Literary fiction

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Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction, serious fiction, [1] high literature, [2] artistic literature, [2] and sometimes just literature, [2] are labels that, in the book trade, refer to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre (see genre fiction); or, otherwise, refer to novels that are character-driven rather than plot-driven, examine the human condition, use language in an experimental or poetic fashion, or are simply considered serious art. [3] [4] :115, 131 [5]

Contents

Literary fiction is often used as a synonym for literature, in the exclusive sense of writings specifically considered to have considerable artistic merit. [6] While literary fiction is commonly regarded as artistically superior to genre fiction, the two are not mutually exclusive, and major literary figures have employed the genres of science fiction, crime fiction, romance, etc., to create works of literature. Furthermore, the study of genre fiction has developed within academia in recent decades. [4] :115, 131 [7] [8] [5]

Slipstream genre is sometimes located in between the genre and non-genre fictions.

Characteristics

Definition

Literary fiction may involve a concern with social commentary, political criticism, or reflection on the human condition. [9] This contrasts with genre fiction where plot is the central concern. [10] It may have a slower pace than popular fiction. [11] As Terrence Rafferty notes, "literary fiction, by its nature, allows itself to dawdle, to linger on stray beauties even at the risk of losing its way." [12] Other works may be more concerned with style and complexity of the writing: Saricks describes literary fiction as "elegantly written, lyrical, and ... layered". [13]

As opposed to genre fiction, literary fiction refers to the realistic fiction of human character, or more broadly, "all serious prose fiction outside the market genres", the genres being for example science fiction, fantasy, thrillers or Westerns. [8] Jeff Prucher defined mainstream literature as "realistic literature... that does not belong to a marketing category (especially science fiction, fantasy or horror)". [4]

In the context of science fiction, Brian Stableford defined literary fiction as "a tradition that had been and remained stubbornly indifferent to, if not proudly ignorant of, the progress of science". [14] James E. Gunn wrote that "The SF community uses the word mainstream to describe the fiction that is getting the attention they want; the word is a confession that SF is felt to be a sidestream, a tributary. [5]

Gunn also noted the difference between commercial and literary mainstreams, with the former meaning authors whose works are popular high-selling bestsellers and the latter, works seen as "art". He also noted that there is a contradiction between these, as "high sales figures are generally taken to mean the author has sold out" and left the literary mainstream. He further defined the literary mainstream as "dominated by the academic-literary community—university professors of literature; high-powered critics for prestige publications such as the New York Times Book Review , The New York Review of Books , and The New Yorker : and writers who take the first two groups seriously". According to Gunn, the field of literary fiction in the United States is significantly framed by fiction of the early 20th century and classic canon made from works of authors such as Virginia Woolf, James Joyce or Henry James (all from European descent). [5]

Classic book

Literary fiction includes classic books: that is works in any discipline that have been accepted as being exemplary or noteworthy. This includes being listed in a list of great books. The terms "classic book" and "Western canon" are closely related concepts, but they are not necessarily synonymous. A "canon" refers to a list of books considered to be "essential" and is presented in a variety of ways. It can be published as a collection, such as Great Books of the Western World, Modern Library, or Penguin Classics, or presented as a list by an academic such as Harold Bloom' [15] or be the official reading list of an institution of higher learning. [16]

Robert M. Hutchins in his 1952 preface to the Great Books of the Western World declared:

Until lately the West has regarded it as self-evident that the road to education lay through great books. No man was educated unless he was acquainted with the masterpieces of his tradition. There never was very much doubt in anybody's mind about which the masterpieces were. They were the books that had endured and that the common voice of mankind called the finest creations, in writing, of the Western mind. [17]

However, Ben Bova, remarking on the distinction between genre and non-genre works, noted that "the literature of the fantastic was the mainstream of world storytelling from the time writing began until the beginning of the seventeenth century", and that older classics have more in common with modern, fantastical genre works than with the genre of literary, mainstream fiction. [18]

High culture

Literary fiction can be considered an example of "high culture" and contrasted with "popular culture" and "mass culture". [19]

The poet and critic Matthew Arnold defined "culture", in Culture and Anarchy (1869), as "the disinterested endeavour after man's perfection" pursued, obtained, and achieved by effort to "know the best that has been said and thought in the world". [20] Such a literary definition of high culture also includes philosophy. The philosophy of aesthetics proposed high culture as a force for moral and political good.

Literary merit

Since 1901 the Nobel Prize in Literature has frequently been awarded to the authors of literary fiction. This annual award is presented to a writer from any country who has, in the field of literature, produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction. [21] [22] Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, the award is based on an author's body of work as a whole.

The International Booker Prize is a similar British award given for outstanding literary fiction translated into English. This complements the earlier Booker Prize, which is awarded to fiction in the English language. For both judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and public figures. The Booker judging process and the very concept of a "best book" being chosen by a small number of literary insiders is controversial for many. [23] Author Amit Chaudhuri wrote: "The idea that a 'book of the year' can be assessed annually by a bunch of people – judges who have to read almost a book a day – is absurd, as is the idea that this is any way of honouring a writer." [24]

Criticism

In an interview, John Updike lamented that "the category of 'literary fiction' has sprung up recently to torment people like me who just set out to write books, and if anybody wanted to read them, terrific, the more the merrier ... I'm a genre writer of a sort. I write literary fiction, which is like spy fiction or chick lit." [25] Likewise, on The Charlie Rose Show , Updike argued that this term, when applied to his work, greatly limited him and his expectations of what might come of his writing, so he does not really like it. He suggested that all his works are literary, simply because "they are written in words." [26]

James Gunn noted that genre fans and critics criticize mainstream as mundane, with the term's "deliberate overtones of dullness, worldliness, and uninspired realism". He criticized mainstream fiction as becoming increasingly stagnant and marginalized. [5] This view has been echoed by others, for example Adam Robert wrote: "It's not that SFF [science fiction and fantasy] is a ghetto inside the glorious city of "Literary Fiction", but the reverse. "Literary" novels sell abominably badly, by and large; popular culture in the main belongs to SF and Fantasy, eighteen of the top twenty highest grossing movies of all time are SFF, everybody recognises SFF icons and memes'". [27]

Critics and readers of mainstream fiction have been accused of "snobbery" when it comes to their dislike of genre fiction. [28]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Science fiction and fantasy serve as important vehicles for feminist thought, particularly as bridges between theory and practice. No other genres so actively invite representations of the ultimate goals of feminism: worlds free of sexism, worlds in which women's contributions are recognized and valued, worlds that explore the diversity of women's desire and sexuality, and worlds that move beyond gender.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Updike</span> American novelist, poet (1932–2009)

John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once, Updike published more than twenty novels, more than a dozen short-story collections, as well as poetry, art and literary criticism and children's books during his career.

The New Wave was a science fiction style of the 1960s and 1970s, characterized by a great degree of experimentation with the form and content of stories, greater imitation of the styles of non-science fiction literature, and an emphasis on the psychological and social sciences as opposed to the physical sciences. New Wave authors often considered themselves as part of the modernist tradition of fiction, and the New Wave was conceived as a deliberate change from the traditions of the science fiction characteristic of pulp magazines, which many of the writers involved considered irrelevant or unambitious.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ursula K. Le Guin</span> American fantasy and science fiction author (1929–2018)

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. She was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western canon</span> Cultural classics valued in the West

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genre fiction</span> Fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre

Genre fiction, also known as formula fiction or popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT themes in speculative fiction</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese science fiction</span> Genre of speculative fiction

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Speculative fiction is defined as science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Within those categories exists many other subcategories, for example cyberpunk, magical realism, and psychological horror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiction</span> Narrative with imaginary elements

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantasy</span> Genre of speculative fiction

Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and usually inspired by mythology or folklore. The term "fantasy" can also be used to describe a "work of this genre", usually literary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soft science fiction</span> Sub-genre of science fiction emphasizing "soft" sciences or human emotions

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A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to support themselves in this way or write as an avocation. Most novelists struggle to have their debut novel published, but once published they often continue to be published, although very few become literary celebrities, thus gaining prestige or a considerable income from their work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brazilian science fiction</span>

Brazilian science fiction has been a part of Brazilian literature since the mid 19th century. The first works of Brazilian Science Fiction emerged in the decades following Brazil's independence. Brazilian science fiction has its roots in authors such as Augusto Emílio Zaluar in the novel O Doutor Benignus and Machado de Assis in the short story O Imortal (1882). The genre grew in popularity over the 20th century, reaching its first “golden age” in the late 1950s, bolstered by the work of publisher Gumercindo Rocha Dorea. Following the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, the genre has witnessed a renaissance, with an influx of new writers and diverse influences reshaping the genre

Carl Howard Freedman is an American writer, literary theorist and professor of English literature at Louisiana State University. He is best known for the non-fiction book Critical Theory and Science Fiction, and his scholarly work on the writer Philip K. Dick. Freedman's other works include a series of books on Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin and Samuel R. Delany, and several essays and a book on China Miéville. In 2018, he won the Pilgrim Award for lifetime contribution to science fiction and fantasy scholarship.

References

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  2. 1 2 3 Cunningham, John M.; Zelazko, Alicja (2023-04-21). "Popular literature". Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  3. A Beginner's Guide to Literary Fiction|NY Book Editors
  4. 1 2 3 Prucher, Jeff (2007-03-21). Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN   978-0-19-530567-8.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Gunn, James E. (1988). "Mainstream". The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Viking. ISBN   978-0-670-81041-3.
  6. "written work valued for superior or lasting artistic merit". ("Literature", OED).
  7. Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, "Popular Fiction Studies: The Advantages of a New Field". Studies in Popular Culture, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Fall 2010), pp. 21–3
  8. 1 2 "SFE: Mainstream Writers of SF". sf-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  9. Saricks 2009, p. 180.
  10. Saricks 2009, pp. 181–82.
  11. Saricks 2009, p. 182.
  12. Rafferty 2011.
  13. Saricks 2009, p. 179.
  14. Stableford, Brian (2006-09-06). Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. xxi. ISBN   978-1-135-92373-0.
  15. Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages . New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.
  16. "St. John's College | Academic Program | The Reading List". Stjohnscollege.edu. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
  17. Hutchins, Robert M., ed. (1952). Great Books of the Western World (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica), v. 1, p. xi.
  18. Herbert, Frank (1981). Nebula Winners: Fifteen. Harper & Row. p. 175. ISBN   978-0-06-014830-0.
  19. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967) Volume 1. p. 167.
  20. Arnold, Matthew (1869). Culture and Anarchy . The Cornhill Magazine.
  21. "Alfred Nobel will". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 20 January 2021.
  22. John Sutherland (13 October 2007). "Ink and Spit". Guardian Unlimited Books. The Guardian. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
  23. "Not the Booker prize". The Guardian. 16 October 2017.
  24. Chaudhuri, Amit (15 August 2017). "My fellow authors are too busy chasing prizes to write about what matters". The Guardian.
  25. Grossman, Lev (28 May 2006). "Old Master in a Brave New World". Time.
  26. The Charlie Rose Show from June 14, 2006 with John Updike Archived February 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  27. Notion, Dream (2018-07-07). "'We're Winning the War': A Q&A with SF writer, critic and historian, Adam Roberts". FactorDaily. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
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Bibliography