South Wales, Australia)



2. Diffusion of the Inimitable: Helge Timmerberg and the Advent of German Gonzo

Tobias Eberwein (Austrian Academy of Sciences and Alpen-Adria University, Austria)



3. Gonzo Journalism in France: "Another Kind of Journalism is Possible"

Honorine Reussard (Royaumont Abbaye & Fondation, France)



4. Gonzo Brazilian Style: Arthur Verissimos Adaptations of Thompson's Journalism

Monica Martinez (University of Sorocaba, Brazil) and Mateus Yuri Passos (Universidade Metodista de Sao Paulo, Brazil)





Part II: Gonzo as Socio-Political Intervention



5. Australia's Elisabeth Wynhausen and a Century of Gonzo Ethnography

Sue Joseph (University of Technology Sydney, Australia)



6. Loathing in Southern Denmark: Gonzo Ethos in a Showdown with Tabloid Journalism

Christine Isager (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)



7. "Among Madmen and Crooks": Stella Braam's Strange and Terrible Saga of Total Immersion in Amsterdam

Hilde Van Belle (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium)



8. The Truth is Always Gonzo: David Leigh, Politics, and the Frontiers of Secrecy

Nick Nuttall (London, UK)



Part III: Gender and the Osmotic Gonzo Body



9. "Mastering the Art of Being Powerless and Completely Stupid": Australian Gonzo as l'Ecriture Masculine

Fiona Giles (University of Sydney, Australia)



10. La Revista Prohibida Para las Mujeres: Gonzo By Women in SoHo Magazine of Colombia, South America

Carlos A. Cortes-Martinez (University of Missouri, USA), Berkley Hudson (University of Missouri, USA), and Joy Jenkins (University of Oxford, UK)



11. The Return of Gonzo through the Female Body: Gabriela Wiener and the Journalist as a Sexual Vortex

Pablo Calvi (Stony Brook University, USA)





Part IV: Edgework, Fantasy, and Truth



12. Scatological Anecdotes, Heavy Drinking, and Backpacker Culture: Gonzo humor and Edgework in Contemporary Finnish Journalism

Joonas Koivukoski (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Janne Zareff (University of Jyvaskyla, Finland)



13. Fear and Loathing in the Desert of the Real: Hunter S. Thompson, "Hannibal Elector," and the 2014 South African General Election

Robert Alexander (Brock University, Canada)



14. Cultural Insight by Way of Distortion: Ziemowit Szczerek's Introduction and Immediate Deconstruction of Gonzo in Poland

Mateusz Zimnoch (Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland)





Part V: The Continuing Story of Gonzo Worldwide



15. The Hijacking of "Gonzo": In Name Only, Hunter S. Thompson's Style is Everywhere on the Internet

Jacqueline Marino (Kent State University, USA)



16. Future Gonzo by Spider Jerusalem: Thompson's Journalism Adapted to the World of the Graphic Novel

Ashlee Nelson (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)



Afterword: Gonzo Without End, Amen

William McKeen (Boston University, USA)



Index