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17. The Documentary Novel and the Problem of Borders

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Essentials of the Theory of Fiction
This chapter is in the book Essentials of the Theory of Fiction
[17]The Documentary Novel and the Problemof Borders.barbara foleyThe documentary novel constitutes a distinct fictional kind. It locates itselfnear the border between factual discourse and fictive discourse, but it doesnot propose an eradication of that border. Rather, it purports to representreality by means of agreed-upon conventions of fictionality, while graftingonto its fictive pact some kind of additional claim to empirical validation.Historically, this claim has taken various forms. The pseudofactual novel ofthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries simulates or imitates the authen-tic testimony of a ‘‘real life’’ person; its documentary effect derives from theassertion of veracity. The historical novel of the nineteenth century takes asits referent a phase of the historical process; its documentary effect derivesfrom the assertion of extratextual verification. The documentary novel inthe modernist era bifurcates into two distinct genres. The fictional auto-biography represents an artist-hero who assumes the status of a real personinhabiting an invented situation; its documentary effect derives from theassertion of the artist’s claim to privileged cognition. The metahistoricalnovel takes as its referent a historical process that evades rational formu-lation; its documentary effect derives from the assertion of the very inde-terminacy of factual verification. Finally, the Afro-American documentarynovel represents a reality submitting human subjects to racist objectifica-tion; its documentary effect derives from the presentation of facts that sub-vert commonplace constructions of reality. In all its phases, then, the docu-mentary novel aspires to tell the truth, and it associates this truth withclaims to empirical validation. If it increasingly calls into question the possi-bility of truth-telling, this skepticism is directed more toward the ideologi-cal assumptions undergirding empiricism than toward the capacity of fictivediscourse to interpret and represent its referent.Clearly the documentary novel, as I define it in this book, is not a minorsubgenre that can be readily relegated to the margins of novelistic produc-tion in any given era. On the contrary: in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies, the documentary novel is closely aligned with writing that Len-
© 2020 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

[17]The Documentary Novel and the Problemof Borders.barbara foleyThe documentary novel constitutes a distinct fictional kind. It locates itselfnear the border between factual discourse and fictive discourse, but it doesnot propose an eradication of that border. Rather, it purports to representreality by means of agreed-upon conventions of fictionality, while graftingonto its fictive pact some kind of additional claim to empirical validation.Historically, this claim has taken various forms. The pseudofactual novel ofthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries simulates or imitates the authen-tic testimony of a ‘‘real life’’ person; its documentary effect derives from theassertion of veracity. The historical novel of the nineteenth century takes asits referent a phase of the historical process; its documentary effect derivesfrom the assertion of extratextual verification. The documentary novel inthe modernist era bifurcates into two distinct genres. The fictional auto-biography represents an artist-hero who assumes the status of a real personinhabiting an invented situation; its documentary effect derives from theassertion of the artist’s claim to privileged cognition. The metahistoricalnovel takes as its referent a historical process that evades rational formu-lation; its documentary effect derives from the assertion of the very inde-terminacy of factual verification. Finally, the Afro-American documentarynovel represents a reality submitting human subjects to racist objectifica-tion; its documentary effect derives from the presentation of facts that sub-vert commonplace constructions of reality. In all its phases, then, the docu-mentary novel aspires to tell the truth, and it associates this truth withclaims to empirical validation. If it increasingly calls into question the possi-bility of truth-telling, this skepticism is directed more toward the ideologi-cal assumptions undergirding empiricism than toward the capacity of fictivediscourse to interpret and represent its referent.Clearly the documentary novel, as I define it in this book, is not a minorsubgenre that can be readily relegated to the margins of novelistic produc-tion in any given era. On the contrary: in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies, the documentary novel is closely aligned with writing that Len-
© 2020 Duke University Press, Durham, USA

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface to the Third Edition vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. The Art of Fiction 13
  6. 2. Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown 21
  7. 3. Flat and Round Characters 35
  8. 4. Epic and Novel 43
  9. 5. Spatial Form in Modern Literature 61
  10. 6. Writing and the Novel 75
  11. 7. Distance and Point of View: An Essay in Classification 83
  12. 8. Marxist Aesthetics and Literary Realism 101
  13. 9. The Concept of Character in Fiction 113
  14. 10. Time and Narrative in A la recherche du temps perdu 121
  15. 11. Discourse: Nonnarrated Stories 139
  16. 12. Reading as Construction 151
  17. 13. The Literature of Replenishment 165
  18. 14. The Blackness of Blackness: A Critique on the Sign and the Signifying Monkey 177
  19. 15. Reading for the Plot 201
  20. 16. Breaking the Sentence; Breaking the Sequence 221
  21. 17. The Documentary Novel and the Problem of Borders 239
  22. 18. Politics, Literary Form, and a Feminist Poetics of the Novel 255
  23. 19. ‘‘The Pastime of Past Time’’: Fiction, History, Historiographical Metafiction 275
  24. 20. ‘‘Building Up from Fragments’’: The Oral Memory Process in Some Recent African-American Written Narratives 297
  25. 21. Scheherazade’s Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction 311
  26. 22. The Textualization of the Reader in Magical Realist Fiction 339
  27. 23. Are Fictional Worlds Possible? 351
  28. 24. Chronoschisms 361
  29. 25. Queering Narratology 387
  30. 26. A Brief Story of Postmodern Plot 399
  31. 27. On Voice 411
  32. 28. What Interactive Narratives Do That Print Narratives Cannot 443
  33. 29. A Media Migration: Toward a Potential Literature 471
  34. Biographical Notes 491
  35. Permissions 495
  36. Index 499
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822386599-019

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface to the Third Edition vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. The Art of Fiction 13
  6. 2. Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown 21
  7. 3. Flat and Round Characters 35
  8. 4. Epic and Novel 43
  9. 5. Spatial Form in Modern Literature 61
  10. 6. Writing and the Novel 75
  11. 7. Distance and Point of View: An Essay in Classification 83
  12. 8. Marxist Aesthetics and Literary Realism 101
  13. 9. The Concept of Character in Fiction 113
  14. 10. Time and Narrative in A la recherche du temps perdu 121
  15. 11. Discourse: Nonnarrated Stories 139
  16. 12. Reading as Construction 151
  17. 13. The Literature of Replenishment 165
  18. 14. The Blackness of Blackness: A Critique on the Sign and the Signifying Monkey 177
  19. 15. Reading for the Plot 201
  20. 16. Breaking the Sentence; Breaking the Sequence 221
  21. 17. The Documentary Novel and the Problem of Borders 239
  22. 18. Politics, Literary Form, and a Feminist Poetics of the Novel 255
  23. 19. ‘‘The Pastime of Past Time’’: Fiction, History, Historiographical Metafiction 275
  24. 20. ‘‘Building Up from Fragments’’: The Oral Memory Process in Some Recent African-American Written Narratives 297
  25. 21. Scheherazade’s Children: Magical Realism and Postmodern Fiction 311
  26. 22. The Textualization of the Reader in Magical Realist Fiction 339
  27. 23. Are Fictional Worlds Possible? 351
  28. 24. Chronoschisms 361
  29. 25. Queering Narratology 387
  30. 26. A Brief Story of Postmodern Plot 399
  31. 27. On Voice 411
  32. 28. What Interactive Narratives Do That Print Narratives Cannot 443
  33. 29. A Media Migration: Toward a Potential Literature 471
  34. Biographical Notes 491
  35. Permissions 495
  36. Index 499
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