Literary fiction is a term used in the book-trade to distinguish novels that are regarded as having literary merit, from most commercial or "genre" fiction. However, the boundaries are not fixed, and major literary figures have employed the genres of science fiction, crime fiction, romance, etc . , to create works of literature. Furthermore, the study of genre fiction has developed within academia in recent decades.Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, "Popular Fiction Studies: The Advantages of a New Field". Studies in Popular Culture, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Fall 2010), pp. 21-3 High culture Terms often related to literary fiction are high culture, highbrow, and taste. The poet and critic Matthew Arnold defined "culture", in Culture and Anarchy (1869), as "the disinterested endeavour after man’s perfection" pursued, obtained, and achieved by effort to "know the best that has been said and thought in the world". Such a literary definition of high culture also includes philosophy. Moreover, the philosophy of aesthetics proposed high culture as a force for moral and political good. Critically, the term "high culture" is contrasted with the terms "popular culture" and "mass culture".The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967) Volume 1. p. 167. In sociology, taste is about an individual's personal, cultural , and aesthetic patterns of choice and preference. Taste is  drawing distinctions between things such as styles, manners, consumer goods, and works of art and relating to these. Social inquiry of taste is about the human ability to judge what is beautiful, good, and proper . Classic book The term classic book covers works in any discipline that have been accepted as being exemplary or noteworthy. This includes being listed in a list of great books. The terms "classic book" and "Western canon" are closely related concepts, but they are not necessarily synonymous. A "canon" refers to a list of books considered to be "essential" and is presented in a variety of ways. It can be published as a collection, such as Great Books of the Western World, Modern Library, or Penguin Classics, or presented as a list by an academic such as Harold Bloom  or be the official reading list of an institution of higher learning , such as Rutgers University . The International Booker Prize is a similar British award given for outstanding literary fiction translated into English. This complements the earlier established Booker Prize, which is awarded to fiction in the English language. For both judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and public figures. The Booker judging process and the very concept of a "best book" being chosen by a small number of literary insiders is controversial for many. Author Amit Chaudhuri wrote: "The idea that a 'book of the year' can be assessed annually by a bunch of people – judges who have to read almost a book a day – is absurd, as is the idea that this is any way of honouring a writer." Crossover with Genre Fiction Author's who write literary fiction do not necessarily only write literary fiction, and not all literary fiction is without aspects  of genre fiction . Many major literary figures have also written either genre fiction or books that contain certain elements of genre fiction. For instance, the novel Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoevsky contains elements of the crime fiction genre. Gabriel García Márquez's book Love in the Time of Cholera is a romance novel.Wood, Michael 1988, April 28 Heartsick The New York Review of BooksFrazier, Charles 1989 Love in the Time of CholeraPhi Kappa Phi Journal volume 69 page 46 Frankenstein and Dracula are examples of gothic horror novels. Graham Greene at the time of his death in 1991 had a reputation as a writer of both deeply serious novels on the theme of Catholicism and of "suspense-filled stories of detection." Acclaimed during his lifetime, he was shortlisted in 1966 for the Nobel Prize for Literature. John Banville publishes crime novels as Benjamin Black, and both Doris Lessing and Margaret Atwood have written science fiction. Criticism The distinction between literary fiction and genre fiction is often contested, as some works of genre fiction are considered works of literature. Nobel laureate Doris Lessing described science fiction as "some of the best social fiction of our time," and called Greg Bear, author of Blood Music, "a great writer."Doris Lessing: Hot Dawns, interview by Harvey Blume in Boston Book Review Furthermore, Nobel laureate André Gide stated that Georges Simenon, best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret, was "the most novelistic of novelists in French literature."Charles E. Claffey, The Boston Globe September, 10, 1989 Contributing to this report was Boston Globe book editor Mark Feeney.
Literary fiction is a term used in the book-trade to distinguish novels that are regarded as having literary merit, from most commercial or "genre" fiction. However, the boundaries are not fixed, and major literary figures have employed the genres of science fiction, crime fiction, romance, etc , to create works of literature. Furthermore, the study of genre fiction has developed within academia in recent decades.Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, "Popular Fiction Studies: The Advantages of a New Field". Studies in Popular Culture, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Fall 2010), pp. 21-3 High culture Related terms are high culture, highbrow, and taste. The poet and critic Matthew Arnold defined "culture", in Culture and Anarchy (1869), as "the disinterested endeavour after man’s perfection" pursued, obtained, and achieved by effort to "know the best that has been said and thought in the world". Such a literary definition of high culture also includes philosophy. Moreover, the philosophy of aesthetics proposed high culture as a force for moral and political good. Critically, the term "high culture" is contrasted with the terms "popular culture" and "mass culture".The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967) Volume 1. p. 167. In sociology, taste is about an individual's cultural and aesthetic patterns of preference. Taste is a way of drawing distinctions between things such as styles, manners, consumer goods, and works of art . Questions about good or bad taste concern human ability to judge what is beautiful, good, and acceptable . Classic book The term classic book covers works in any discipline that have been accepted as being exemplary or noteworthy. This includes being listed in a list of great books. The terms "classic book" and "Western canon" are closely related concepts, but they are not necessarily synonymous. A "canon" refers to a list of books considered to be "essential" and is presented in a variety of ways. It can be published as a collection, such as Great Books of the Western World, Modern Library, or Penguin Classics, or presented as a list by an academic such as Harold Bloom ' or be the official reading list of an institution of higher learning . or Rutgers University) . The International Booker Prize is a similar British award given for outstanding literary fiction translated into English. This complements the earlier Booker Prize, which is awarded to fiction in the English language. For both judges are selected from amongst leading literary critics, writers, academics and public figures. The Booker judging process and the very concept of a "best book" being chosen by a small number of literary insiders is controversial for many. Author Amit Chaudhuri wrote: "The idea that a 'book of the year' can be assessed annually by a bunch of people – judges who have to read almost a book a day – is absurd, as is the idea that this is any way of honouring a writer." Criticism The distinction between literary fiction and genre fiction is doubtful, because some works of genre fiction are considered works of literature. Major writers of literary fiction, like Nobel laureate Doris Lessing, as well as Margaret Atwood, also publish science fiction. Doris Lessing described science fiction as "some of the best social fiction of our time," and called Greg Bear, author of Blood Music, "a great writer."Doris Lessing: Hot Dawns, interview by Harvey Blume in Boston Book Review Other major literary figures have also written either genre fiction or books that contain certain elements of genre fiction. For instance, the novel Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoevsky contains elements of the crime fiction genre. Gabriel García Márquez's book Love in the Time of Cholera is a romance novel.Wood, Michael 1988, April 28 Heartsick The New York Review of BooksFrazier, Charles 1989 Love in the Time of CholeraPhi Kappa Phi Journal volume 69 page 46 Frankenstein and Dracula are examples of gothic horror novels. Graham Greene at the time of his death in 1991 had a reputation as a writer of both deeply serious novels on the theme of Catholicism and of "suspense-filled stories of detection." Acclaimed during his lifetime, he was shortlisted in 1966 for the Nobel Prize for Literature. John Banville publishes crime novels as Benjamin Black, and both Doris Lessing and Margaret Atwood have written science fiction. Furthermore, Nobel laureate André Gide stated that Georges Simenon, best known as the creator of the fictional detective Jules Maigret, was "the most novelistic of novelists in French literature."Charles E. Claffey, The Boston Globe September, 10, 1989 Contributing to this report was Boston Globe book editor Mark Feeney.
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Criticism
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The distinction between literary fiction and genre fiction is often contested, as some works of genre fiction are considered works of literature. Nobel laureate Doris Lessing described science fiction as "some of the best social fiction of our time," and called Greg Bear, author of Blood Music, "a great writer."Doris Lessing: Hot Dawns, interview by Harvey Blume in Boston Book Review