Lit-Fic Crossover

[Steerpike]

A discussion elsewhere led to a question about whether certain fantasy authors may be considered 'literary' authors as well. There is always some tension between ideas of literary fiction and commercial fiction. What fantasy authors do you think of as crossing into literary territory? A number come to my mind:

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Mervyn Peake
Samuel R. Delaney
Gene Wolfe
Octavia Butler
Caitlin R. Kiernan
Shirley Jackson
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

More to add?

 

[Incanus]

I guess EA Poe pre-dates the catagories, but would sort of qualify (??)

Umberto Eco?

I sometimes wonder how to classify things I consider high-quality fantasy. I guess it's more about theme/content/amount of fantasy elements than prose quality.

William Golding couldn't really be considered a genre writer, and yet his first three novels have something of a 'twilight zone' aspect to them. No magic or supernatural per se, but the settings are all far removed from the more usual types (two are on islands, one is during human pre-history), each exploring some pretty interesting aspects of psychology.

And what about Clark Ashton Smith? He was a poet first and foremost, who happened turned to pulp fiction for a while (thank goodness). But what if he had written stories more like, say, Shirley Jackson? In my view, his prose quality was a couple of notches higher than anyone else publishing in the pulps at the time. It seems to be the content that catagorizes him, not the quality.

 

[Heliotrope]

I can think of books, not authors.

Neil Gaiman's American Gods is pretty literary

Suzanna Clarkes Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Lev Grossman's The Magicians

T.H. White's The Once and Future King

Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon

Gene Wolf's The Book of the New Sun

 

[kennyc]

I'd think Charles Dickens -- certainly Christmas Carol would fit the fantasy/literary label, if not many of his other works as well.

 

[kennyc]

Delaney for sure! Dhalgren is one of my (if not the) top favorites in any genre!

and Butler - Speech Sounds

Ursula K. Le Guin Many...including Those Who Walk Away from Omelas

Margaret Atwood - Handmaid's Tale...

Kelly Link has had many stories published in both literary and F/SF genres.

 

[Heliotrope]

If we are going to talk Margaret Atwood.... Yes, being canadian I'm a huge Atwoodian... Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood and Madd Adam are up there for sure.

Dune as well, if we are talking sci-fi

 

[FifthView]

Kurt Vonnegut

 

[Heliotrope]

Oh man, don't even get me started on spec fiction!

Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"

YA

Madaline L'Engle "A Wrinkle in Time"

Lois Lowry "The Giver"

 

[kennyc]

Just remembered Russell Hoban - Riddley Walker

I think The Road by Cormac McCarthy fits....certainly the literary, maybe not Fantasy so much....

 

[CupofJoe]

While I have a problem with the literary vs popular [fantasy] fiction differentiation at all, I'd like to throw in Brian Aldiss and PKD.
I've always seen BA's Helliconia series as a fantasy with sci-fi elements and for scale and ideas it rivals any fantasy author I can think of.
And PKD is well... PKD.