Order out of chaos - Highlighting the chaos inherent in the order. How Hunter S. Thompson’s early texts give value to fiction by challenging the authority of politically constructed truths

This master's thesis concerns Hunter S. Thompson and his position in the canon of American fiction writers. Through a literary reading of a number of Thompson's early articles from the collection The Great Shark Hunt, published by Summit Books in 1979, I distance Thompson from his designated role as Duke of Gonzo" and analyse the texts on their substantial literary merit. From my reading, Thompson should be recognized as a writer of fiction as his works contain numerous critical elements which makes it reductive to speak of them as journalism. From a theoretical backdrop of Mikhail Bakhtin, Derek Attridge and Rafe McGregor I show how the distinction between journalism and literature lies in the portrayal and understanding of truth, and how truth is a concept is dependent on subjective interpretation. The main argument of the thesis' latter half concerns how, when noticed, the persistent political discussion of who owns and authoritatively claims to present the whole truth is more of a red thread in Thompson's work than his comical discursions into depravity. By reading Thompson as a writer of fiction, this thesis seeks to highlight one of the reasons why literature remains an important democratic tool in modern society