Once again we are here thinking about the definition of creative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction is is thinking about events that occured in the past and reflecting on them.
Jamaica Kincaid wrote the story Biography of a Dress. In a nutshell Kincaid is telling readers the story of the particular photograph shown above her story. If you look at the picture you see a very upset little girl. I wanted to know why this little girl looks upset in this picture. There must be a reason. The way Kincaid wrote this is she would explain what happened in the past and then add her views on the event now. For example, on page 209, she begins to explain that the picture was taken when she was two years old and was wearing a yellow dress made of cotton poplin. However back then she didn't know what cotton poplin was until she became older as stated in the line "a fabric with a slightly unsmooth texture first manufactured in the French town of Avignon and brought to England by the Huguenots, but I could not have known that at the time" Kincaid is saying how on earth would a two year old girl know that information? Now that Kincaid is a grown up, forty-three years old, she knows a lot more. Another example that illustrates reflection is on page 209 when Kincaid is explaining the boiled cornmeal. The reason why she ate it so much was because it was cheap and easily available. Then Kincaid adds "but i did not know that at the time." Kincaid is basically explaining the story and then adds little thoughts to explain to the reader that this is what she knows now about the particular event. She is looking back on the story of this yellow dress and reflecting on it. Because we are older and more mature we can look back on our lives, and see why things happened the way they did. We have not seen much reflection of a past event (in this case a photograph) in the other stories we have read.
We come across Bret Lott. He wrote Toward Definition of Creative Nonfiction. Lott begins to explain that creative nonfiction is taking an old piece of literature and illuminating it, bringing it back to life. Kincaid did this with her story. She took the memory of the photograph and brought it back to life by adding in her thoughts about it now. Kincaid took what she already knew, put it together, and thats what makes the difference. Lott also goes on to explain that creative nonfiction is indeed self, which is the creative element of creative nonfiction. Without you, it is simply nonfiction. If the photograph was not Kincaid when she was a child, it wouldn't have been creative nonfiction. It would have just been a story of any two year old girl and her yellow dress. As Lott reaches the end of his essay, he comes down to the last element which is truth. How true are these essays? Reflections? Are they only perceptions? If they are who is to say the writer is telling the truth? The only one who can really know is the writer themself. I is the only one who will know if the story is true. Quotation marks are a way of telling the truth. What we say goes in quotation marks. It is our own.
Lott left me with a lot of elements that lead me towards the definition. I feel the best one is creative writing is our responsbility as human beings to answer for and to our lives. (Lott 276)
No comments:
Post a Comment