Schmidt
AP Research Methods period 4
17 April 2016
And She Took the Other Path: the Impact and Critical Reception of Joan Didion Based on Literature and Reviews between1979 to 2015.
1. Introduction
This paper is built on three overarching assumptions: (1) Joan Didion has had a profound impact on the literary world through her documentation of political issues such as corruption, pivotal presidential elections and local issues—which ultimately fostered new political threads and rebirthed old ones; (2) Joan Didion’s femininity contrasts with the male writers of her time by building a place for women in the literary world—which ultimately expands the feminist movement; and (3) Joan Didion establishes a place for herself through her role as a west coast writer—or a writer originating from California. These theories will be tested through literature and reviews by critics between 1979 and 2015. This paper analyzes the critical reception of Joan Didion on the literature world. In this paper, the words “impact” and “reception” are used interchangeably and often.
Critical reception is defined as the positive or negative response of individuals—particularly journalists and experts in the art world—toward literary works. In this case, critical reception is focused singularly on Joan …show more content…
This paper is the first of its kind to be made. Many researchers have evaluated the merit of Joan Didion’s work, but none has done a project based on the critical reception of that work. In this way, this paper defines how critics add value to Joan Didion’s work by their critical reception towards it; the paper ultimately gauges the reception of Didion’s work by critics and how this affects Didion’s place in the literary