[ecrea] new book: Factual Fictions: Narrative Truth and the Contemporary American Documentary Novel

*http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/Factual-Fictions--Narrative-Truth-and-the-Contemporary-American-Documentary-Novel1-4438-2413-5.htm
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*Factual Fictions: Narrative Truth and the Contemporary American 
Documentary Novel*
Author: Leonora Flis
Date Of Publication: Nov 2010
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-2413-2
Isbn: 1-4438-2413-5
Factual Fictions: Narrative Truth and the Contemporary American 
Documentary Novel focuses on contemporary American documentary 
narratives, specifically the documentary novel, as it re-emerged in the 
1960s and later developed into various other forms. The book explores 
the connections between the documentary novel and the concurrent rise of 
New Journalism (a.k.a. "literary journalism") in the United States, 
situating the two genres in the cultural context of the tumultuous 1960s 
and an emerging postmodern ethos. Flis makes a comprehensive analysis of 
texts by Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, John Berendt, and Don DeLillo, 
while tackling discussions on various theoretical complexities with 
assurance and rigor. Interested in the precarious divide between fact 
and fiction, the author productively complicates traditional notions of 
the two poles. Furthermore, the book examines parallels between 
contemporary Slovene documentary narratives and their American 
counterparts. Flis's work, with its systematic and innovative approach 
to the subject matter, adds an important historical dimension to the 
developing field of literary journalism studies as well as to the more 
established area of 20th Century American literature.


Leonora Flis earned her Ph.D. in American Literature at the University 
of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She currently works as a freelance journalist, 
film and book critic, and a literary translator. The next step in her 
academic career is teaching Literary Theory at the University of Nova 
Gorica (School of Humanities). Her articles have appeared in Slovenian 
and foreign literary journals, such as Contemporary Review, Primerjalna 
knjiz(evnost, Slovene Studies, Dialogi, Bricolage, and Acta Neophilologica.


"In an era when the boundaries between fact and fiction have become more 
permeable in public discourse, when distinctions between the memoir and 
novel are contested with increasing frequency, Flis's book is 
provocative and timely."

---Mark J. Madigan, Nazareth College of Rochester, Rochester, NY

"Factual Fictions offers a compelling and comprehensive new evaluation 
of the literary importance and the historical value of the modern 
version of the genre that is deeply rooted in the cultural, political, 
and social upheavals of the 1960s America---the nonfiction novel. It 
builds on various theoretical and socio--cultural premises and 
perspectives, emphasizing the precarious question of adherence to truth 
claims and referentiality in the nonfiction novel. Flis's book 
represents a singularly welcome addition to literary scholarship in that 
it is a tool for rethinking the reader's understanding of the fictional 
and the factual."

---Jerneja Petric(, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

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