Tea at Trianon: The 4 Pillars Of Literary Fiction

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, July 22, 2021

The 4 Pillars Of Literary Fiction

From Writers Write:

Literary Fiction is often touted as the gold standard for fiction. This is because, supposedly, it defies genre conventions and formulae. But if that’s true… how do you identify literary fiction? I mean, we know something belongs to the Horror or Romance genres because they contain certain genre-specific tropes. Is your story about an ordinary protagonist in an isolated, disempowering setting with a dreadful past? Do they face a monstrous force? Cool— that’s a Horror story! See how handy that is?

So, how do you know which stories are Literary? What are its defining features? What are the pillars of literary fiction? I’ve spent almost a decade in academia reading, analysing, and dissecting exemplars of the Literary movement. In workshops, I’ve practiced implementing the techniques favoured by literary writers in my own work. Over that period of study, I’ve developed a theory of how to define Literary fiction I find satisfying.

I realised the source of confusion is that people use the term Literary Fiction to refer to a few different things, and to various combinations of those things. Many use it as a catch-all term to mean ‘superior quality fiction’. But this is a pretty hazy, subjective application of the term. So, you know what? We are going to set that definition aside and dig a little deeper. (Read more.)