How do you use the word 'contemporary'?

When talking about books, contemporary refers to setting and plot, not when it was written.

If she had wanted a newer book she would have most likely asked for a recent release.

doubt said:

I use the term contemporary, or contemporary fiction, when talking about anything that's not historical, anything after 1945 or so. Basically, the present day. Anything else goes.
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So how do you use and interpret it?

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Hrm. I have a more narrow definition of contemporary, as far as timespan goes. While I cringe at the idea of calling something set in the 1970s as historical, I don't consider it present day either.

Contemporary, for me, would be more strictly limited to something that you could imagine happening today. If I had written a contemporary novel in 2005, I could still see the story happening today. The culture and tech hasn't changed significantly enough for me to consider it no longer present day. But if I had written it in 1970, the culture and tech of the 70s is pretty different from those of today.

I was born in 1970, so calling fiction set in that era doesn't feel "historical" to me, it wouldn't feel contemporary either. I'd have no problem calling a story set in the 1940s historical though.

The miscommunication here though seems to be that your friend is using "contemporary" the way you and I would use "mainstream" or even "literary."

Even in mainstream and literary fiction though, you can still find sf/f elements. The Time Traveller's Wife was marketed as literary fiction, which generally has contemporary settings, but the entire premise of the story is based on time travel. Magical realism is generally set in contemporary times, and sometimes the fantasy elements are so obscure that your friend would not bat an eye at them.

Well, by definition standards, I think anything after 1945 is considered contemporary. However, when I see the word contemporary, I think more present-day than anything else. As the previous poster said though, I wouldn't know how to classify anything set from 1945 to 1995- 99.

kimberlycreates said:

Hrm. I have a more narrow definition of contemporary, as far as timespan goes. While I cringe at the idea of calling something set in the 1970s as historical, I don't consider it present day either.

Contemporary, for me, would be more strictly limited to something that you could imagine happening today. If I had written a contemporary novel in 2005, I could still see the story happening today. The culture and tech hasn't changed significantly enough for me to consider it no longer present day. But if I had written it in 1970, the culture and tech of the 70s is pretty different from those of today.

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This pretty much sums up how I feel about it too.

For me contemporary is something that is about NOW, not ten or twenty or fifty years ago.

I think of contemporary as present-day and not SF/F.

Most of my friends don't use contemporary as a genre; they say something like "real stuff" or "realistic", and I rec them what I would think of as contemporary. (Or, more likely, I don't, since I mostly read SF/F.)

For Whom the Bell Tolls was contemporary when written.

I don't think a story set in WWII, or even during the Vietnam police action is contemporary now. Too much has changed. From language to technology, it is ancient history, a different world, to the young.

This doesn't mean you have to call such a novel a historical, but, to me, it sure isn't a contemporary, either.