Anahita's Discussion of Innovation

As mentioned in the discussion of Brevity imitation texts, the focus of an innovative short creative nonfiction piece is upon its format. Because Brevity in itself is such a flexible genre, innovation becomes particularly difficult. Thus, our group restricted ourselves to composing just one innovative text. The idea of innovation with a genre such as this is analogous to Fairclough’s discussion of disembedded genres. He describes them as “lifted out of…particular networks of social practices where they initially developed” (Fairclough 68). With Brevity, the various formats are pulled out of their natural environment—disembedded—and used as a medium for the purpose of a short nonfiction essay.

Take for example my innovative text, modeled after a dictionary entry. In brainstorming the idea of using Gujarati words, particularly slang words, I noticed a pattern among them: they were most often used by dad or his mother. With the definitions of these words as the frame for my piece, I used the anecdotes in place of typical examples of usage. I chose anecdotes that illustrated moments with my father and grandmother and that used the respective words in context. In this way, I took the purpose of dictionary entries and disembedded them to match my uses in a Brevity-style piece.

I had to make many conscious choices with this piece, such as how to write the definitions and how many to provide. This was especially challenging because these are essentially idioms—Gujarati words I have grown up with all my life and have attached infinite shades of meaning to. Conveying these to an English-speaking audience was a daunting task. Combined with the restrictive word count, I found myself having to make major edits for length.

Through my evaluation of my innovation I realized I would have to offer the most concise definition in the denotative section and leave my anecdotes to speak the nuances in the connotative section of examples. Within the anecdotes, more typical Brevity writing is present: narrative format, rich with imagery that quickly conveys a message that would take longer to tell, and short sentences to slow pace and create impact. Because my anecdotes were character-driven I used dialogue as a medium to establish their personalities and behaviors. I made a conscious effort to portray the people present in the essay in a ‘human’ fashion, i.e. to let them speak for themselves through dialogue, rather than listing off what they looked like and acted like. I found this to be a particularly effective method because the essay’s large motifs are language, speech, and communication. Another component of this essay illuminated by these motifs is the pronunciation key. I included IPA transcriptions of each word so that readers unfamiliar with the language and its accent would have a reference point if they actually wanted to hear the Gujarati terms for themselves. This element was very important; the sound of these words coming out of their speakers’ mouths is just as important to understand as the meaning of these words.

Creating an innovative task allowed for a interesting study of the Brevity genre because it involved deciding both what is ‘natural’ for the genre and what is outside its preconceived boundaries. Luckily my efforts did not lead me to any troubling conclusions, but only affirmed by initial reactions as to how flexible a genre Short Creative Nonfiction can be.