FICTION

B Y: M AT E O , J O Y N I C O L E
 Genre Fiction vs. Literary Fiction
LITERARY
GENRE FICTION FICTION
• is plot driven • is character driven

• has a broader viewpoint • focuses upon style and depth

• the overall tone of the book is
• focuses more upon imaginary
introspective
details
• It is generally considered more
“serious” than genre fiction.
History of Literary Fiction
• The origins of Literary Fiction follow the origins of the novel. One of the
earliest examples of a Western novel, Miguel de Cervantes’ The Ingenious
Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha (1605-1615), see how a character,
not the action, is the focus of the tale.
• Novel emerges as a legitimately intellectual way for authors, readers, and
critics to deal with contemporary social issues. Novels are now
responsible for influencing politics, and their characters become symbols
within a larger social or psychological conversation.
• Modernism’s concerns with society and its effects on us as individuals are
a standard of Literary Fiction by the late 1800s. By the early 1900s,
Literary Fiction embraces Stream of Consciousness, taking us even deeper
into the meditative, human experience.
Types of Literary Fiction
Contemporary Literary Fiction
• Deals with timely social issues or political moments.
• Common themes of Contemporary Fiction are; the themes of  identity, racism,
family, and a search for goodness in humanity.
• In Giovanni’s Room (1956), James Baldwin introduces readers to two men as
they begin an affair, and their struggles to understand their sexual identities in
the heady days of 1950s Paris.
• Saint X by Alex Schaitkin (2020) tells the story of a search for a murderer, a
pursuit that quickly becomes complicated by the characters’ presumptions
about race and class.
Realistic Literary Fiction
• Includes coming-of-age stories and biographical novels.
• Usual themes for Realistic Fiction are related to or reflect real-life experiences.
• In J. D. Salinger’s classic coming-of-age novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951),
young Holden Caulfield grows wise to the hypocrisy of his prep-school life and
chases authenticity in the streets of New York City.
• In the Time of the Butterflies (1994) by Julia Alvarez fictionalizes the lives of
the four Mirabal sisters. Called “Las Mariposas,” the sisters plotted to overthrow
the corrupt Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic, an act that got three of
them assassinated.
Experimental Literary Fiction
• Challenges storytelling conventions.
• Experimental fiction is fiction that refuses to stay within the boundaries
laid out either by traditional realistic literary fiction.
• David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest (1996) is essentially a comedic study
of what entertains us, but the structure winds through hundreds of sub-
plots and even more footnotes, all while never reaching a conclusion.
Philosophical Literary Fiction
• Investigates life’s big questions, such as: What makes us human? What
is love? How significant are we? What, if anything, matters?
• The function and role of society, the purpose of life, ethics, morals, the
role of art in human lives, the role of experience, and the development of
knowledge. 
• The Overstory (2018) by Richard Powers seeks to understand our place in
the natural world. As a group of strangers battle to save a virgin forest, each
of them questions why they care so much, and why the rest of society seems
not to care at all.