Just realized half my book club keeps confusing "literary fiction" with "contemporary fiction"

We were debating The Road last night and someone called it contemporary fiction because it was published in 2006. Literary fiction is about style and themes, not just when it came out. Anyone else have members who mix up basic genre definitions?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliviat179d ago

Yeah people treat "contemporary" like it just means "new" but that's not quite it.

alice_palmer208d ago

Totally fair take but I see it a little different. Contemporary furniture can be modern looking but with softer lines and warmer materials, like a neutral toned sofa with clean edges. New furniture is often just whatever is trending this season like neon chairs or those weird shaped lamps everyone buys off Instagram. I think the real difference is contemporary stuff has staying power while new stuff gets swapped out every few years.