Shelves of space in brick-and-mortar bookstores or on Goodreads are devoted to literary fiction. Sometimes I even review literary fiction on this blog. So, you may wonder, what genre is literary fiction? Actually, the reading world doesn’t consider it a genre at all, but rather the opposite—literary fiction is also known as “serious literature.”
Technically, “literature” means any written work, although the term connotes pieces of lasting value and significance. I think of it as the classics—things we study in school as good examples of technique, literary device, or a new form in narrative style. According to Goodreads, the term “literary fiction” came into vogue in the 1960s to distinguish serious fiction from popular (aka, genre) fiction.
Many literary classics were popular fiction at the time they were written.
What Do Readers Expect From Literary Fiction?
Like the genre designations horror, fantasy, weird, etc., literary fiction is a marketing term to help vendors of story communicate with consumers of story. The reader expects certain things from a literary work and will judge it based on that expectation. Just as the audience looks to plot to drive popular fiction and for the story to hit established genre tropes, they also have notions of what a literary novel should deliver.
Character-Driven Story
While, of course, genre stories have characters with needs and goals who interact with each other and the story problem, the tale is about the plot. In literary fiction, the story is about its people. Their growth arc is driven more by personal, internal challenges than dramatic, outside events. If asked, “What’s that book about?” you’d say, “a high school boy works through his resentments via basketball and friends,” (All The Castles Burned) not “young students at a wizard academy battle monsters, deadly curses, and a powerful mage to recover a magical relic.”
Insight Into The Human Condition
Literary fiction teaches deep lessons about people’s flaws and strengths, their ability to pull together or break apart, and their survival or destruction in the face of life’s challenges and tragedies. Literary fiction is seldom a “feel-good” read. (That is a gross generalization, but I think you know what I mean.) Bad, yet often mundane, stuff happens to good people, bad people, and so-so people. They may have the opportunity to change but refuse it or never have a real chance to save themselves. Literary fiction can be depressingly realistic.
Language and Literary Devices
To me, literary fiction really shines with language use. A literary novel can be a thing of beauty, a poem in prose form. Each word is selected for maximum impact, and themes, leitmotifs, and foreshadowing enliven the book-club discussion.
Innovative Technique
Literary fiction challenges the reader. That challenge may be as simple as an ambiguous ending or some non-standard punctuation. (For example, Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles didn’t use quotation marks for dialogue. I can’t say I found that particular innovation successful. And it doesn’t seem to have caught on.) A well-known example is James Joyce’s use of stream-of-consciousness in Ulysses. The nonlinear mystery Slade House (David Mitchell) started as a Twitter story.
Awards for Literary Fiction
Many famous awards honor literary fiction. When you hear about someone winning the Nobel Prize for Fiction, they write literary books. Some recent prize-winning stories are—National Book Award: Trust Exercise (Susan Choi) and Pulitzer Prize for Fiction: Overstory (Richard Powers).
Upmarket Literary Fiction
Can’t we have it both ways—strong prose and action-packed plot? Why, yes, you can. That would be “upmarket fiction.” Unfortunately, this term is not used much in marketing to consumers, more among agents and publishers. The She Writes blog lists Big Little Lies (Liane Moriarty), Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn), and Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng) as recent examples of upmarket fiction.
Genre And Literary Fiction
I recently read a blog about genre that pointed out readers identify genre by its aesthetic. Star Wars looks and feels like science fiction because it takes place in outer space, never mind that the story universe clearly operates on magical principles. Many literary novels look and feel like genre. Handmaiden’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) is dystopian science fiction, Black Leopard, Red Wolf (Marlon James) is fantasy, as is The Last Days of New Paris (China Miéville). Slade House is a horror/mystery.
However, while these books, based on their setting or plot, hit some genre expectations, they are about something else. The journey of humans through Life (with a capital L) is all one, whether in a twisted version of the United States’ future, an Africa-like place inhabited by shapeshifters and magic users, or an alternative-history 1950s Paris, replete with surreal monsters. The character and story arcs, the innovation and attention to language, and demands on the reader’s engagement all make these works of literature.
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