Writing a History of the Present: The Los Angeles of Joan Didion and Eve Babitz

Abstract

This thesis examines a collection of personal essays written by Joan Didion and Eve Babitz in and about Los Angeles throughout the 1960s and 70s. Through an analysis of these authors’ works, this thesis critically examines the genre of the personal essay, making a case for the essay as a form of historical writing. This analysis brings together contemporary scholarship on historical writing with concepts drawn from the realm of affect theory, such as the “historical present” (Berlant 2011, 4), to explore how history can be written in a time where the past, present and future seem to overlap. At the forefront of the Los Angeles history written by Didion and Babitz are the themes of fame, death and morality, which both authors explore from their unique points of view, as Didion writes from the position of a journalist while Babitz writes as an Angeleno1 socialite and artist. This research addresses a gap in the scholarship surrounding Didion and Babitz as writers of history, as well as the general lack of research into the oeuvre of Babitz, which has received very little critical attention, especially when compared with the works of her contemporary and friend, Didion.