{"id":1207,"date":"2024-09-05T03:16:53","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T09:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/?p=1207"},"modified":"2024-09-06T07:30:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T13:30:29","slug":"1207","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/archives\/1207","title":{"rendered":"FICTION: LITERARY OR GENRE?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"940\" height=\"788\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/ENGAGE.LITERARY-OR-GENRE.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/ENGAGE.LITERARY-OR-GENRE.jpg 940w, https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/ENGAGE.LITERARY-OR-GENRE-300x251.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/ENGAGE.LITERARY-OR-GENRE-768x644.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\"><strong>FICTION: LITERARY OR GENRE<em>?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Back in 2010, when my newly acquired agent asked for the genre of my debut novel (<em>The Third Grace<\/em>), I identified it as <em>literary fiction.<\/em> He immediately corrected me: \u201cNo, no. We\u2019ll call it contemporary women\u2019s fiction. <strong><em>No one today reads literary fiction<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I almost gasped. Was it true? My own library was full of literary titles, my writing brain of literary characters and themes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s <em>Wuthering Heights<\/em><\/strong> with Heathcliff\u2019s smouldering passions teaching me about the human condition and societal influences (the author\u2019s one and only novel);<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Nathaniel Hawthorne\u2019s <em>The Scarlet Letter<\/em> <\/strong>exposing Hester Prynne\u2019s shame inside the punitive culture of the New England colony (imbued with Christian and religious themes);<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>C.S. Lewis\u2019s <em>The Chronicles of Narnia<\/em><\/strong> with Aslan pointing to a transcendent world beyond our physical realm (a fantastical series heavy on symbolism).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I loved literary fiction\u2019s motifs, tropes, and allegories conveying abstract ideas\u2014the physical story hinting at the metaphysical meaning demanding active reader learning rather than passive entertainment. But at the point of publishing my first novel, I didn\u2019t yet understand the difference between <em>genre <\/em>and <em>literary<\/em>\u2014the two fiction classifications known to the world of general publishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, what my agent really meant when saying no one reads literary fiction nowadays was that literary fiction doesn\u2019t <em>sell<\/em> widely and that publishers must, above all, sign multi-title authors who will produce many books\u2014and genre fiction sells more than literary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This distinction between genre and literary fiction came into being only in the twentieth century, when publishers began to use labels for mass marketing. Publishing houses were seeking the next bestseller, so they developed main categories (securing genre authors with huge advances):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><em>Romance<\/em> (e.g., Nora Roberts)<\/li><li><em>Mystery and Crime<\/em> (e.g., John Grisham)<\/li><li><em>Science Fiction and Fantasy<\/em> (e.g., Ray Bradbury)<\/li><li><em>Horror and Thrillers<\/em> (e.g., Stephen King)<\/li><li><em>Westerns<\/em> (e.g., Louis L\u2019Amour)<\/li><li><em>Historical<\/em> (e.g., Ken Follet)<\/li><li><em>Young Adult<\/em> (e.g., Judy Blume)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What actually <em>is<\/em> genre fiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In broad terms, genre fiction is popular narrative focusing on entertainment and written within the narrow specifications of each category. For example, in general:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><em>Horror<\/em> intends to arouse reader dread, terror, even repulsion;<\/li><li><em>Mystery\/crime<\/em> centers on the investigation and resolution of criminal acts;<\/li><li><em>Romance <\/em>is about love relationships with happily-ever-after endings.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>What is literary fiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In contrast, literary fiction is a bit fuzzier to define, aspiring to be artistic; it emphasizes meaning through character, theme, and story style over plot action and prescribed outcomes. In literary fiction, you might find:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Ambiguous endings not always neat and clear;<\/li><li>Plot structure not necessarily following rules of particular genres;<\/li><li>Exploration (sometimes unresolved) of ideas, philosophies, aesthetics, conceptions, and social\/political commentary.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Can\u2019t genre and literary fiction overlap?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, the rigidity of black-and-white genre rules versus the open-ended nature of literary fiction blends in all manner of grey tones. We see this fusion when we consider literary titles employing subgenres, or genre stories adopting literary approaches. Take, for example, these blockbuster genre novels of great literary value:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong><em>All the Light We Cannot See<\/em><\/strong> by Anthony Doerr is considered historical fiction, its subgenres including suspense and survival. On a literary level, Doerr\u2019s lyrical style encompasses sensuous detail and employs a nonlinear plot structure, ethical and political critique, anti-war themes\u2014and a blighted romance.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong><em>Where the Crawdads Sing<\/em><\/strong> by Delia Owens is a murder mystery with a coming-of-age subgenre, yet Owens\u2019s literary style poses two timelines through atmospheric setting, symbolism around wild animal behaviour, and themes of justice and loneliness.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong><em>The Lord of the Rings<\/em><\/strong> by J.R.R. Tolkien is wildly popular and one of the best-selling books of all time. It\u2019s what I would call literary fiction but is known as a classic of the fantasy genre. <em>LOTR<\/em> is another hybrid of literary and genre fiction.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>A third classification<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the two broad classes of literary and genre fiction (with, of course, subgenres of religion or spirituality in many flavors), traditional American publishing today distinguishes between the streams of <strong>ABA<\/strong> (American Booksellers Association) and <strong>CBA<\/strong> (Christian Booksellers Association). \u201cChristian\u201d writing, then, is a third entity, viewed by the publishing world as distinct from both <em>literary<\/em> and <em>genre<\/em> fiction recognized by the general market. Writers are forced to decide whether they are targeting secular or Christian readers, as most ABA agents and houses don\u2019t accept explicit faith messages, and most in the CBA won\u2019t abide the grittier aspects of violence or sexuality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A true crossover between the world and the church doesn\u2019t seem feasible unless publishing independently\u2014outside of both CBA and ABA. I might wish that the distinctions would ease, as I attempt to write literary fiction with genre attributes available to the secular world but understood at a spiritual level. However, I suspect even more polarization is developing in our constantly changing culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong><em>Literary Fiction with a Theological Twist <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>As a reader<\/em>,<\/strong> I crave the entertainment value of popular <em>genre<\/em> fiction, and yet I love to delve into deeper themes accessible through <em>literary<\/em> fiction. I\u2019m saddened over the hollow feeling I\u2019m left with by a strictly <em>genre <\/em>novel I can\u2019t analyze for spiritual meaning, while I\u2019m also overwhelmed by impenetrable ramblings when faced with an artsy <em>literary<\/em> read that doesn\u2019t grip me through at least one or two genre conventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>As a writer<\/strong><\/em> who is also a Christian, I don\u2019t pen what many would call \u201cChristian fiction\u201d\u2014I don\u2019t swim too easily in that genre stream. At the same time, my own love of Scripture demands fictional expression. To top it off, most of my stories don\u2019t follow rules of the main genres (for example, some of my romantic characters have their hearts broken and some of my endings are unresolved); instead, I try to use symbolism pointing readers back to the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(For more of my thoughts on this subject, check out my preceding post, &#8220;Read It Anew,&#8221; found below on this website.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FICTION: LITERARY OR GENRE? Back in 2010, when my newly acquired agent asked for the genre of my debut novel (The Third Grace), I identified it as literary fiction. He immediately corrected me: \u201cNo, no. We\u2019ll call it contemporary women\u2019s fiction. No one today reads literary fiction.\u201d I almost gasped. Was it true? My own [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1207"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1219,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1207\/revisions\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rolledscroll.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}