Lit-Fic Crossover

[Steerpike]

A discussion elsewhere led to a question about whether certain fantasy authors may be considered 'literary' authors as well. There is always some tension between ideas of literary fiction and commercial fiction. What fantasy authors do you think of as crossing into literary territory? A number come to my mind:

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Mervyn Peake
Samuel R. Delaney
Gene Wolfe
Octavia Butler
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Shirley Jackson
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

More to add?

 

[Incanus]

I guess EA Poe pre-dates the catagories, but would sort of qualify (??)

Umberto Eco?

I sometimes wonder how to classify things I consider high-quality fantasy. I guess it's more about theme/content/amount of fantasy elements than prose quality.

William Golding couldn't really be considered a genre writer, and yet his first three novels have something of a 'twilight zone' aspect to them. No magic or supernatural per se, but the settings are all far removed from the more usual types (two are on islands, one is during human pre-history), each exploring some pretty interesting aspects of psychology.

And what about Clark Ashton Smith? He was a poet first and foremost, who happened turned to pulp fiction for a while (thank goodness). But what if he had written stories more like, say, Shirley Jackson? In my view, his prose quality was a couple of notches higher than anyone else publishing in the pulps at the time. It seems to be the content that catagorizes him, not the quality.

 

[Heliotrope]

I can think of books, not authors.

Neil Gaiman's American Gods is pretty literary

Suzanna Clarkes Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Lev Grossman's The Magicians

T.H. White's The Once and Future King

Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon

Gene Wolf's The Book of the New Sun

 

[kennyc]

I'd think Charles Dickens -- certainly Christmas Carol would fit the fantasy/literary label, if not many of his other works as well.

 

[kennyc]

Delaney for sure! Dhalgren is one of my (if not the) top favorites in any genre!

and Butler - Speech Sounds

Ursula K. Le Guin Many...including Those Who Walk Away from Omelas

Margaret Atwood - Handmaid's Tale...

Kelly Link has had many stories published in both literary and F/SF genres.

 

[Heliotrope]

If we are going to talk Margaret Atwood.... Yes, being canadian I'm a huge Atwoodian... Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood and Madd Adam are up there for sure.

Dune as well, if we are talking sci-fi

 

[FifthView]

Kurt Vonnegut

 

[Heliotrope]

Oh man, don't even get me started on spec fiction!

Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"

YA

Madaline L'Engle "A Wrinkle in Time"

Lois Lowry "The Giver"

 

[kennyc]

Just remembered Russell Hoban - Riddley Walker

I think The Road by Cormac McCarthy fits....certainly the literary, maybe not Fantasy so much....

 

[CupofJoe]

While I have a problem with the literary vs popular [fantasy] fiction differentiation at all, I'd like to throw in Brian Aldiss and PKD.
I've always seen BA's Helliconia series as a fantasy with sci-fi elements and for scale and ideas it rivals any fantasy author I can think of.
And PKD is well... PKD.

 

[Finchbearer]

‘Literary fantasy’ may just be my jam.

Here are a few that I’ve read and enjoyed:

Diane Setterfield Once Upon a River

Bridget Collins The Binding

R F Kuang Babel

Katherine Arden The Winternight Trilogy

Susanna Clarke Piranesi

Susanna Clarke Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Susanna Clarke The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories

Helen Dunmore A Spell of Winter

Kazuo Ishiguro The Buried Giant

I will add that I think Susanna Clarke’s work is as near perfect as you can get within this genre, and her novels are so cleverly constructed.

 

[Gallio]

‘
I will add that I think Susanna Clarke’s work is as near perfect as you can get within this genre, and her novels are so cleverly constructed.

Agree thoroughly.

 

[Finchbearer]

Agree thoroughly.

I mean, who doesn’t like to read a modern fiction book, set in a historical context, written in 19C vernacular…with magic!?

 

[pmmg]

Well. Maybe you’ve found your happy home.

Secrety, i think i like the classics most.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

A good old thread, but it raises an older problem... what is literary? Because someone said it was? As a reformed literary snob, I ponder this once in a while. If looking at modern works, it could be defined as "works ego-bloated editors declare 'literary' and win awards handed out by ego-bloated publishers/reviewers/editors/etc while they struggle to sell 5k copies."

The classics became literary by being classics.

 

[pmmg]

Yeah....that's a sticky one to define. They all are really, but... hard to say what is and what is not, and what really deserves the label and such. I am not sure who gets to say, but seems there are some people who do.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

In some ways, I think it's easier to say what's not literary (when defined more as "quality of form"). Literary is, in many cases, a story that doesn't fit into a genre, so they slap it into the literary section of the store. If you write beautiful literary fiction that fits into Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi nobody in their right mind is going to stick you in the literary section where most people don't shop, LMAO.

Yeah....that's a sticky one to define. They all are really, but... hard to say what is and what is not, and what really deserves the label and such. I am not sure who gets to say, but seems there are some people who do.

 

[pmmg]

In some ways, I think it's easier to say what's not literary (when defined more as "quality of form"). Literary is, in many cases, a story that doesn't fit into a genre, so they slap it into the literary section of the store. If you write beautiful literary fiction that fits into Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi nobody in their right mind is going to stick you in the literary section where most people don't shop, LMAO.

Good, then when they don't pick me, I will still be okay

 

[Finchbearer]

I can agree that the term ‘literary’ makes it sound snobbish, but I always thought it was a more character driven narrative, or story driven rather than fantasy heavy - in this case.

 

[pmmg]

I think literary is kind of what things get called when enough people, or enough of the right people, think it is. There is not much else that makes it hit the list. The idea, as I understand it, is that the work had some type of superior merit, but I think Dems might be right about the categorization though. If I can stick you in the fantasy section, why go further to figure out if it should be in the Lit one. Maybe after a lot of years, it will end up there.