Browsing by Subject "California"

In the Anglophone world, California remains a glamorized place, reserved for movie stars, surfers, and cowboys. While there are many famous Californian writers, Joan Didion and Eve Babitz remain incredibly popular for their depictions of California. Though Didion and Babitz hailed from slightly different social strata, both have an obsessive focus on California. Both write in a New Journalistic style and focus on similar happenings in their state. This makes a comparison of their works effective for analyzing cultural attitudes in their age group and social position. This thesis analyzes the works of Joan Didion and Eve Babitz. With Didion, I examine The White Album, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Where I was From, and South and West. With Babitz I focus on Eve’s Hollywood, Slow Days, Fast Company, and Black Swans. In this thesis, I will closely examine Didion and Babitz’s portrayal of Californian history, the environment, and identity, and the consequences of these portrayals. In this thesis I primarily use postcolonial theory, econarratology, and historical contextualization to analyze how California is depicted. After analyzing these works in these contexts, I find that although Didion and Babitz share a similar focus, they end up having very different treatments of those subjects. Didion’s past filled mythology end up erasing the horrors of colonization and cements a present where there is no space for those outside her circle. Babitz’s focus on the present makes her ignorant of the past that her present is dependent on. I additionally find that Didion relies on metaphor where Babitz uses the literal to create mythology. Finally, I find that California has been mythologized to such an extent that those born there at times see it as foreign and exotic.