Topic: Fiction and Reality of the Historical Novel

Lecturer: Ko Tsung-Ming (柯宗明) (writer, playwright, director)

Time: 2020, November 19 (Thu.) 14:50~16:20

Venue: Class Room 502, Multi-Purpose Classroom Building, NTU

Organizer: New Taiwan Peace Foundation, Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature

Lecture Summary

When writing historical novel, how do we draw the line between reality and fiction? Is there a boundary for this kind of fiction writing? How do fictional elements and reality coalesce in these works?

The author of the award winning novel Decoding Chen Cheng-Po(陳澄波密碼), Ko Tsung-Ming(柯宗明) argued that, in order to create a captivating historical novel, fiction must based on realist writing. In other words, in the space between reality and fiction, there must be some historical base upon which an adequate degree of fictional embellishment are created to offer theatricality needed. At the same time, authors should always be aware of the power of writing itself and avoid using characters to simply complete the story. Novelists need humanity. The novel allows you to revisit the past and makes you vision for a better future.