Gonzo Republic

Gonzo Republic looks at Hunter S. Thompson's complex relationship with America. Thompson was a patriot but also a stubborn individualist. Stephenson examines the whole range of Thompson's work, from his early reporting from the South American client states of the USA in the 1960s to his twenty-first-century internet columns on sport, politics and 9/11. Stephenson argues that Thompson inhabited, but was to some extent reacting against, the tradition of American individualism begun by the Founding Fathers and continued by Emerson and Thoreau. Thompson sought out the edge-the threshold of chaos and insanity-in order to define himself. His characters enact the same quest, travelling through the surreal landscape of his literary America: the Gonzo Republic.

"Stephenson is on the money. There is a need for a serious, academic study of Hunter S. Thompson. Stephenson's thematic approach is perfectly suited for the purpose of the book. Though he takes a serious, scholarly approach, Stephenson's writing is extremely accessible. I think Thompson would approve." (William McKeen, Professor and Chair, Journalism Department, Boston University, USA, and author of Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson (W.W. Norton, 2008).)"

William Stephenson is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Chester, where he teaches modernist and postmodernist literature. His publications include John Fowles (Northcote, 2003), several book chapters and articles in journals including Critique, Journal of Cultural Research and a/b: Auto/Biography Studies.