When the “tear” romance novels and exciting detective stories, chilling mystical novels and fantastic novels are bored, the time comes for non-fiction literature. What is this genre, the popularity of which, according to publishers, is growing every year? What are its features and for whom is it interesting? We will try to answer all the questions in this article.
Genres of literature: what is it?
The most general classification of all literature is its division into fiction and the rest - non-fiction (non-fiction). In works such as novels, novels, plays, stories related to fiction, there are always fictional characters and an invented plot. They are poetic and prosaic. In turn, all literary works are divided into categories such as intellectual prose and genre literature.
Unlike fiction, non-fiction literature does not use fictional stories, plots, or characters, and it is presented:
- textbooks;
- dictionaries;
- encyclopedias;
- monographs;
- journalism;
- biographies;
- memoirs and other forms.
What is non-fiction?
Let's look at the definition of non-fiction what it is. As already mentioned, in such literature there are no fictitious events and facts, since this is an artistic and journalistic literary genre in which the author, through the prism of his aesthetic, ethical and figurative perception, documents and realizes the facts, presents characters and events. Since this is literature, that is, the art of owning a word, the writer uses the compositional organization of the text and various techniques for revealing the images presented in the work. Thus, non-fiction is a literary work that is rigidly tied to concrete and real facts of life.
When did non-fiction appear?
In most sources, the time of the appearance of the term "non-fiction" and the first work related to this genre is considered to be 1965, when the book "Cold-blooded Murder" by Truman Capote was published. Regarding when the term appeared, we won’t argue, but now, as they are commonly called today, travelogues, or travel notes (such as the Radischevsky Travels from St. Petersburg to Moscow, Frigate Pallada by I. A. Goncharov or Herzen “Past and Thoughts”) were created long before the second half of the 20th century. But just reading through them, we did not realize that these were the best Russian non-fiction books!
We will not argue, but we will name a few modern classics of this genre. First of all, Stephen Hawking, one of the most famous modern theoretical physicists, should be mentioned. Thanks to his books in the genre of scientific non-fiction, most of the earthlings learned about black holes and their properties.
Capote with "Cold-blooded Murder" is considered a classic of the novel-reporting. Thomas Wolfe with the sensational research books “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” and “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby” created a new direction in experimental and research documentary prose.
Kinds of non-fiction
When answering the question of non-fiction - what is it, it is important to remember its diversity, as it is not only a diverse popular science and reference literature, it also includes descriptions of countries and cities, traveler's notes, journalism and essay writing. The works of this genre can entertainingly talk about rather complicated things, for example, in the Soviet book series Eureka, more than 300 books were published that read and interestingly narrated about various sciences and their history. Others, such as, for example, the books “Glass” by N. Kachalov or “The Cure for Boredom, or the History of Ice Cream” by I. Bogdanov, may be devoted to the scientific study of the most ordinary and familiar things for us.
Located at the intersection of journalism and fiction, the non-fiction genre has several classifications, but we will consider the one that is commonly used in the publishing "kitchen":
- biographies and memoirs;
- documentary chronicles;
- essay;
- travel notes (travelogues);
- criticism;
- Scientific research;
- textbooks;
- tutorials;
- dictionaries;
- encyclopedias;
- technical documentation.
Recent trends are non-fiction electronic publications that allow you to quickly get the information you need.
Features of the genre
We have already touched, though slightly superficially, the features of the non-fiction genre. What it is? Briefly list the main characteristics:
- lack of fictional stories and heroes;
- the story of the events goes through the personal worldview of the author;
- the use of various artistic and dramatic techniques;
- construction of the composition of the work on the dramatic principle of "scene by scene."
Who is publishing this?
In Soviet times, quite a lot of popular science and journalistic literature, memoirs and biographies were published. It’s enough to recall such wonderful series of books as ZhZL - “The Life of Great People” (Publishing House “Young Guard”), “History of Science and Technology”, “Pages of the History of Our Homeland”, “Quantum Library” (publishing house “Science”).
And today it’s hard to name any major Russian publishing house that does not publish non-fiction. One of the leaders of the Russian market of "actual" literature - the UFO publishing house - publishes books in the living history genre, grouping them in the series "The Culture of Everyday Life", and the series "Biographies of the Great." Unexpected perspective ”,“ Memoirs - XXI Century ”,“ Women of the Silver Age ”. AST-Press Publishing House publishes the Science and Peace series, self-study books Languages Without Borders, Kuchkovo Pole Publishing House publishes memoirs, and Hummingbird publishes the Things in Itself series, whose books tell about the simplest things such as salt and others. Ajax-press publishes a series of guidebooks, "Instructions for use."