Literary Fiction and Genre
Here's something I found interesting, anyway. Within the past couple of weeks, four writers I'd thought genre authors have stated that they write literary fiction.
What does that mean to you, literary fiction? Do you think it exclusive or inclusive of genre tropes, spec fic elements, or story patterns usually found in genre?
For many, I suspect, the knee-jerk reaction is what a pretentious claim but that's only if you assume that 'literary fiction' is superior to category fiction. (Or assume that the writers are claiming a superiority over everything else published.) Except what is literary fiction? On some lists, Anne Rice is now listed as literary fiction. At one time Norman Mailer was considered literary--superior--at least, acto criticism I read during the sixties, when I was a kid. Is he still? Writers fall in and out of fashion . . . and who, for that matter, is regarded as the arbiter of literary fiction?
What does that mean to you, literary fiction? Do you think it exclusive or inclusive of genre tropes, spec fic elements, or story patterns usually found in genre?
For many, I suspect, the knee-jerk reaction is what a pretentious claim but that's only if you assume that 'literary fiction' is superior to category fiction. (Or assume that the writers are claiming a superiority over everything else published.) Except what is literary fiction? On some lists, Anne Rice is now listed as literary fiction. At one time Norman Mailer was considered literary--superior--at least, acto criticism I read during the sixties, when I was a kid. Is he still? Writers fall in and out of fashion . . . and who, for that matter, is regarded as the arbiter of literary fiction?