Difference between revisions 330863 and 330870 on enwiki

A <b>false document</b> is a [[literary technique]] which attempts to create in the reader (viewer, audience, etc) a sense of authenticity beyond the normal and expected [[suspension of disbelief]]. That is, it wants to fool the audience briefly into thinking that what is being presented is actually a fact.  This not to be confused with a [[mockumentary]], a admittedly fictional film done in the manner of a documentary.

In practice, the device takes a very simple form. The work of art (be it a text, a moving an image, a comic book or whatever) usually is composed of or includes some piece of [[forgery]]. The false document effect can be achieved in many ways including faked police reports, newspaper articles, bibliographical references and documentary footage. The effect can be extended outside of the confines of the text by way of supplementary materials like badges, ID cards, diaries, letters or other objects.

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====Sources: or, False Documents as a field of study====

False documents were recently the topic of a graduate level seminar in the humanities at the [[University of Michigan]]. The seminar was taught by Professor Eileen Pollack. While the form has existed for at least two  hundred years, focused study is fairly recent.
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See: [[literature]], [[literary technique]], [[falsification]], [[frame tale]], [[conspiracy theory]], [[urban legend]], [[fictional guidebook]]
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