On a slight tangent, we were allowed to post our definitions of creative nonfiction. This has nothing to do with my topic on luck but I want to post it anyways. My favorite genre to read is fiction. I would rather read a fictional tale that incorporates nonfictional events than to read an autobiography or a mystery book. Here is my definition . . .
A genre is a type of literature or writing style. Some of the genres we have been most exposed to include Fiction, Nonfiction, Mystery, and Tragedy. When we are trying to understand a work in literature, it is easier retained in our memories when we have a better comprehension of the writing style it is written in. Every genre has a unique and individual flare. The components and literary elements included allow for a further success of a novel in its particular genre. One genre that many have attempted to term a general consensus of what it is composed of is Creative Nonfiction.
Within this genre, literary elements and techniques are combined with legitimate truths and are given to the readers in a different approach. Facts, based on prior knowledge and research, are merged with literary elements in this style of writing in order to let the pages come alive. Some literary elements that are featured in creative nonfiction and are used to add essence to straightforward facts include plot, setting, mood, irony, characterization as well as others. This genre is a more interesting way of providing real facts without seeming to allow the book to drag on. It also seems to be giving an appeal that lures the readers in and forces them to be urged to continue to the following page. Creative nonfiction gives a sense of suspense and anticipation to a nonfiction piece of literature. The critical point of creative nonfiction is to establish a clear, vivid differentiation between it and both fiction and nonfiction. Creative Nonfiction writers present the information with the tools used in fictional stories while upholding their loyalty to the actual facts.
Creative Nonfiction was not the original title to this writing technique. In fact, this term was not established until 1983 by Lee Gutkind at a meeting established by the National Endowment of the Arts in an effort to name it. Gutkind was “a motorcyclist, a medical insider, a sailor, a college professor, a mid-life father and a literary whipping boy” and what 1997 Vanity Fair magazine declared as the “the Godfather” behind the creative nonfiction movement—an indisputable force whose efforts have helped make the genre the fastest growing in the publishing industry.” According to the Creative Nonfiction website, the definition of creative nonfiction lies right within its title. This is perhaps why a title like essay, journalism or literary journalism could not credit this approach in literature any justice. The site established primarily to the genre itself describes it as “‘creative nonfiction’ precisely describes what the form is all about. The word “creative” refers simply to the use of literary craft in presenting nonfiction—that is, factually accurate prose about real people and events—in a compelling, vivid manner. To put it another way, creative nonfiction writers do not make things up; they make ideas and information that already exist more interesting and, often, more accessible.”
Two of the works in literature that we covered in this semester fall under the genre of creative nonfiction. Both The Curve of Binding Energy, written by John McPhee, and All Around the Town, written by Herbert Asbury, portray a narrative rather than a timeline or retelling of the events in history. McPhee writes about the life and career of theoretical physicist and scientist, Theodore B. Taylor, who was responsible for scientific inventions regarding nuclear energy. Asbury writes about the riots, murder, scandal and pandemonium in Manhattan, New York City. Both novels combine research with experience in an effort to add flavor to the events.
What makes the genre stand out among the rest and gives it originality is the lacking of limitations to a single specific structure or writing form in literature. Well written creative nonfiction takes information, facts, events and ideas that might seem uninteresting when first looked at and crafts them into a fascinating and riveting tale. A genre can have a plethora or surplus of definitions in an effort to better understand the novels that fall under its category. From Writing Creative Nonfiction, by Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard, Creative Nonfiction can only be described with “"It's very literariness distinguishes this writing from deadline reportage, daily journalism, academic criticism, and critical biography. It is storytelling of a very high order through the revelation of character and the suspense of plot, the subtle braiding of themes, rhythms and resonance, memory and imaginative research, precise and original language.”
A genre is a type of literature or writing style. Some of the genres we have been most exposed to include Fiction, Nonfiction, Mystery, and Tragedy. When we are trying to understand a work in literature, it is easier retained in our memories when we have a better comprehension of the writing style it is written in. Every genre has a unique and individual flare. The components and literary elements included allow for a further success of a novel in its particular genre. One genre that many have attempted to term a general consensus of what it is composed of is Creative Nonfiction.
Within this genre, literary elements and techniques are combined with legitimate truths and are given to the readers in a different approach. Facts, based on prior knowledge and research, are merged with literary elements in this style of writing in order to let the pages come alive. Some literary elements that are featured in creative nonfiction and are used to add essence to straightforward facts include plot, setting, mood, irony, characterization as well as others. This genre is a more interesting way of providing real facts without seeming to allow the book to drag on. It also seems to be giving an appeal that lures the readers in and forces them to be urged to continue to the following page. Creative nonfiction gives a sense of suspense and anticipation to a nonfiction piece of literature. The critical point of creative nonfiction is to establish a clear, vivid differentiation between it and both fiction and nonfiction. Creative Nonfiction writers present the information with the tools used in fictional stories while upholding their loyalty to the actual facts.
Creative Nonfiction was not the original title to this writing technique. In fact, this term was not established until 1983 by Lee Gutkind at a meeting established by the National Endowment of the Arts in an effort to name it. Gutkind was “a motorcyclist, a medical insider, a sailor, a college professor, a mid-life father and a literary whipping boy” and what 1997 Vanity Fair magazine declared as the “the Godfather” behind the creative nonfiction movement—an indisputable force whose efforts have helped make the genre the fastest growing in the publishing industry.” According to the Creative Nonfiction website, the definition of creative nonfiction lies right within its title. This is perhaps why a title like essay, journalism or literary journalism could not credit this approach in literature any justice. The site established primarily to the genre itself describes it as “‘creative nonfiction’ precisely describes what the form is all about. The word “creative” refers simply to the use of literary craft in presenting nonfiction—that is, factually accurate prose about real people and events—in a compelling, vivid manner. To put it another way, creative nonfiction writers do not make things up; they make ideas and information that already exist more interesting and, often, more accessible.”
Two of the works in literature that we covered in this semester fall under the genre of creative nonfiction. Both The Curve of Binding Energy, written by John McPhee, and All Around the Town, written by Herbert Asbury, portray a narrative rather than a timeline or retelling of the events in history. McPhee writes about the life and career of theoretical physicist and scientist, Theodore B. Taylor, who was responsible for scientific inventions regarding nuclear energy. Asbury writes about the riots, murder, scandal and pandemonium in Manhattan, New York City. Both novels combine research with experience in an effort to add flavor to the events.
What makes the genre stand out among the rest and gives it originality is the lacking of limitations to a single specific structure or writing form in literature. Well written creative nonfiction takes information, facts, events and ideas that might seem uninteresting when first looked at and crafts them into a fascinating and riveting tale. A genre can have a plethora or surplus of definitions in an effort to better understand the novels that fall under its category. From Writing Creative Nonfiction, by Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard, Creative Nonfiction can only be described with “"It's very literariness distinguishes this writing from deadline reportage, daily journalism, academic criticism, and critical biography. It is storytelling of a very high order through the revelation of character and the suspense of plot, the subtle braiding of themes, rhythms and resonance, memory and imaginative research, precise and original language.”
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