Question for literary types who read my blog

[dvandom]

I've been casting about trying to remember if there's a term for a certain type of fiction, and was hoping one of y'all could help let me know if there's an official term for it. In short, fiction that could conceivably happen, presuming the characters, organization, etc existed.

CLARIFICATION: I want an official term, used and accepted by specialists in literature. Not speculation, not coming up with your own terms. I can do THAT myself just fine.


Obviously, by definition a fictional story didn't happen, that's why it's fiction. But there's fiction that couldn't possibly happen (like, say, a D&D novel), and fiction that might have plausibly happened (such as most romance novels).

Now, I don't mean an antonym to escapist literature, because you could have an escapist story that's eminently possible, if a tad far-fetched (for instance: character wins the lottery, goes on a world tour, ends up in the middle of a terrorist conspiracy by sheer chance, manages to foil it and save the President...unlikely, escapist, but not impossible).

Basically, if you were plopped down in the setting of the fiction and weren't a character in the story, you might never know it was happening. The story doesn't require major changes to history (or, at least, any changes are Secret Stuff and the history everyone knows is the same as the real world), and the laws of nature work according to current science (i.e. no magic, no FTL drives, no psychic powers, etc). I suppose counterfactuals could fit into the category, since they're supposed to be plausible new paths history could have taken after some fictional difference, but let's not worry about them or other stuff on the fringes yet.

Comments

[aardy.livejournal.com]

"Historical fiction" and "Mystery" are both genres in which many works fall under the umbrella of Realism, regardless of which definition you use. (Romances, Westerns, Action/Adventure, and Noir may or may not be Realism, depending on whether you use the general definition of Realism or the ultra-specific literary definition that divides the world of prose into Realism and Romance, where "Realism" means "an objective portrayal of events" and "Romance" means "an idealized/glorified version of events". However, even Benet's Readers Encyclopedia admits that in the literary world, the term "Realism" has become so general as to be almost all-pervasive in modern literature, which leads us back to the general definition.)

Also, what part of "fiction that could conceivably happen" limits one to "genre fiction" such that it would rule out Realism as a likely answer for Dave's question?

[stankow.livejournal.com]

Also, what part of "fiction that could conceivably happen" limits one to "genre fiction" such that it would rule out Realism as a likely answer for Dave's question?

Not "limits one to," but "includes." I presumed that he was looking for the "ultra-specific literary definition," and the vast, vast majority of people who would use any sort of "literary definition" would specifically disallow mysteries, thrillers, Westerns, etc. from "Realism."

Per his statement, "I want an official term, used and accepted by specialists in literature," Realism is no good -- please find for me a literature specialist who would classify Dan Brown or Janet Evanovich as Realist.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Right. "non-genre fiction" covers a lot of the ground I'm looking at, but there are examples of genre fiction that certainly COULD happen, although they may be really unlikely.

[aardy.livejournal.com]

Does a librarian count as a "literature specialist"? Because you're talking with one now. :) (My wife is also a librarian, and when I posed the original question to her, her immediate response was also "Realistic fiction".)

If a story COULD happen--to the point where "if you were plopped down in the setting of the fiction and weren't a character in the story, you might never know it was happening", then the story is "realistic fiction", regardless of what OTHER genres it might ALSO be. That's part of the whole POINT of "realistic fiction." (The other half being viewing the setting & characters objectively as opposed to the rose-colored glasses subjectivism of Romantic fiction.) Realism & Romance are most certainly NOT mutually exclusive with other genres! (Most Fantasy & Sci Fi stories are Romance, but also couldn't really happen. Many straight-up detective mysteries are Realism. Most Action/Adventure stories are Romance. Most classic Westerns are Romance.

(Romantic fiction is so full of wish fulfillment and idealized/archetypal characters that, while it might *technically* be able to happen, the events are so unlikely or so obviously skewed that you probably WOULD start to notice it if you were plopped down in the middle of it.)

It looks like Realistic Fiction is the best term available without coining a new one. (Word it as "Fiction with a real world setting" if you want to avoid the other connotations of "Realism," even though they mean the same thing as far as most people are concerned.) If you're convinced that that doesn't fit, then the answer to your question is "There isn't one."