Non-fiction on the boundary of XX–XXI centuries: theoretical aspect

Authors

  • Hanna Y. Novik The Center for Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Surganava street, 1, building 2, 220072, Minsk, Republic of Belarus

Keywords:

documental literature, non-fiction, autobiographical prose, fiction, fact, the document

Abstract

The article is devoted to theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of non-fiction and its role in the contemporary literary process in Belarus. We consider synonymous terms, which are used for the category of documentary – «ego-doсument», «literature of fact», «uninvented literature», «literature with dominant documentary beginning», and others, including exclusive «self-life-description», «chronicle of the life and work», «literature of existence», etc. It showed the genesis of non-fiction, which dates back to the literary salons of XIX century, Russian literary association «LEF» 1922–1928 years and the American «new journalism» of 1960s. Based on the reference to the works of Belarusian writers of the turn of XX–XXI centuries we reveal the most important genre features of non-fiction literature. Summed findings allow us to consider non-fiction at the same time as the writing method; as a subsidiary body of texts created without the participation of fiction; as a collection of literary works written by said method. Also carried concretization of the concept of non-fiction, which interpreted abstractly by many literary critics.

Author Biography

  • Hanna Y. Novik, The Center for Belarusian Culture, Language and Literature Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Surganava street, 1, building 2, 220072, Minsk, Republic of Belarus

    postgraduate student at the department of history of Belarusian literature of XX and XXI centuries, the Yakub Kolas and Yanka Kupala Institute of Language and Literature

References

  1. Kіslіtsyna G. M. Lіtaratura non-fiction: prablemy atrybucyі zhanru [Literature non-fiction: the problem of attribution of the genre]. Vechny ruh zhyccja i zakanamernasci tvorchyh poshukaw litaratury (da 90-goddzja z dnja naradzhjennja narodnaga pis’mennika Belarusi akadjemika I. J. Navumenki) : matjeryjaly rjespublikanskaj navuk.-prakt. kanferjencyi (Minsk, 26 –27 Febr., 2015). Minsk, 2015. P. 303–306 (in Belarus.).
  2. Peyre H. Nonfictional prose [Electronic resource]. Encyclopedia Britannica. URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/nonfictional-prose (date of access: 17.12.2015).
  3. Ulasevich V. I., Dauhulevich N. M. Slownik novyh slow belaruskaj movy [Dictionary of new words of the Belarusian language]. Mіnsk, 2009 (in Belarus.).
  4. Chuprinin S. I. Non-fiction literatura [Non-fiction literature]. LitMir : [site]. URL: https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=105181&p=87 (date of access: 05.10.2016) (in Russ.).
  5. Varikasha M. M. Lіteratura non-fiction: pomіzh faktom і fіktsіeju [Books non-fiction: between fact and fiction]. Aktual’ni problemy slov’jans’koi filologii. Ser.: Lingvistyka i literaturoznavstvo : mizhvuzivs’kyi zbirnyk naukovyh statei. Berdjansk, 2010. Issue XXIII, part 3. P. 28–39 (in Ukrainian).
  6. Ivanova N. Po tu storonu vymysla [On the other side of fiction]. Znamya. 2005. No. 11. P. 3–8 (in Russ.).
  7. Genis A. Fotografiya dushi. V okrestnostyakh filologicheskogo romana [Photo of the soul. In the surroundings of the philological novel]. Zhurnal’nyi zal : [site]. URL: http://magazines.russ.ru/zvezda/2000/9/genis.html (date of access: 17.12.2015) (in Russ.).
  8. Mestergazi Y. G. Literatura non-fikshn / non-fiction [Literature non-fiction]. Moscow, 2007 (in Russ.).
  9. Neprydumanaja lіtaratura / lіtaratura non-fіkshn u Belarusі – shto gjeta? : [krugly stol] [True fiction / non-fiction books in Belarus – what is it?]. Dzejaslow. 2015. No. 4. P. 278–293 (in Belarus.).
  10. Lehtimäki M. The Poetics of Norman Mailer’s Nonfiction: Self-reflexivity, Literary Form, and the Rhetoric of Narrative. Tampere, 2005.
  11. Garanin L. Y. Memuarnyi zhanr sovetskoi literatury [Memoir genre of Soviet literature]. Minsk, 1986 (in Russ.).
  12. Heyne E. Where Fiction Meets Nonfiction: Mapping a Rough Terrain. Narrative. 2001. Vol. 9, October (No. 3). P. 322–333.
  13. Ginzburg L. O psikhologicheskoi proze [About the psychological prose]. Moscow, 1999 (in Russ.).
  14. Straltsova V. M. Shljah da sjabe: suchasnaja awtabіjagrafіchnaja proza jak mastackaja sіstjema [Way to itself: modern autobiographical prose as an art system]. Minsk, 2002 (in Belarus.).

Published

2019-01-25

How to Cite

[1]
Novik, H.Y. 2019. Non-fiction on the boundary of XX–XXI centuries: theoretical aspect. Journal of the Belarusian State University. Philology. 1 (Jan. 2019), 17–23.