History Of Popular Fiction And Its Status in Contemporary Times

Generally, popular fiction is defined as a fiction read by large number of people. The term ‘popular fiction’ is categorically used to mean fiction that is popular in terms of sales and almost certainly ‘low’ in ‘artistic’ worth. Most importantly it is used in opposition to literature, to mean fiction that appeal to the many and not the few. But in the context of post twentieth century this definition requires more critical observation. Contemporary popular fiction is a product of huge entertainment industry and a significant segment of popular culture.

As a part of literary establishment- as students, we have been taught to study literature and popular fiction as binary opposites. Popular fiction in the literary field has always been treated as inferior both to non-fiction and elite/serious fiction. It is instead used to denote fiction that appeal to the mass and not a definite class, making it ‘low’ in taste and demeans the judgment quality of those who read it.

Get quality help now

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

Proficient in: Free Essays

4.7 (235)

“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Moreover, it does not have any significant literary or aesthetic merit, written for casual consumption and provides “false ideas about life”.

John Gallagher identifies that the negative view towards popular culture, considerably literature, “can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation which revolutionized the Western conscience by equating pleasure with sin”. And still today, it is believed by many librarians and university fraternity that popular reading material damages the thinking capability and serves the brain with the weird emotions and is as worst as consumption of drugs. On the contrary, the classics of literature have always been preserved as the standards by which all literary works are judged.

These literary texts are believed to be expressing universal truths that other forms of novel do not. Such comparison between popular fiction and literary fiction occurs against the backdrop of ‘low’ and ‘high’ art controversy by authors such as Lawrence W. Levine (1988) and Andreas Huyssen (2002) most prominently. Though, John G. Cawelti believes that popular fiction is a cultural and artistic manifestation of formidable power and significance, he comments that popular fiction’s constancy to the goals of escape and entertainment has made it subject to the definition of substandard literature as opposed to serious or high- standard literature and ‘low brow’ culture as opposed to ‘highbrow’ culture. Further he analyzes that in popular fiction the character is not explored to any great extent and action tends to be dominant.

Formula fiction, (another term for popular fiction) puts emphasis on the immediate indulgence and pleasure accompanied by fast-moving plots. Calweti states in Adventure, Mystery and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture (1976): Formulaic literature is generally characterized by a simple and emotionally charged style that encourages immediate involvement in a character’s actions without much sense of complex irony and psychological subtlety. These critical judgments caused popular literature to remain something inferior instead of being categorized as a “valid aesthetic form” which concerns with pleasure and escapism. But the concept of culture introduced by Raymond Williams someway smears the distinction of high and low postulating that “culture as a way of life,” is not bound by a narrow aesthetic of literary value.