It would appear that the majority of nonfiction I have read falls either into life writing or literary criticism. Both of these genres I've really only read for various classes, as nonfiction has never interested me as much as other forms of literature.
Just this semester alone, I've read quite a bit of "life writing" literary nonfiction.
Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World is a true account of Shackleton and the Endurance. They were trapped in the ice of Antarctica for five months and all of the men survived. The author, Jennifer Armstrong, took first hand accounts from journals and ship logs and put everything into a very compelling story.
Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith is a beautiful novel about the relationship and family life of Charles Darwin and his wife, Emma. I was not excited to read it AT ALL but it really exceeded my expectations and I really came to care for the characters. There are many excerpts from journals and letters, it is clearly an accurate representation of their life together in the 1800's.
Hole in My Life is a memoir by children's author: Jack Gantos. This is by no means a children's book, however, as he recounts the events that landed him in prison for smuggling hash across the border. It is incredibly fascinating and well written, and there is a really nice moral in the end without being too didactic. I believe this is the first memoir I've read that I have actually enjoyed and I recommend it!
I will soon read a few others, I'll let you know how it goes!
As far as literary criticism goes, I don't have too much to say on the matter. For my TMA 397 class we learn about different theories: formalism, structuralism, poststructuralism, new historicism, critical historeography, feminism, and ecocriticism. For each of these theories we look at works of literature (dramatic literature) and we analyze them accordingly. Because we are learning these theories, we read a lot of literary criticism explaining these theories by "the best" critics and theorists.
Beginning Theory - Peter Barry
The Savage Mind - Levi-Strauss
The Intentional Fallacy - Wimsatt & Beardsley
The Theatre of Cruelty and The Closure of Representation - Derrida
The Archaeology of Knowledge - Foucault
The Ecological Though - Morton
...and many more to come.
Those are some nice, succinct examples of nonfiction. I appreciated the annotations you gave. I browsed the Shipwreck book at the bookstore not long ago and was interested. You may have convinced me to go get it now.
ReplyDeleteI read some Levi Strauss and Foucault a long time ago and loved them even though I only understood a teeny bit. I could definitely appreciate a refresher though, especially now that I am presumably less dumb.
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