The Relationships between Imaginative Writing and Historical Contexts - Essay Example

The Relationships between Imaginative Writing and Historical Contexts Name of the Student: Name of the Instructor: Name of the course: Code of the course: Submission date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 Overview of Imaginative Writing And Historical Contexts 3 2.1 Imaginative Writing 3 2.2 History 4 3.0 Discussion on Relationship between Various Genres of Imaginative Writing and Historical Contexts 6 3.1 Poetry 6 3.2 Drama 8 3.3 Fictional Writing 10 3.4 Non-Fictional Writing 12 4.0 Conclusion 13 References 14 1.0 Introduction The Relationships between Imaginative Writing and Historical Contexts Literature has for a long time been very instrumental in giving form to the lifestyles of human kind. Equally so, it has been regarded as a vital instrument which reflects on a society in addition to creating awareness in the same society. Other uses of literature do crop up as a result of this, with entertainment being one of them. Precisely, literature has been referred to as ‘The mirror of the Society’. This is due to the fact that literature normally derives its contents from the society on which it is based; for this reason, it tends to reflect on the society of its origin, hence being its mirror. One of the many forms of literature is imaginative writing. Imaginative writing is a form of writing which is limited by the writers thinking ability. Therefore, imaginative writing does not follow any given path or rules but follows the imagination of the writer; hence its name. Since literature is a mirror of the society, it has a very close relationship with the society’s history. As a result of the link between literature and the activities and occurrences in a society, a close link is established between literatures and in this context creative writing and the history of the society (Marshall, 2010). Creative writing tends to store a society’s culture, language, special events among other valuable elements in the society after which it passes the on to new generations (Burroway, 2010). The following essay will take a deep insight into the relationship between imaginative writing and historical contexts. It will take a special focus to Australia. 2.0 Overview of Imaginative Writing And Historical Contexts 2.1 Imaginative Writing But what is imaginative writing? Imaginative writing which is sometimes referred to as imaginative writing is a form of writing which follows the imagination/ creative ability of ate writer. Imaginative writing uses a flowery language to express itself, in addition to using writing elements which makes it interesting to read. There are four main genres of imaginative writing. They include: fiction, drama, poetry and non- fiction (Burroway, 2010). Fiction is the imaginative writing of literary texts such as stories and novels which are based on a non-existent situation. However, fiction may also be based on a previously existent situation, but the activities or stories which unfold after that are fictions; in that they never really existed. For this reason, fiction depends on the imaginative ability of the writer. Fiction tends to take its audience away from the normal world and submerging them into a stream of thoughts which are instigated by the writer’s imagination. On the other hand, drama is a form of imaginative writing which acts imaginative scripts. For a drama to be interesting to watch and also understandable, there is a great need to ensure that the imagination of the script writer is on its best. Moreover, it is important that the actors who are chosen for different scenes are able to stand up to the various responsibilities and pressures which come as a result of their roles. On the other hand, poetry is the use of flowery language, sounds, rhythm and other elements of poetry such as irony, sarcasm and metaphors in order to pass on a message or describe something (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2006). Poetry is a literary element which has been a part of humankind for a long time, hence it is highly valued in many societies around the world. Lastly is non- fiction imaginative writing. This type of writing is based on real time events but uses an imaginative language to express the events. Moreover, the writer presents his/ her literary texts in an imaginative manner, hence being able to attract more audience to his/ her work. 2.2 History In order to fully understand the relationship between history contexts and imaginative writing, it is also important that the later is discussed just in the same manner in which the former has been discussed. History is a chronological narration of past events/ occurrences (Carr, 2006). History is very important since it enables the people who live in present to understand what happened long time ago after which they are able to acknowledge their present situation and consequently be able to predict what will happen in the future. History defines a people; it gives them a sense of belonging. History also gives meaning; a reason to belong. Lastly history gives form; the state of things. Therefore, it is therefore important that a society holds its history and consequently find ways of storing it and passing it from generation to generation. On this note, historical contexts come into being. They are specific historical situations, for instance the holocaust. The history storage mechanisms usually keep history in form of historical contexts that is specific occurrences. The chronological arrangement of the historical contexts in turn forms history. There are various forms of storing history, and literature is one of the various forms. As a result of this, there is direct connection between imaginative writing, which is a form of literature and historical contexts (Standtaller, 2011). As pointed out above, literature derives its contents from the real time events or occurrences in a society. Moreover, the previous sections of the paper pointed out that literature is a mirror of the society, for this reason, literature is rich in the past activities / occurrences in a society. The past activities form the history of the society, hence the relationship between imaginative writing and history. Through its various genres namely, fiction, non- fiction, poetry and drama, imaginative writing is able to store history in addition to passing it from generation to generation. More often than not, traditional literature pieces for instance imaginative writing pieces such as poems, folk tales, songs and stories are owned by a specific society. For instance, In Australia, the folk lore and poems of indigenous people such as the aboriginals are owned by these people. This is because of the fact that the content in the materials reflect on the past real life experiences and the culture of the specific people. In the following section, the relationship between imaginative writing will be discussed with respect to the four main genres of creative writing, taking a social focus on their relationship with the Australia society. 3.0 Discussion on Relationship between Various Genres of Imaginative Writing and Historical Contexts 3.1 Poetry Looking at Australia, it is inevitable to acknowledge that poetry has played a very important role in the storing the history of the country. Poems have been used to express the emotions of the people. They have also been used to praise important figures in the history. They have also been used to discuss important and specific activities and events in the society. Generally, poems elicit a lot of emotions from the audience hence they are very instrumental in creating awareness in the society. On a rather unsurprising move, in 1821 Shelly in her poetry defence pointed out that poets are the ‘unacknowledged legislators of the world’ (Rich, 2006). This is because of the great command that poems have on the society. This is the same case in Australia; poems have been used over time to serve the above purposes. The following section will discuss some of the poems. One of the most pressing problems in the Australian history is about the discrimination of the country’s indigenous people. One of the groups of aboriginal people which fall into this group is the aboriginal people. For a long time, the aboriginals, black Australians and other minority groups have been treated unequally by the Australian society. As a result of this, various poems by both the aboriginal people and the non-aboriginals have been used to create awareness to the situation, express emotions and also to record the specific history in the society. Analyzing at the following poem by Tony Birch, the above situation can be evidently seen. To start with, the first paragraph talks of the discrimination that the aboriginals face due to their ethnicity. Generally, aboriginals have a darker skin colour tone as compared to other Australians. Discrimination of people by their skin colour is one problem which has faced many countries in the world, from the United States of America to Germany, Zimbabwe to South Africa, and equally so is the problem preset in Australia. Therefore, the first paragraph creates awareness of the historical discrimination of the Aboriginals in Australia. As a result of this, the historical context is stored, via the poem. On the second verse, the poet refers to the discriminated people as a corpse, which has been disintegrated to toy around with. This in a kind of manner alludes to the unethical use of the aboriginals in various experiments in Australia, not forgetting their ill treatment in the health care systems of the country. This stanza gives the notion that the Aboriginals are not treated equally as the other Australians, hence the poet pictures them as being used as corpses, which are useless hence used for tests . However, over time, the government has gotten the attention of the plight of the Aboriginals, hence the various measures which have been established with a view of ensuring that their concerns are put into consideration, for instance, the health care for the Aboriginals and the Indigenous people has been beefed up in order to ensure healthcare for all. The third stanza talks of how the larger Australian society is trying to find ways of defining who the Aboriginals are; hence imposing them a history which does not relate to them (McCauley, 2008). At the last stanza, the poet talks of how the indigenous people feel towards their ill treatment by the society. From this example, it is appropriate to conclude that creative writing has the ability to capture a historical context, for instance the discrimination of the indigenous people in Australia, their ill treatment by the society and how they feel towards that treatment. Therefore, there is a close relationship between creative writing, in this context poetry and historical contexts in Australia. (McCauley, 2008.). The following poem by Oodgeroo Noonuccal also talks about the plight of the indigenous people. (McCauley, 2008.). 3.2 Drama As pointed out earlier, the relationship of creative writing and historical contexts will be discussed with reference to the various genres of creative writing. Another of the genres of imaginative writing which has made a great impact on the various historical contexts in Australia is drama. Drama is the piecing together of acts which are based on creatively written scripts after which they are either performed as live theater performances of recorded as films and movies (Ship, 2000). In the modern days, drama has made a very significant role in history. Drama has been used by people to express their emotions towards some situations, record important historical events/ occurrences and also create awareness of history to the audiences. Some of the perfect examples of dramas which have been able to capture and expose specific historical contexts includes’ Escape from Sobibor’ which talks about the historical injustices during the holocaust where millions of Jews were executed by the Nazi leadership. Another example of drama in a perfect relation to historical context is the acting of the story of life of Jesus, which gives a historical narration of the life and times of Jesus, who is believed to be the son of God by Christians. Just as its other imaginative writing counterparts, drama is a reflection of the society. Looking at the various live performances, films and movies, it is possible to see that the drama characters and lifestyle is a perfect resemblance of the real life situation (Burroway, 2010).. This is because of the reason pointed out above that literature derives its contents from the society on which it is based. Giving a special focus to Australia, it can be seen that drama has a very close relationship with historical contexts. As expected, drama is used to pass on history from generation to generation, express emotions and also create awareness about specific historic contexts (Scot, 2010). On this point, the example of the historical discrimination of the indigenous people in Australia will be used. The Aboriginals and the Torres Strait people have been collectively grouped as the indigenous communities of Australia. Their plights have already been discussed earlier. So as to express their feeling and also prove that they are just as good as other people, they have turned to drama, theatre, film and movies to air their various concerns. The following are some of the quotes from some of the most prominent indigenous people movie directors. (Creative Spirits, 2012) (Creative Spirits, 2012) From those quotations by some of the prominent Aboriginal directors, it is evident that the creative drama has been progressively used so as to give specific historical contexts of the indigenous people in Australia. Some of the dramas and movies which have been made on the indigenous people includes: ‘Always was and Always Will Be’, ‘Aboriginal Rules’ and ‘Among Us’. 3.3 Fictional Writing The other genre of imaginative writing identified earlier is fiction. As identified earlier, fictional writing is the imaginative writing of various texts such as books, novels, plays, and poems with a view of giving a vague picture of what the writer views as what actually happened in history (Morrison, 2012). Fictional writing is not just about coming up with literacy pieces which give a proposition of what happened in history, but it is about giving a creative imagination insight into a historical context, which realizes with the widely acknowledged historical context (Burroway, 2010).. For this reason, it is important that a writer does a lot of research on the specific topic on which he/ she wants to write a fiction on. It is after reading the fiction that a writer is able to come up with a credible fiction piece which pieces up all the pieces of factual information using fictional links (Kuebler, 2010). For instance, no one really has the real data about the indigenous people off Australia. This is because of the fact that the Aboriginals did not document any of their contents into appropriate systems which can be easily retrieved today. For this reason, the stories on the Aboriginal people are fiction; since no one really has the factual evidence about their history. This is one of the reasons why the Aboriginal people complain that the Australian society is imposing to them a history which they do not realize with. Therefore, all that writers and historian can do is to come close to the real history, but they cannot be able to get the real history. In order to do this, the writers need to study the arts of the Aboriginals for example stone art, their literature for instance poems, songs and folklore, their language and culture. Since the elements under study do not give a chronological order of events which have occurred over the Aboriginal history, there is a need for an imaginative writer who will come up with the most appropriate fiction to link up the factual data that he/ she has gathered. This gives the relationship between fiction and historical contexts. This is due to the fact that fiction is used to explain specific historical contexts. Fictional writing can be in the form of poetry, drama, songs, stories and novels. Some of the examples of fictional writing pieces in the world include the acting of the Titanic and the world wars. Some of the examples of fictional writing include stories about the history Aboriginal people, the arrival of the colonialists in Australia and the struggle for independence. The following fictional poem/ song by Shane Howard, gives a vague idea of how the white men arrived in Australia.   (Shoemaker, 2000)   Therefore, fiction enables writers to give an account of a specific historical context, hence enabling the writer to arrive at a chronological order, which is demanded of by history. 3.4 Non-Fictional Writing The last genre of imaginative writing is non- fiction writing. Non- fiction writing is a type of imaginative writing which gives a real count of the occurrence of events (Burroway, 2010).. This form of writing is most applicable in the recording of modern events where a lot of documentation is available. For this reason, it is possible to get the real occurrence of recent historical contexts via non- fiction writing. For example, it is possible to get into the historical context of the American military action is Afghanistan and Iraq due to the non- fiction writing pieces which are available in the world. Non-fiction writing enables writers and historians to record specific historical contexts for future reference either as print or video recordings eg films (Zimmerman, 2012). In so doing the problems of lack of appropriate data to use in the future which are associated with previous moves are avoided. Taking a look at Australia, there are several non- fiction writings which have been used to give an account of several historical contexts of the country. For example, there is numerous writing about the god rush in Australia. The gold rush occurred when gold was discovered in the country. On such news, national and international miners made haste moves to the gold mines in Australia so as to get as much gold as they could, hence the name gold rush (Monaghan, 1966). An example of such of the books is Australians and the Gold Rush by Jay Monaghan. 4.0 Conclusion In conclusion, it is evident from this essay that there is a close relationship between creative writing and historical contexts. It has been seen that creative writing gives a record of historical contexts, enables the passing of history from one generation to the other and lastly gives a reflection of the society hence being referred to as a mirror of the society on which it is based. The paper has also identified that imaginative writing is a form of literature, and therefore just like other types of literature, it derives its contents from the society on which it is based. The essay has analyzed the relationship of creative writing with respect to the four genres of imaginative writing namely poems, fiction, non-fiction and drama. The essay has given Australian examples of creative writing pieces and also quotes from prominent people in the drama industry. The dominant historical context which has been made reference to in this paper is the historical injustices towards the indigenous people of Australia. From this essay, it is appropriate to conclude that there is a direct relationship of creative writing and historical contexts.   References Burroway, J., (2010).Imaginative Writing, Longman Creative Spirits, (2012). Australian Aboriginal Moves and Films, Retrieved on 28th October 2012 from http://www.creativespirits.info/resources/movies/ Carr, E., (2006). What is History?, 1-30 Kuebler, C., (2010). Literary Magazines in Context: A Historical Perspective, New England Review, 24(1); 23-29 Kaufman, S., & Kaufman, J., (2006). The Psychology of Creative Writing, Cambridge press Marshall, S., (2010). Creative Writing, University of Sussex, Macmillan Publishers, Morrison,T.,(2012). Context, Beloved (SparkNotes Literature Guide Series), 34(1); 23-30 Monaghan, J., (1966). Australians and the Gold Rush, University of California Press, California. McCauley, P., (2008). Cultural Erasure, Quadrant Journal,9(1), 1-10 Rich, A., (2006). Legislators in the World, The Guardian Saturday 18th November Shoemaker, A., (2000). Ch. 6. Views of Australian History in Aboriginal Literature, The Black Australian [Online] Retrieved on 28th October 2012 from http://epress.anu.edu.au/bwwp/mobile_devices/ch06.html Standtaller, R.,(2011). What is History and who is History Important? 1-5 Ship, R., (2000) The Investigator, The Journal of Multimedia History, 3(1), 1-3 Standler, R., (2011). What IS History and Why is History Important?, 1-15 Scot, F., (2010). Character Context and Plot, Retrieved on 28th October 2012 from http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/SiteImages/29/29ac5221-8c45-42fe-acc5-4502d5174f19.pdf Zimmerman, P., (2012). Non-Fiction Film Theory, 222-301, Ithaca University, 1-12 Read More