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Creative Nonfiction: Two Books, One Genre?
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 10:54:02 -0600
I'm so enjoying this month's discussion--I find myself thinking and then thinking again about the many relevant examples, issues and opinions raised.
I've always considered myself more of a nonfiction purist, to use Kathleen Horning's term. But I also understand that even the best nonfiction is based on what is known to be true, and when it comes to the humanities (as opposed to hard sciences), what is known, when we go beyond indisputable facts (if there even is such a thing) is always a matter of interpretation. (And even in the sciences, what we know is also open to potential change and interpretation).
Two of the books cited by this year's children's and young adult literature award committees make an interesting contrast for me as we discuss creative nonfiction. Francisco Jimenez's Breaking Through was a Pura Belpr? Author Award Honor Book. This is an autobiographical story, and I might be tempted to call it a memoir were it not for the fact that the author himself clearly identifies it as a novel--something I greatly respect. (I come to something labeled " memoir" with the idea that it is based on memory, and memory can be faulty but captures the essence of one's experiences as remembered--but that is an understanding I bring as an adult.) Andrea Warren's Surviving Hitler was a Robert F. Sibert Award Honor Book. It is based on a Holocaust survivor's memories of his experiences during World War II, when he was a young adult. There are direct quotes throughout the narrative. Andrea Warren writes in her introductoin that "when you read direct quotes set in the times before and during the war, please be aware that I have exercised literary license, writing them as closely as possible to the way Jack recalled them." I am greatly appreciative of how she explicitly states this for young readers. And yet I'm still not sure--do I call it nonfiction in my own mind?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 05 Apr 2002 10:54:02 AM CST
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 10:54:02 -0600
I'm so enjoying this month's discussion--I find myself thinking and then thinking again about the many relevant examples, issues and opinions raised.
I've always considered myself more of a nonfiction purist, to use Kathleen Horning's term. But I also understand that even the best nonfiction is based on what is known to be true, and when it comes to the humanities (as opposed to hard sciences), what is known, when we go beyond indisputable facts (if there even is such a thing) is always a matter of interpretation. (And even in the sciences, what we know is also open to potential change and interpretation).
Two of the books cited by this year's children's and young adult literature award committees make an interesting contrast for me as we discuss creative nonfiction. Francisco Jimenez's Breaking Through was a Pura Belpr? Author Award Honor Book. This is an autobiographical story, and I might be tempted to call it a memoir were it not for the fact that the author himself clearly identifies it as a novel--something I greatly respect. (I come to something labeled " memoir" with the idea that it is based on memory, and memory can be faulty but captures the essence of one's experiences as remembered--but that is an understanding I bring as an adult.) Andrea Warren's Surviving Hitler was a Robert F. Sibert Award Honor Book. It is based on a Holocaust survivor's memories of his experiences during World War II, when he was a young adult. There are direct quotes throughout the narrative. Andrea Warren writes in her introductoin that "when you read direct quotes set in the times before and during the war, please be aware that I have exercised literary license, writing them as closely as possible to the way Jack recalled them." I am greatly appreciative of how she explicitly states this for young readers. And yet I'm still not sure--do I call it nonfiction in my own mind?
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Fri 05 Apr 2002 10:54:02 AM CST
