Literary journalist as witness: Australian women's reporting on the Boer War (1899–1902)

Two women are important for the way they wrote literary journalism from the Boer War (the Second African War) for Australian publications. E. C. M. (Edith) Dickenson and Agnes Macready wrote long, evocative articles that bear witness to the consequences of the war on those most affected, including soldiers, prisoners of war, and civilians. This analysis looks at the work of these women to exemplify the part literary journalists can play in witnessing the lives of ordinary people with the intention of connecting readers to the emotional truths, as well as the factual realities, of armed conflict. In describing the work of these writers, this study proposes that the immersive and subjective aspects of the literary journalism form potentially provide a mechanism for journalists to connect genuinely with the people on whom they report, even those with whom they are ostensibly at war. In the hands of skilled and sensitive literary journalists such as these, the result can be empathetic stories that play an important role in actively witnessing the topic as well as the circumstances of their subjects’ lives.