Literary fiction is a term that came into common usage during the early 1960s. The term is principally used to distinguish "serious fiction" which is a work that claims to hold literary merit, in comparison from genre fiction and popular fiction (i.e., paraliterature). In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more upon style, psychological depth, and character.[1][2] This is in contrast to Mainstream commercial fiction, which focuses more on narrative and plot. Literary fiction may also be characterized as lasting fiction — literature which continues to be read and in-demand many decades and perhaps centuries after the author has died.
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What distinguishes literary fiction from other genres is 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 [3] 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.
On some levels it has been suggested that literary fiction employs a great deal of subtext - whereas themes, character development, and relations between characters are represented not through what is actually written, but through the implications of what is written. An example of this could be seen as a character, in a story, describing the temperament of another character. In a literary sense, such a set-up may be used to imply something about either of the characters - or to imply what kind of relationship they have from the perspective of the character describing the other character's temperament. In terms of defining what is, and what is not, literary fiction, the subtext has often been used to assist in formulating that decision.
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. Michiko Kakutani, writing in The New York Times, has described literary fiction as having a distinctive "vision and language."[4]
Literary magazines, especially those affiliated with universities, or annual anthologies like the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Awards, or Booker Prize 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.
To understand what literary fiction is, it's probably easier to look at what it isn't. Literary fiction is not about chick lit, mystery, science fiction or horror although they are marvelous literature in themselves and literary fiction can incorporate certain aspects of them.[5]
Literary is not precisely defined and it might be difficult to state whether Science fiction works like The Time Machine, The Handmaid's Tale, or The War of the Worlds are or are not literary fiction.
It has been proposed 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 forward 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. On the other hand, other 'genres,' such as science fiction, also lack this supposed cohesion. Although science fiction is often thought of as a collection of cohesive genres all sharing the theme of fictional science.
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." [6]