Friday, November 19, 2010

Literary Blog Hop – Thoughts on Literary Non-Fiction

Literary Blog Hop

I absolutely believe in Literary Non-Fiction. I do like most of the definition given to us by Connie at the Blue Bookcase. Self-help, how-to and recipe books are not literary. I would hesitate to discount all histories though. I think it would depend on how they are written. Textbooks would not be literary, but perhaps a book that describes the story of a land or a people. Karen Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth I think falls into this category.

In the category of Literary Non-Fiction would include Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I don’t think I would even consider that work not literary. I’ve also been reading The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys. It’s what I would consider creative non-fiction and I believe that it’s literary. I’ve often thought of different philosophical works as literary as well, such as Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy or Plato’s Meno. I think there can be different genres of non-fiction, just as there are different genres of fiction.

What are your favourite works of Literary Non-Fiction?


7 comments:

  1. I have to check those..!!

    Here is my Literary Blog Hop post!

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  2. I didn't think about philosophy, but you're so right in pointing that out.

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  3. The Frozen Thames looks very interesting. One of the Amazon reviews said there was too much poetic prose...sounds good to me. :)

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  4. OMG, now you got me thinking, robert graves -Greek myths, Herodotus- histories, nietszche- any. This list has no ending.
    Thanks
    Parrish

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  5. Hmm ... interesting. Personally, I wouldn't consider philosophy to be literary at all. For the most part, or at least according to my experience with it, philosophers are only concerned with explaining concept in a clear, straightforward way. There's not much "underneath the surface," so to speak, which is a primary feature of "literary" work.
    Thanks for the thought provoking post!

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  6. I don't read philosophy, but would agree that Armstrong's books are literary. Will look into The Frozen Thames... sounds interesting.

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  7. I like how you named older works of nonfiction; I focused on contemporary works.

    Here's my post on literary nonfiction. I'd love to hear what you think.

    And if you have read any wonderful literary books
    published in 2010, I urge you to nominate your favorites
    for The Independent Literary Awards. The awards
    include categories of Literary Fiction and Literary Non-Fiction.
    Nominations close December 15.

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