The fundamental barrier between a work of literature and a history book is simply that of fact and fiction. Literature reserves the luxury of blurring that line for dramatic effect. An historical text is obliged to follow a strict guideline known as the facts. But how do teachers successfully convey what history is attempting illuminate about the human condition? Turgid facts, dots on a map, or statistical charts provide no emotional connection to the humanity that must exist in any responsible senior history course. The responsibility of illuminating the human condition has always been up to the writer, poet, artist etc. Can the history co-exist with fiction in a successful course?

My mentor has made a 35-year career as multi-disciplined English and History teacher. He encouraged me to delve into why we must create a successful marriage between the two in our history classrooms (of course, it is a two way street, history is equally important in understanding fiction). I also chose this topic because I have yet to teach a full course in history (only some supply teaching here and there), so I felt it important to write from a place I was somewhat fam

I interviewed a panel of five teachers from Birchmount Park Collegiate Institute in the Toronto District School Board. Two were my colleagues from the English department, the other three were from Birchmount's History Department. All five were either currently teaching senior level courses. I ran an informal discussion group guiding them with four questions (and in a room of five teachers I was lucky to get four questions in at all!). I have distilled the responses throughout this paper.

One must read both statements several times to realize that the historical text's definition of "history" is the process of shedding light on the human condition; identical to Clarke's cited the purpose of literature.

Some common words found in the essay are:
English History, Gas Quick, Short Story, History Rationale, History Department, Decorum Est, Story O'Brien, Line Fiction, Civilization XXV, Senior Student, human condition, literature history, history literature, history classroom, historical novel, line fiction, blurring line, specific time-, melds history art, dulce et, subject matter, blurring line fiction, dulce et decorum, illuminate human condition, et decorum est,
Approximate Word count = 1925
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)