Nonfiction

The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms - Ross Murfin 2018

Nonfiction

Nonfiction: Broadly defined, any account that is factual rather than fictional; as a literary genre, works of prose representing real people and events rather than imagined ones. Major types of nonfiction include articles, autobiographies, biographies, documentaries, essays, journals, memoirs, papers, and travel literature. Whereas nonfiction is often thought of as “true” — rather than “made up” — nonfictional accounts vary in accuracy. Moreover, the boundary between fiction and nonfiction is porous. Fictional works such as autobiographical fiction and the historical novel border on fact, and nonfictional works such as creative nonfiction and the nonfiction novel make extensive use of fictional techniques. The term faction, a portmanteau word often credited to American writer Norman Mailer, refers to works that blur the boundary between fact and fiction.