Writer David Shields recently spoke at RiverRun Books in Portsmouth, NH, asking whether literature is really a relevant way to tell stories anymore. While the Internet offers us so many new ways to tell stories, by the looks of this list the novel is alive and well.
- Chick lit: Fiction that focuses on young, hip women
- Lad lit: Fiction that focuses on young, hip men
- Kmart realism: Fiction that focuses on “spare, terse style that features struggling, working-class characters in sterile, bleak environments”
- Poop fiction: Children’s fiction that uses a lot of bathroom humor and off-color jokes
- Misery lit: “A memoir or novel that focuses on extreme personal trauma and abuse”
- Issue literature: Fiction whose theme is based on a social, cultural, or political issue
- Fratire: Fiction that focuses on selfish young men who engage in lots of drinking, sex, and other fraternity-type behavior
- Tart noir: Mystery fiction whose protagonist is a tough, sexy, independent woman
- Hysterical realism: Literature of ”exceptional length, frenetic action, offbeat characters, and long digressions on topics secondary to the story”
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I was going to say you left out my favorite—schtick lit: writer sets out on unusual project, planning to write about it—but I notice you mention specifically novels, and schtick lit is nonfiction.
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