The 'Bazaar of Metaphor' in Norman Mailer's Miami and the Siege of Chicago

Seminar paper from the year 2000 in the subject American Studies - Literature grade: 2 (B) Ruhr-University of Bochum (English Seminar) course: The Greening of America: Fiction and Anti-fiction in the 1960s language: English abstract: Mailer the novelist sees himself as agent for change. His critics on the other hand assign to his works the brilliancy of reportage. The nonfiction novel exists in order not to change the American situation that makes possible so much literary aggression against it. Norman Mailer′s Miami and The Siege of Chicago is an account of the 1968 Conventions in Miami (Republicans) and Chicago (Democrats). This classic work of interpretive political reportage45 consists of two parts the first Nixon in Miami and the second The Siege of Chicago. Mailer uses a device he developed to high craft: third-person story telling based on first-person participation.His style and rhetorical devices stand out among other novelists. When Mailer describes the Republican convention in Miami using metaphorical language filled with disgust he risks to offend the audience: And the country roaring like the bull in its wounds coughing like a sick lung in the smog [...]. His informal critical account is often directed against the audience. Even though it sounds like a paradox with this style Mailer the surrealistic critic and observer of American society seems to attract many readers to his novels. The Republican Convention 1968 in Miami preceded the election of Nixon as 33rd American President which was a close victory of 434% vs. Hubert Humphrey of the Democrats with a total of 427% votes. The Amphitheatre in Chicago location of the Democratic Convention had according to Mailer then the packed intimacy of a neighborhood fightclub8 and the air of circus was also the air of slaughterhouse. Chicago was also home to a Yippie Convention which made the situation worse and was reason enough for the Democrats to discuss about another location