Literary non-fiction is a type of writing that has similar characteristics to fictional texts. Like fictional texts, literary non-fiction often has a main purpose to entertain but is an entertaining piece of writing about real events rather than imaginary ones. They inform and provide factual information as well as entertaining their reader. Types of literary non-fiction include:
- Autobiographies and biographies
- Accounts of famous/historical events
- Blogs
- Essays
- Feature articles
- Travel writing
Autobiographies and biographies are forms of writing that are based on real people. An autobiography is where the writer writes about themselves whereas a biography is where the writer writes about someone else. Often, autobiographies and biographies are whole books that focus on someone’s entire life; however, they can also focus on a specific period of someone’s life, a particular event that occurred in their life, or their family and friends. They can even sometimes be shorter than a whole book. Usually, celebrities and other famous individuals have autobiographies or biographies written about them but less well known and even completely unknown individuals can also be interesting, informative or entertaining due to a particular experience they have had.
The opening paragraph of Chapter 1 of David Rigg’s biography The World of Christopher Marlowe has been provided below.
| Citizen MarloweThe migrant worker John Marlowe moved to Canterbury in the mid-1550s. He was about twenty years old and came from Ospringe, beside the north of Kent port of Faversham. Heading east towards Canterbury on Watling Street, the old Roman road that ran from London to Dover, travellers glimpsed soaring cathedral towers that summoned up the city’s storied past. The Archbishop of Canterbury had led the Church in England since the arrival of St Augustine in AD 597. Generations of medieval pilgrims journeyed there to visit the shrine of St Thomas á Becket, who had been murdered while at his devotions in the cathedral. More recently, the Protestant Reformation had taken a dreadful toll on the ancient stronghold of the Roman Catholic faith. Two decades previously, agents of King Henry VIII sacked Archbishop Becket’s shrine, burnt the saint’s remains and cast his ashes to the winds. Just outside the city walls, much of St Augustine’s Abbey lay in ruins, another victim of the reformers’ iconoclasm and greed. |
David Rigg’s biography of Christopher Marlowe begins with introducing Marlowe’s father John Marlowe. As you can see from the extract, creative writing is included along with the factual information being provided. This makes the text not only factual but also interesting. Autobiographies and biographies are normally written both to inform and to entertain their reader. To fulfil both of these purposes, most autobiographies and biographies are normally made up of a mix of factual information and creative writing.
Accounts of famous/historical events are a type of literary non-fiction that can seem similar to an autobiography or biography, however, instead of being written about actual people, they will be written about famous/historical events. Similar to autobiographies and biographies, literary non-fiction about famous/historical events will often be to both inform and entertain a reader; this means that it will include a mix of factual information and creative writing. Sometimes, a fictional character may be included in the text to help illustrate the event taking place. This can be seen in the film Suffragette (2015). The audience follows the protagonist Maud Watt’s through her life during the early years of the 20th century. Maud Watt’s is a fictional character that is used to help illustrate some of the common problems of the time. She is surrounded by other characters, for example, Emily Wilding Davison who was an actual woman that played a significant part in the suffragette movement.
Blogs are a common form of literary non-fiction that are written all over the world. Blogs are regularly updated websites or web pages and they can be written by anyone who has access to the internet. Blogs can be run by small groups of people or by an individual. Blogs are similar to diary entries as they tend to contain a more informal, conversational style but, unlike diary entries, they can be written for many different purposes. Examples of different types of blogs are:
- Diaries
- A book/film review blog
- A travel log for people visiting different destinations
There are many different types of blogs on the internet than just the ones mentioned above. Some common features of blogs are listed below:
- The language is often informal and conversational
- They may not always have a clear audience; it may be aimed at anyone who might be interested
- They can vary in appearance to create different effects; for example, in size, font colour
- They often include a lot of images to help grab the reader’s attention
- They can sometimes include video clips if necessary
- They often use links to other web pages that include relevant information
- They are usually written in first person and are often quite personal
There are a numerous number of blogs to look up on the internet if you are interested in reading some for yourself. A lot of companies and organisations also have blogs so they can communicate informally with their audience; this is often a younger audience.
Essays are a creative form of literary non-fiction that are usually written by students or by someone who is considered an expert in their field. University lecturers commonly write essays to express their different ideas and opinions about a certain topic, to make an argument or to compare something; for example, to compare two literary texts. There are many different types of essays but some common features of most essays are:
- They have a clear structure with an introduction that introduces their idea, a number of paragraphs outlining different points that develop their idea, and a conclusion used to summarise the essay
- They are written using formal, Standard English and normally include a specialised vocabulary that is normally specific to a certain field of study
- They develop a line of argument
- They often include literary devices that are used throughout
An extract taken from Virginia Woolf’s essay How It Strikes a Contemporary (1925) has been provided for you below:
| In the first place a contemporary can scarcely fail to be struck by the fact that two critics at the same table at the same moment will pronounce completely different opinions about the same book. Here, on the right, it is declared a masterpiece of English prose; on the left, simultaneously, a mere mass of waste-paper which, if the fire could survive it, should be thrown upon the flames. Yet both critics are in agreement about Milton and about Keats. They display an exquisite sensibility and have undoubtedly a genuine enthusiasm. It is only when they discuss the work of contemporary writers that they inevitably come to blows. The book in question, which is at once a lasting contribution to English literature and a mere farrago of pretentious mediocrity, was published about two months ago. That is the explanation; that is why they differ.The explanation is a strange one. It is equally disconcerting to the reader who wishes to take his bearings in the chaos of contemporary literature and to the writer who has a natural desire to know whether his own work, produced with infinite pains and in almost utter darkness, is likely to burn for ever among the fixed luminaries of English letters or, on the contrary, to put out the fire. But if we identify ourselves with the reader and explore his dilemma first, our bewilderment is short-lived enough. The same thing has happened so often before. We have heard the doctors disagreeing about the new and agreeing about the old twice a year on the average, in spring and autumn, ever since Robert Elsmere, or was it Stephen Phillips, somehow pervaded the atmosphere, and there was the same disagreement among grown-up people about these books too. It would be much more marvellous and indeed much more upsetting, if, for a wonder, both gentlemen agreed, pronounced Blank’s book an undoubted masterpiece, and thus faced us with the necessity of deciding whether we should back their judgement to the extent of ten and sixpence. Both are critics of reputation; the opinions tumbled out so spontaneously here will be starched and stiffened into columns of sober prose which will uphold the dignity of letters in England and America. |
The extract above is just the first two paragraphs of Woolf’s essay. The essay as a whole deals with Woolf exploring the issues that contemporary writers and readers faced during the modernist period. Essays like the one provided can sometimes be difficult to read and it can take two, three or sometimes four readings of an essay before you can properly grasp its content and analyse it successfully. If you are presented with any essays in the exam, then they will normally be a little easier to understand than the one provided. Reading a range of essays from other writers can help to develop your ability in reading essays and also your ability in your own essay writing, which can greatly help you when writing your own essays in the exam.
Feature articles are a form of literary non-fiction that are a type of newspaper or magazine article but rather than appearing as formal and informative, they are usually written in an individual style and have a personal slant. We will discuss the features of feature articles when we go into detail about magazine and newspaper articles in a later chapter.
Travel writing can be a form of literary non-fiction about visiting different places. It can be written as a narrative that is telling a story about a journey or place or it can be written as a blog. Alternatively, travel writing can also appear as a magazine/newspaper article that informs readers about journeys and destinations. Travel writing in magazine/newspaper articles will be much more detailed and formal compared to travel blogs. Some features of travel writing are:
- It has a purpose to entertain as well as to inform
- It is usually written using first person narration
- It is often descriptive and uses a lot of descriptive writing (we will go into detail about descriptive writing in Unit 4 of this course)
