What defines literary fiction

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kelliewallace

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I have been submitting my crime fiction to publishers. A lot of them ask for literary fiction. As writers we all wish our works fit into that category but what defines literary fiction? Is it along the lines of Charles Dickens? One publisher said a ww2 fiction I wrote could be classified as literary fiction. I want to know what exactly defines it.
 

Cyia

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If you can answer that, you can answer the question of what literary fiction it - it's nearly as intangible. It has to do with language, voice, and style, rather than plot. But, it can also bleed over into genre fiction. Things like The Time Traveller's Wife or The Forest of Hands and Teeth were pitched as literary, but commercial.

Sometimes it means experimental. Sometimes it means pretty language. Sometimes it means vivid imagery. Sometimes it means highly acclaimed. Sometimes it means "Don't bother, you won't get it."

It's one of those "X-factor" things. You may not be able to define it, but you know it when you see it.
 

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I'm going to move this to the Round Table, where it's a better fit. Kellie, there are already several existing threads on this very same subject knocking about, so you might want to do a bit of searching and reading through: it could help you work out what's what.
 

taylormillgirl

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Someone once told me that literary fiction is a snapshot, a rich experience, whereas commercial fiction tells a story from beginning to end with a generally satisfying conclusion. This isn't a catchall definition, because as Cyia said, it's a hard thing to define, but it's the best I've got to offer.
 

Theo81

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For the specific purposes of a Q, I think genre trumps everything, so you would definitely call it crime rather than literary fiction.

However, you could call it Literary Crime, or you could call it a crime novel with book club potential, (if either of those things are appropriate).
 

Jamesaritchie

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In short, it's about the way something is written, the type of characters, and what the story is about, but I think you're going to have to read several contemporary literary writers, and form your own definition.

A simple definition isn't going to help. If you read enough of it, you'll know, and you can't really write it without reading a lot of it, definition or not.
 

lacygnette

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I write lit fic (god help me). I'm right now actively querying, and my research tells me that lots of agents say they do lit fic, but usually it means they are looking for a genre novel that is wonderfully written. I base this comment after looking at what agents are selling in Publishers Marketplace. I figure if they haven't sold lit fic, they won't have the contacts they need.

I think Theo has the right idea. Sometimes I say my novel is literary women's fiction if that suits the agent. For those who have worked on true lit fic per my definition - more character-based than plot-base, wonderful writing - I just use lit fic.

And yes, James is also right: If you read a lot of it, you recognize it...
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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I have nothing to add except to point out that no, some of us don't really wish our work fit into the literary category. It's a fine category, but not necessary one that all writers either want or should aspire to.
 

gothicangel

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I have been submitting my crime fiction to publishers. A lot of them ask for literary fiction. As writers we all wish our works fit into that category but what defines literary fiction? Is it along the lines of Charles Dickens? One publisher said a ww2 fiction I wrote could be classified as literary fiction. I want to know what exactly defines it.

Have you ever read any James Ellory or David Peace? That's literary crime fiction.

Even as a reader of literary fiction, I can't explain it myself. I love reading genre [historical/gothic/crime] but literary always feels more satisfying. WWII fiction can just as easily be historical or military genre, as literary.
 

leahzero

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Literary fiction is as much a style as a genre. And yes, it's a genre.

When the prose has a lyrical lilt, when the metaphors are surprisingly novel and profound, when the inner lives of the characters are as important (often moreso) than the plot...it's probably literary fiction.

Maybe.

It's also a flexible, vague, overused, and misused term. I think there's more commercial fiction out there than actual literary fiction, but people want the veneer of prestige that the "literary" term grants.

If you're writing literary fiction, I think you know it. It's too stylized and rich not to know. However, I've seen a lot of commercial fiction mislabeled "literary."
 

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P.D. James is another literary crime author, if you need to read around to get your definition.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

kuwisdelu

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Literary fiction is as much a style as a genre. And yes, it's a genre.

Sorry, nope, don't buy it. Literary fiction ain't a genre.

And I self-identify as a literary fiction writer. Everything I write still has a genre, and it ain't "literary fiction." And lyrical prose and style doesn't necessarily imply literary fiction.

When the prose has a lyrical lilt, when the metaphors are surprisingly novel and profound, when the inner lives of the characters are as important (often moreso) than the plot...it's probably literary fiction.

Maybe.

Maybe, but it ain't what defines literary fiction.

I've blogged on my own thoughts on the definition.

To put it simply, it doesn't have to do with voice or style or "lyrical" prose, whatever that means. It has to do with the level at which the story takes place.

In what I like to call "straight-up" genre fiction, the action (plot) and the central conflict tend to coincide. Most (good) straight-up genre fiction also has internal conflicts that happens below the surface of the plot, but these conflicts either usually aren't the central conflict of the story, or they coincide with the story (often the case with romance).

In literary fiction, the central conflict and the action or plot can diverge. The external conflict is usually just a vehicle to explore an inner conflict, whereas in straight-up genre fiction, the inner conflict tends to exist to support the external conflict, rather than the other way around.

All good fiction will contain both kinds of conflict, but it's where the focus is that tends to distinguish whether a work is literary fiction or not.

It's also a flexible, vague, overused, and misused term. I think there's more commercial fiction out there than actual literary fiction, but people want the veneer of prestige that the "literary" term grants.

If you're writing literary fiction, I think you know it. It's too stylized and rich not to know. However, I've seen a lot of commercial fiction mislabeled "literary."

Ermmm, I'd disagree with that.

You can have literary fiction that uses simple, direct prose. Fancy prose has nothing to do with whether a novel is literary fiction or not. IMO.

And there's no reason you can't have fiction that's both commercial and literary.
 

theDolphin

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I have been submitting my crime fiction to publishers. A lot of them ask for literary fiction. As writers we all wish our works fit into that category but what defines literary fiction? Is it along the lines of Charles Dickens? One publisher said a ww2 fiction I wrote could be classified as literary fiction. I want to know what exactly defines it.

I really understand what you're up against. This question has been hotly debated for some time, and the debate continues today. This thread is a great example of the range of perceptions on the subject. The dissonant chorus of opinions, even within the industry, can make it extremely difficult for first time novelists today to figure out exactly where they fit, and whether or not they're literary.

In my opinion, the best you're going to be able to do is read as much information on the subject as possible from all sorts of sources, keep an open mind, and choosing from the sources you most trust, begin to formulate your own opinion. This thread is a great starting point. :)

Additionally, here are a few current and not so current articles I've found interesting and informative. There are many more out there in the ether to explore.

1. There was a great article by Arthur Krystal in the Newyorker this week that talks about the current debate. He arrives at specific conclusions that you may or may not agree with, but it will give you a perspective on the debate itself:

It's Genre. Not That There's Anything Wrong With It!

2. Another really intriguing article came out of the Huffington Post Canada last month which talks about the way the industry is currently marketing what they dub Literary Fiction. It's not the first to talk about the alleged "death" of literary fiction, but it does give a different perspective to the debate.:

The Death of Literary Fiction?

3. Earlier this year Jane Friedman's blog published an article by author Sanjida O'Connell who offers her not unbiased perspective ;):

What is a Literary Novel

4. Going even further back, in 2007 Nathan Bransford an author in LA who was an agent with Curtis Brown for a while, offered another industry perspective on literary here:

What Makes Literary Fiction Literary?
 

ARoyce

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Literary fiction is as much a style as a genre. And yes, it's a genre.

um, leah, that Millions article seems to take a satirical stance, not a literal one.

But, as for the rest of your post and others here, literary fiction does tend to "do" more in terms of character depth and/or structure and/or POV and/or language than most commercial or genre fiction. And in some cases, it can seem like plot takes a back seat to such mastery of language and technique.

To the OP, one way to inductively understand what literary fiction is, especially since it's such a nebulous idea, is to search for winners of prestigious book awards like the Pulitzer and the Booker Awards. There are tons of literary authors, yet their writing is so different from each other that what they share in common is more about technique than anything else.

A few people have mentioned some literary authors...and literary/commercial crossovers. Here are a few more: Michael Chabon, Toni Morrison, Junot Diaz, Jonathan Safran Foer, Haruki Murakami, Jhumpa Lahiri...

One poster pointed out that not everyone strives to write literary fiction. That's very true. For one thing, while literary fiction garners the most prestige and can get higher advances than genre fiction, it's a harder market to get into and to sell. Still, literary writing is what most MFAs strive toward. I suppose that's part of what makes it harder to break into.

I think how you categorize your novel in a query depends at least in part on how you expect the book to be shelved or marketed.
 

Deleted member 42

Literary fiction is as much a style as a genre. And yes, it's a genre."

No, it's really not.

It's a marketing category. It is in fact a fairly new marketing category.

I note that if it were a genre it would not be so very difficult to isolate motifs and themes, and issues of form.

I also note that that article is satire.
 

Deleted member 42

For one thing, while literary fiction garners the most prestige and can get higher advances than genre fiction, it's a harder market to get into and to sell.

Where on Earth did you get the idea the literary fiction garners higher advances?

The advance is tied to the book and the author.

Michael Chabon says he writes SF. His themes and motifs support that conclusion.
 

Buffysquirrel

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I've been told that you know it when you see it. Fat lot of help that is.

Dickens was writing commercial fiction. His books have now achieved the status of classics by virtue of having been around a long time and still being read. I wouldn't call them litfic.
 

tmesis

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To put it simply, it doesn't have to do with voice or style or "lyrical" prose, whatever that means. It has to do with the level at which the story takes place.

I agree. I find the differences between literary and genre fiction to be analogous to the differences between cryptic crosswords and general knowledge crosswords. To solve general knowledge crosswords you need to take the clues literally: if their wording doesn't lead to the most obvious conclusion then they're bad clues. But to solve a cryptic crossword, you have to ignore the most obvious meaning and look for metatextual hints to the answer. The clue refuses to be satisfied by the most straightforward interpretation.

I like both types of crossword, and both types of fiction. But I do think they're distinct, and the distinction only makes sense if you read them in a particular way. Not to say that there's no overlap: literary fiction can still have genre elements, and genre can still have literary elements. Same with crosswords.

(I know that 'literary fiction' can be used much more broadly to incorporate popular classics, but I'm talking about it in the much narrower sense of 'modern marketing category' here.)
 
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Amadan

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Dickens was writing commercial fiction. His books have now achieved the status of classics by virtue of having been around a long time and still being read. I wouldn't call them litfic.

Sure they are. Dickens loaded his novels with metaphors, thematic depth, intentful characterization, and careful prose. He's not to everyone's tastes, especially today, but the notion of Dickens as a potboiler author who's only considered literary today because of historical inertia is purblind nonsense.

In Dickens' day, there wasn't a distinction between "commercial" fiction and "literary" fiction (though there were certainly authors who tossed off mediocre efforts for a quick buck, and literary critics who said so). Dickens was highly regarded not just because he was a bestseller, but because he was an important writer.
 

kuwisdelu

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I've been told that you know it when you see it. Fat lot of help that is.

Dickens was writing commercial fiction. His books have now achieved the status of classics by virtue of having been around a long time and still being read. I wouldn't call them litfic.

Sure they are. Dickens loaded his novels with metaphors, thematic depth, intentful characterization, and careful prose. He's not to everyone's tastes, especially today, but the notion of Dickens as a potboiler author who's only considered literary today because of historical inertia is purblind nonsense.

In Dickens' day, there wasn't a distinction between "commercial" fiction and "literary" fiction (though there were certainly authors who tossed off mediocre efforts for a quick buck, and literary critics who said so). Dickens was highly regarded not just because he was a bestseller, but because he was an important writer.

There are quite a few classics that I don't think are really "literary fiction" in modern terms so much as just straight-up really, really good genre fiction.

Mind you, I already described how I define literary fiction, and I don't define it by "metaphors, thematic depth, intentful characterization, and careful prose."

Those very well may make a novel "literature" (maybe, maybe not?) but not "literary fiction."

I also think it's a fallacy to confuse "literature" with "literary fiction."
 

Amadan

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I think the main difference is that nowadays, we have this distinction and it shows in how writers go about writing. Generally, literary authors think of themselves as writing "litfic." When they set out to write a book, there are certain expectations about the writing style and the execution that would be different than if they are writing a "genre" book. That doesn't mean the expectations or the quality is higher or lower, but certainly different. People expect a different sort of prose and a different sort of story.

But in Dickens' day, nobody drew such distinctions. Some of the best genre and literary authors today are the ones who similarly don't seem to categorize themselves like that, even if publishers and reviewers do.
 

Cyia

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There's plenty of overlap between genre and literary. My agent's pitch for my Steampunk describes it as literary with a commercial hook.
 

Ken

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_ _ _ literary fiction is greater than the sum of its parts.
Genre fiction is what it is, at least in theory.
In actuality things aren't quite so pat.
 

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So glad I stumbled upon this thread. I've been pondering the actual definition of "literary fiction" for some time now, and whether or not my work falls under that umbrella. :) Thanks, all!
 
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