Webb Chap. 7 (Poststructuralism)

'Within this approach, testimonial literature has value for my students far beyond the classroom. It provides a much-needed signal not to give up on themselves or on others. It inspires them to reach out and speak for themselves, to generalize from their own experience' (qtd. in Webb p. 139)

Although several works of fiction are obviously paramount to literature instruction, it is my belief that non-fiction works such as testimonials, autobiographies or even autoethnographies often can have more of an impact on students, considering the simple fact that they are first-hand accounts of entirely true events. I realize that fiction contains themes and characters who are indeed very real, but texts such as primary sources from the Holocaust or I, Rigoberta Menchu have defining characteristics that are very hard to ignore. Couple these works with guest speakers and you have literally brought the issue alive for students, and this is when I feel like the most substantial learning can take place. Students may not remember everything from the Diary of Anne Frank, but surely they will remember what the lady--who experienced the Holocaust first hand--had to say on her visit into the classroom. Moreover, having students seek out various subcultures within their community and then transcribing a autoethnography would be a wonderful activity, not only to have them interact with other cultures but to hear the stories of these often "marginalized" persons.
Moving forward, this chapter also got me thinking, especially since Webb mentions that the New Critics may not consider I, Rigoberta Menchu to be a "literary text," what exactly does constitute a literary text? I have been under the impression that literary texts are primarily works of fiction while non-literary are reserved to non-fictional, informational (academic), but I get the sense that a concrete definition may be hard to pin down. I have also heard that fiction with "irrational" story lines (i.e. some sci-fi) isn't literary either. A text should be considered literary if it can be used to explore the human experience, should it not? Any help here...?