Masters Theses

S. Scott Blue

Date of Award

12-1994

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Paul Ashdown

Committee Members

Ed Caudill, Cynthia Fleming

Abstract

This thesis provides insight into Alex Haley's writing of the Autobiography of Malcolm X, first arguing that it resembles Haley's earlier Playboy Interview with Malcolm X via Kenneth Burke's form of rhetoric knows as dramatism. Second, through his technique, Haley practically invented a new form of journalism that shares many clements with a relatively new genre of reportage known as literary journalism. Third, a look at the initial reviews of the Autobiography were summarized. Fourth, the unique collaborative process between Malcolm X and Alex Haley explored. Finally, Alex Haley's own correspondence was studied to reveal firsthand the process of the book's writing.

These exercises tell a story of Alex Haley's six-year struggle with the "as told to" Autobiography of Malcolm X. It concludes that Haley's challenge was to create a humanized Malcolm X, and he did so building on the same method used in his Playboy Interview with Malcolm X, a method that Haley himself pioneered and is similar to literary journalism. He created a drama of everyday human experience through a collaborative venture with Malcolm X. In the end, Alex Haley facilitated a tragic hero of the 1960's civil rights struggle who is part cultural icon, part "Everyman."

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