A Georgetown University English professor’s lecture on the cultural and literary significance of Truman Capote’s novel “In Cold Blood” was featured on Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN), a nonprofit public service network, Sept. 28.
C-SPAN’s “American History TV” program, which publishes academic discussions of United States history, recorded Professor Christopher Shinn’s lecture from his Summer 2024 class, “Pulp Fiction.” Shinn’s class focused on reading and studying popular novels, and C-SPAN contacted him expressing their interest in filming an English professor for the program.
Shinn said Capote encouraged readers to question the nature of violence in the United States and how cultures value “good” violence, such as the use of the death penalty, as a just response to “bad” violence.
“‘In Cold Blood’ gets at the core of our so-called beliefs in this nation that violence is necessary to regenerate society to save it from itself,” Shinn said during the lecture.
The lecture highlighted Capote’s portrayal of violence in his genre-defining nonfiction novel, which depicts the brutal and nonsensical murder of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kan., through the perspective of the two murderers waiting for their executions.
Shinn said that although people in the United States tend to avoid conversations about retributive violence, it remains prevalent.
“People still believe in that sense of justice,” Shinn told The Hoya. “It’s just that we recoil from hangings and public displays of murder that equate the state’s actions with that of the murders themselves.”
Shinn said “In Cold Blood” used the conventions of American Western and detective stories, but inverted them by humanizing the murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith.
“There’s a discord between what our expectations are in a story and the outcome,” Shinn said.
Shinn said to his students in the lecture that “In Cold Blood” remains relevant because it speaks to the continuous nature of violence in the United States by exploring the impact the murders have on a small community.
“Senseless violence is something that we face on a day-to-day basis, and it doesn’t seem that it will abate anywhere in the near future,” Shinn said during the lecture.
Shinn said Capote’s work was part of his attempt to understand and discuss the scale and tragedy of the violence.
“Capote tries to capture one study, but this tragedy is ongoing on a massive scale, day in and day out,” Shinn told The Hoya. “It’s heartbreaking to see how much violence has destroyed the fabric of our society and made it so commonplace.”
Shinn said he became interested in “In Cold Blood” because it acts as a link between popular fiction, journalism and literature, arguing that Capote was addressing the divide between journalists and creative authors by pioneering the “nonfiction novel.”
“It has these great literary ambitions to be more than just a sensational work of pulp fiction,” Shinn said during the lecture. “What Capote proposes is very controversial — not only for the public, because they haven’t seen necessarily a work of literature of this kind, but more so because in the literary establishment to bring journalism into literature is anathema.”
Amelia Shotwell (CAS ’25), who took Shinn’s “Critical Methods” class in Fall 2022, said he connected literary theory to popular texts in the class.
“This study is incredibly important because it makes academia and literary theory accessible, tangible and relevant,” Shotwell wrote to The Hoya. “The lessons Shinn taught me have been incredibly applicable in my other courses (and hopefully in my future career in academia). He taught me to think critically.”
Shinn said he hoped to integrate the study of pop culture with the studies of literature and journalism by discussing “In Cold Blood” with his “Pulp Fiction” class.
“I wanted to bring this so-called ‘high’ and ‘low’ art together to see the connections and how culture has been spread widely,” Shinn told The Hoya. “My interest is how we can examine pop culture media studies as an integral part of studying literature in our society.”
Katherine Martinez (CAS ’25), who was a student in the recorded lecture, said Shinn always started class discussions by situating the book in United States history and culture.
“He made me feel very welcome to ask questions and fostered a very flexible environment,” Martinez told The Hoya. “He was facilitating a very open discussion.”
Shinn said he wanted students to consider the relationship between novels and social issues.
“This book is a tragedy — it’s a human tragedy all around,” Shinn said during the lecture. “There are no easy answers, but at least these force us to ask questions and perhaps to fight to stop whatever leads us to this point, so that these kinds of tragedies don’t happen.”
