Documentary literature

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Title page of Arnold's / Reinhardt's book on documentary literature

Documentary literature (also: documentary literature ) refers to literary texts that have been compiled or composed from non-literary, researched or authentic material. In this way novels , reports , protocols , but also documentary plays , television games, films or radio plays can arise, possibly even poetry (see example). Documentary literature conveys a special claim to authenticity or truth , which, however, has to be restricted: it is - like any literary text - the product of an arranging, assembling, selecting author ; the documents also appear in textual form - and are not immediate reality .

history

At the beginning of the 1960s , documentary literature emerged in opposition to the fictional spellings of the absurd theater , the parable , the time piece or novel, which authors like Rolf Hochhuth , Peter Weiss , Hans Magnus Enzensberger or Heinar Kipphardt accuse of political ineffectiveness. Documentary literature, on the other hand, uses documents and facts with a socially critical intention that it arranges in order to replace the fictional fable with a historically predetermined course of events. This raises the question of the relationship between literature and reality . The selection, arrangement and preparation of the documentary material should make contradictions and alternatives recognizable and at the same time address the possibility of manipulating facts. Preferred forms are therefore reportage , report , the drama as interrogation or negotiation , frequent techniques are montage , sampling and collage .

example

The line-up of 1. FC Nürnberg on January 27, 1968


WABRA
LEUPOLD POPP
LUDWIG MÜLLER WENAUER BLANKENBURG
STAREK STREHL BRUNGS HEINZ MÜLLER VOLKERT


Start of the game: 3 p.m.


from: Peter Handke. The inner world of the outer world of the inner world , Frankfurt a. M. 1969, p. 59.

Compare too

Literature (selection)

  • Heinz Ludwig Arnold , Stephan Reinhardt (ed.): Documentary literature . Boorberg, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-415-00318-3 ( text + criticism ).
  • Brian Barton: The Documentary Theater . Metzler, Frankfurt / M. 1987, ISBN 3-476-10232-7 (Metzler Collection; 232).
  • Arnold Blumer: The documentary theater of the sixties in the Federal Republic of Germany . Edition Hain, Meisenheim / Glan 1977, ISBN 3-445-01513-9 (also dissertation, University of Cape Town 1975).
  • Hans-Henner Nordmann: Documentary Drama . Dissertation, University of Berlin 1970.