Disguises: Fiction in the Form of Nonfiction Texts

Abstract

If narrative fiction differs formally from nonfiction narrative in the ways that Dorrit Cohn outlines in The Distinction of Fiction, then what is the critic to do with texts that so perfectly mimic nonfictional texts formally that these qualities cannot be observed?1 Fiction disguised as another form of discourse has an important place in the history of the development of fictional narrative genres, especially the novel in English.2 The purpose of this chapter is not to revisit the question of the shared narra-tivity of fictional and nonfictional discourse, and the controversies about whether all narration is thus in some way fictive, but to investigate whether traits of fictiveness might persist in spite of presentation in the form of nonfictional discourse. If not, then what other habits of readers and critics might matter to formal analysis?KeywordsLiterary HistoryTruth ClaimDocumentary SourceNarrative AudienceAuthorial AudienceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.