Non-fiction

Nonfiction or non-fiction is the classification for any informative work (often, a story) whose creator, in good faith, assumes responsibility for the truth or accuracy of the events, people, and/or information presented.^[1] A work whose creator dishonestly claims this same responsibility is a fraud; a story whose creator claims no such responsibility to the truth is classified as fiction.^[1] Nonfiction, which may be presented either objectively or subjectively, is traditionally one of the two main divisions of narratives (and, specifically, prose writing),^[2] the other traditional division being fiction, which contrasts with nonfiction by dealing in information, events, and characters expected to be partly or largely imaginary.

Nonfiction's factual assertions and descriptions may or may not be accurate, and can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question; however, authors of such accounts genuinely believe or claim them to be truthful at the time of their composition or, at least, pose them to a convinced audience as historically or empirically factual. Reporting the beliefs of others in a nonfiction format is not necessarily an endorsement of the ultimate veracity of those beliefs, it is simply saying it is true that people believe them (for such topics as mythology). Nonfiction can also be written about fiction, typically known as literary criticism, giving information and analysis on these other works. Nonfiction need not necessarily be written text, since pictures and film can also purport to present a factual account of a subject.

Major types of nonfiction

Common literary examples of nonfiction include expository, argumentative, functional, and opinion pieces; essays on art or literature; biographies; memoirs; journalism; and historical, scientific, technical, or economic writings (including electronic ones).^[3]

Journals, photographs, textbooks, travel books, blueprints, and diagrams are also often considered non-fictional. Including information that the author knows to be untrue within any of these works is usually regarded as dishonest. Other works can legitimately be either fiction or nonfiction, such as journals of self-expression, letters, magazine articles, and other expressions of imagination. Though they are mostly either one or the other, it is possible for there to be a blend of both. Some fiction may include nonfictional elements. Some nonfiction may include elements of unverified supposition, deduction, or imagination for the purpose of smoothing out a narrative, but the inclusion of open falsehoods would discredit it as a work of nonfiction. The publishing and bookselling business sometimes uses the phrase "literary nonfiction" to distinguish works with a more literary or intellectual bent, as opposed to the greater collection of nonfiction subjects.^[4]

Distinctions

The numerous literary and creative devices used within fiction are generally thought inappropriate for use in nonfiction. They are still present particularly in older works but they are often muted so as not to overshadow the information within the work. Simplicity, clarity and directness are some of the most important considerations when producing nonfiction. Audience is important in any artistic or descriptive endeavor, but it is perhaps most important in nonfiction. In fiction, the writer believes that readers will make an effort to follow and interpret an indirectly or abstractly presented progression of theme, whereas the production of nonfiction has more to do with the direct provision of information. Understanding of the potential readers' use for the work and their existing knowledge of a subject are both fundamental for effective nonfiction. Despite the truth of nonfiction it is often necessary to persuade the reader to agree with the ideas and so a balanced, coherent and informed argument is vital. However, the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction are continually blurred and argued upon, especially in the field of biography;^[5] as Virginia Woolf said: "if we think of truth as something of granite-like solidity and of personality as something of rainbow-like intangibility and reflect that the aim of biography is to weld these two into one seamless whole, we shall admit that the problem is a stiff one and that we need not wonder if biographers, for the most part failed to solve it."^[6]

Semi-fiction is fiction implementing a great deal of nonfiction,^[7] e.g. a fictional description based on a true story.

History

Cave paintings, from 32,000 years ago, are one of the oldest forms of human expression and could be either a record of what prehistoric man caught on hunting trips, i.e. nonfiction, or alternately a story expressing what they would like to catch on future occasions, i.e. fiction. If cave art is ambiguous on this matter then cuneiform inscriptions which hold the earliest writings seem to have been initially for nonfiction.

Much of the nonfiction produced throughout history is of a mundane and everyday variety, such as records and legal documents which were seen by only a few and are of little interest except to the historian. The nonfiction that transcends its original time tends to be viewed as either exceptionally well made or perfectly embodying the ideas, manners and attitudes of the time it was produced, even if it was not actually created as history.

At any one time in history there is the body of nonfiction work which represents the currently accepted truths of the period. Although these nonfiction works may be contradictory, they form a corpus that is regularly being altered with new facts and better explanations of ideas. A good example of this would be the nonfiction scientific books and papers which explain the science of the day, but are then superseded by better representations. Textbooks for explaining and teaching the current state of scientific and historical knowledge are regularly updated, and manuals for operating new technology are also produced.

Specific types of nonfiction

See also

• Documentary practice

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nonfiction.

External links

• What is Creative Nonfiction?