Modern non-fiction, what is it: one-time reading or serious literature?

When "tearful" romance novels and exciting detectives, chilling mystical novels and fantastic stories bored, comes the time of non-fiction literature. What kind of genre is it, whose popularity, according to the information of book publishers, is growing every year? What are his features and for whom he is interesting? We will try to answer all the questions posed in this article.

Genre literature: what is it?

The most general classification of all literature is its subdivision into the artistic and all the rest - non-fiction (non-fiction). In works such as novels, novels, plays, stories, attributed to fiction, there are necessarily fictional characters and a contrived plot. They are poetic and prosaic. In turn, all literary works are divided into categories such as intellectual prose and genre literature.

Unlike artistic, non-fiction, literature does not use fictional stories, stories and characters, and it is presented:

• Textbooks;
• Dictionaries;
• Encyclopedias;
• Monographs;
• Journalism;
• Biographies;
• Memoirs and other forms.

What is non-fiction?

Let's look at the definition of non-fiction, what it is. As already mentioned, in such literature there are no fictional events and facts, since this is an artistic and journalistic literary genre in which the author, through the prism of his aesthetic, ethical and figurative perceptions, documents the facts realistically, presents the characters and events. Since this is literature, that is, the art of owning a word, the writer uses the compositional organization of the text and various techniques for revealing the images presented in the work. Thus, non-fiction is literary creativity, rigidly tied to concrete and real facts of life.

When did non-fiction appear?

In most sources, the time of the very appearance of the term "non-fiction" and the first work attributed to this genre is considered to be 1965, when the book "Cold Murder" by Truman Capote was published. Concerning when the term appeared, we will not argue, but here, as they are today called, travel agents, or travel notes (such as Radishchev's "Travels from St. Petersburg to Moscow", "Pallada Frigate" IA Goncharov or Herzen "Past and Thoughts") were created long before the second half of the XX century. That's just reading them, we did not guess that this is the best Russian non-fiction books!

We will not argue, but let's name a few modern classics of this genre. First of all, we should mention Stephen Hawking, one of the most famous modern theoretical physicists. Thanks to his books in the genre of scientific non-fiction, most of the earthlings learned about the black holes and their properties.

Capote with "cold-blooded murder" is considered the classic of the novel-reportage. Thomas Wolfe, with the research books "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" and "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby" that were sensational in the second half of the last century, created a new direction for experimental and research documentary prose.

Types of non-fiction

Answering the question about non-fiction - what it is, it is important to remember about its versatility, as it is not only a variety of popular science and reference literature, it also includes descriptions of countries and cities, travelers' notes, journalism and essays. The works of this genre can be entertaining to tell about rather complicated things, for example, in the Soviet book series "Eureka" more than 300 books were published, accessible and interestingly narrating about various sciences and their history. Others, such as, for example, the books "Glass" by N. Kachalov or "Medicine from Boredom, or Ice Cream History" by I. Bogdanov, can be devoted to scientific research of the most common and usual things for us.

The genre of non-fiction, located at the intersection of journalism and fiction, has several classifications, but we will consider the one that is usually used in the book publishing "kitchen":

• Biographies and memoirs;
• Documentary chronicles;
• essay;
• Travel notes (travel agents);
• criticism;
• Scientific research;
• Textbooks;
• Self-instruction manuals;
• Dictionaries;
• Encyclopedias;
• technical documentation.

The recent trend is electronic non-fiction publications, which allow you to quickly get the information you need.

Features of the genre

We have touched, however, slightly superficially, the features of the genre of non-fiction. What it is? Briefly enumerate the main characteristics:

- the absence of fictional subjects and heroes;

- the story of the events goes through the personal perception of the author;

- the use of various artistic and dramatic techniques;

- construction of the composition of the work according to the dramatic principle "scene after scene".

Who is it publishing?

In Soviet times, a lot of popular science and journalistic literature, memoirs and biographies were produced. Suffice it to recall such wonderful series of books as ZHZL - "The Life of Remarkable People" (Molodaya Gvardiya Publishing House), History of Science and Technology, Pages of the History of Our Motherland, and Kvant Library (Nauka Publishers). Today it is difficult to name any major Russian publishing house, non-fiction publishing. One of the leaders of the Russian market of "factual" literature - the publishing house "UFO" - publishes books in the genre of living history, grouping them into the series "Culture of Everyday Life", and in the "Exmo" series "Biographies of the Great. Unexpected foreshortening "," Memoirs - XXI century "," Women of the Silver Age ". "AST-Press" publishes the series "Science and Peace", self-tutors "Languages without Borders", the publishing house "Kuchkovo Field" publishes memoirs, and the company "Kolibri" - a series of "Things in themselves", books that tell about the simplest things , Such as salt and others. "Ajax-press" publishes a series of guidebooks "Instructions for use".