Non-fiction novel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fiction_novel[27/02/2012 09:20:23]

Non-fiction novelFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figuresand actual events narrated woven together with fictitious allegations and using the storytellingtechniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwise loosely-defined and flexible genre. Thegenre is sometimes referred to as or faction, a portmanteau of "fact" and "fiction".

Contents [hide]

1 Genre established1.1 Capote's In Cold Blood1.2 20th century examples1.3 Reduced usage

2 Controversies2.1 I Married Wyatt Earp

3 References4 External links5 See also

Geoffrey of Monmouth was a successful faction writer in the 12th century, and later the historianHolinshed was led into error by treating Geoffrey of Monmouth's writings as truth.

In modern literature, it is commonly thought[who?] that this genre was formally established with the1965 publication of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. That the genre was widely recognized in 1965 isundeniable, but influences on the genre can be traced much earlier.

Works of history or biography have often used the narrative devices of fiction to depict real-worldevents. Scholars have suggested that Operacin Masacre (1957) by Argentine author and journalistRodolfo Walsh was the first non-fiction novel.[1][2]

Truman Capote was one of the first authors who was recognized for faction writing. Capote read thestory of the Clutter murders in a newspaper and was immediately hooked. He used the eventssurrounding the crime as a basis for In Cold Blood. He spent years tracking the story and spentconsiderable time with the people involved. He watched hours of film footage, listened to recordings,and read transcripts and notes. He once claimed[citation needed] that everything within the book wouldbe true, word for word. Although this is impossible, the majority of information is accurate andextremely detailed. Capote was able to interview the murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith.This meant that he was able to establish their characters, making the details within the bookextremely accurate. The way in which the book is written objectively means that Capote has littleinfluence into the text, the influence that he does have is that of emotional manipulation.

[edit]Genre established

[edit]Capote's In Cold Blood

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Non-fiction novel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fiction_novel[27/02/2012 09:20:23]

Capote argued that the non-fiction novel should be devoid of first-person narration and, ideally, freeof any mention of the novelist. After the publication of In Cold Blood, many authors tested the form's"original" concept; notably including Hunter S. Thompson (1966's Hell's Angels), Norman Mailer(1968's Armies of the Night) and Tom Wolfe (1968's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test).

This section does not cite any references or sources.Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliablesources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(June 2011)

Another example of faction is the book According to Queeney by Beryl Bainbridge. This bookdescribes the last few years of Samuel Johnson's life as seen through the eyes of Queeney Thrale,eldest daughter of Henry Thrale and Hester Thrale.

In Tom Wolfe's school of New Journalism (often characterized as an invention of the mid-sixties), thenovel is hybridized with journalistic narration, which, like Capote's prose, places little emphasis on theprocess of narration (though Wolfe, unlike Capote, occasionally narrates from first-person).Thompson's approach of "Gonzo Journalism" abandoned Capote's narrative style to interminglepersonal experiences and observations with more traditional journalism.

Other examples include the story of author Alex Haley and his entire family history for 9 generationsin the book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil byJohn Berendt, and The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer.

In the 1970s, authors began to re-publish essays or articles by uniting episodic works into a morecohesive whole, such as Michael Herr's non-fiction novel, Dispatches, which reflected on thejournalist's reporting from Vietnam.

Since the '70s, the non-fiction novel has somewhat fallen out of favor. However, forms such as theextended essay, the memoir, and the biography (and autobiography) can explore similar territory:Joan Didion, for instance, has never called her own work a "non-fiction novel," while she has beenrepeatedly credited for doing so with what she generally calls "extended" or "long" essays.

Later works classified as non-fiction novels include The Mystery of Beautiful Nell Cropsey: ANonfiction Novel by Bland Simpson, published in 1993, which tells the dramatic story of thedisappearance of nineteen-year-old Nell Cropsey from her riverside home in Elizabeth City, NorthCarolina, in November 1901. A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr, published in 1996, described thedrama caused by a real-life water contamination scandal in Massachusetts in the 1980s. And In theTime of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, fictionalized the lives of the Mirabal sisters who gave theirlives fighting a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, based on their accounts.

Norman Mailer's Pulitzer Prize-winning Armies of the Night is perhaps the most critically appreciatednon-fiction novel, a narrative which is split into a history and a novel, and which autobiographicallyrecounts the March on the Pentagon in 1967 from the third person.

In her novel The Secret River, Australian author Kate Grenville was accused by historians MarkMcKenna and Inga Clendinnen of distorting history.[3]

After her husband Wyatt Earp's death, Josephine Earp sought to get her own life story published.When she refused to be more forthcoming about details of her life in Tombstone, her collaboratorsgave up and Josephine asked them to burn all the copies. Wyatt's cousins Mabel Earp Carson heldback a copy, which amateur historian Glen Boyer eventually acquired the rights to.[4]

The University of Arizona Press published it in 1967 as a memoir I Married Wyatt Earp givingJosephine Earp credit as the author. In the book's epilogue, Boyer said he integrated two sources,Josephine's and a second, the so-called "Clum manuscript", which he said had been written by The

[edit]20th century examples

[edit]Reduced usage

[edit]Controversies

[edit]I Married Wyatt Earp

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Tombstone Epitaph publisher John Clum based on conversations with Josephine.[4]

In the 1980s, critics began to question his sources and methods. When Boyer could not prove theexistence of the Clum manuscript, he equivocated, saying that he did not receive the Clummanuscript from Colyn after all, instead it was given to him by one of Earp's nieces. Then hechanged his story further, saying, "the Clum manuscript is a generic term," Boyer told Wildcatstudent-reporter Ryan Gabrielson. "This-in addition (to other source materials)-was supported byliterally hundreds, maybe thousands of letters and documents."[5]

When confronted with allegations that his book was a hoax, Boyer said he had been misunderstood."My work is beginning to be recognized by all but a few fanatics and their puppets as a classicexample of the newly recognized genre 'creative non-fiction.'"[6] In March 2000 the University ofArizona Press removed the book from their catalog.[7]

1. ^ Waisbord, Silvio (2000). Watchdog Journalism in South America: News, Accountability, andDemocracy . New York: Columbia University Press. p. 282 pages. ISBN 0231119755.

2. ^ Link, Daniel (2007). "Rethinking past present" . Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas(Routledge) 40 (75(2)): 218230. doi:10.1080/08905760701627711 .

3. ^ Sullivan, Jane (21 October 2006). "Making a fiction of history" . The Age (Melbourne).4. ^ a b Ortega, Tony (December 24, 1998). "How the West Was Spun" . Retrieved 29 May 2011.5. ^ "History Expose the Facade Behind the Front" . Tombstone Tumbleweed. March 16, 2000.6. ^ Decker, Jefferson (July/August 1999). "Tombstone Blues" . Inside Publishing. Lingua Franca.

Retrieved 7 June 2011.7. ^ Brien, DL (2006). Tess Brady and Nigel Krauth. ed. The Power of Truth: Literary Scandals and

Creative Nonfiction. Brisbane: Post-Pressed.

1966 interview of Capote by George Plimpton

Non-fictionCreative nonfictionDocufictionHistorical FictionList of genres

Categories: Non-fiction novels Literary genres

[edit]References

[edit]External links

[edit]See also

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