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Literary fiction is a term that has come into common usage since around 1960, principally to distinguish serious fiction (that is, work with claims to literary merit) from the many types of genre fiction and popular fiction (i.e., paraliterature). In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more on style, psychological depth, and character, whereas mainstream commercial fiction (the page-turner) focuses more on narrative and plot.

What distinguishes literary fiction from other genres is somewhat subjective, and as in other artistic media, genres may overlap. Even so, literary fiction is generally characterized as distinctive based on its content and style ("literariness", the concern to be "writerly"). The term literary fiction is considered hard to define very precisely^[1] but is commonly associated with the criteria used in literary awards and marketing of certain kinds of novels, since literary prizes usually concern themselves with literary fiction, and their shortlists can give a working definition.

Scope

Literary fiction includes works written as short story, novella, novel and novel sequence. In the world of comic writing, graphic novels are sometimes considered literary fiction, as represented by Watchmen.

Literary magazines, especially those affiliated with universities, or annual anthologies like the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Short Stories, or O. Henry Awards, typically restrict their selections to literary fiction. A no-genre-fiction rule for submissions is common, although slipstream (genre) or magic realism is sometimes included.

As a genre

It has become a commonplace idea that literary fiction is in itself just another genre. This is in accord with the marketing practices now general in the book trade. It may also be taken to be the latest version of the death of the novel debate that has run from 1950, and reflects the importance of the novel as it replaced poetry as the central literary form in Western Europe and North America from the 1930s. However, literary fiction does not precisely fit the general definition of a genre, as it lacks the cohesion of genres such as westerns or romance.

In a June 2006 interview with John Updike on The Charlie Rose Show, Updike stated that he felt this term, when applied to his work, greatly limited him and his expectations of what might come of his writing, and so does not really like it. He said that all his works are literary simply because "they are written in words." ^[2]

Notes

1. ^ A Guide to Literary Fiction
2. ^ The Charlie Rose Show from June 14, 2006 with John Updike

External links

• The end of literary fiction
• Most Honored Literary Fiction at the Award Annals

Bibliography

• Robert Rebein. Hicks, Tribes, & Dirty Realists: American Fiction After Postmodernism. University Press of Kentucky, 2001. ISBN 0813121760