While looking for some books on my Banned Books Project list, I decided to check out the back wall of the store. Yes, that wall. The one under the sign in beautiful script which clearly states I am now approaching the “Literature” section.

Great works by Pat Conroy, William Styron, Edwidge Danticat, and others are found in the Fiction Section. But the likes of Toni Morrison, Truman Capote, Daniel Defoe, John Steinbeck are found over there.

Not that it’s such a trek really. But in some other places I frequent, it’s akin to doing a weird literary version of Red Rover. (Please don’t make me explain what that is. Google it. It’s bad enough I showed my age by making such a reference.)

Initially, the term literature was a general one applied to the “art of written works”. In recent times, it’s commonly used to denote works of fiction and non-fiction, many of these works being recognized as classics; those from the Western canon; award winners such as Pulitzer, Booker, and Nobel.

But who decides this? And how? Isn’t this process subjective, therefore making it forever flawed?

Why is it I have to look in the fiction section for William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice, but all of Toni Morrison’s will be located in literature? Yes, Beloved won a Pulitzer. But Styron’s book won the National Book Award in 1980 and is considered a major novel of the twentieth century.

I am not implying one author does not deserve its place on the shelf over another, only that the choices made by many booksellers sometimes make no sense. In my opinion, both Morrison and Styron belong in the literature section. However it’s not my store, so my concerns must remain my own.

Well, except I have this blog where I can share them and ask, “What do you think?”

So here we have two lines, each a team, each  linked together by the common bond of narrative prose. And just as we would in the aforementioned game we yell, “Red Rover, Red Rover send Styron on over!”

Does he stay on his own team, or become part of the one who called him over?

Who else would Team Lit call over from Team Fiction? Would they end up staying or being sent back to where they came from?

I asked my followers on Twitter about their perceptions of literature. Many of them avid readers. Here are some of the responses I received:

. . . depth of language, width of ideas, un-datedness

I don’t know. It all seems to depend on the store. I’ve seen “literature” defined as literary analysis and works about authors or sometimes just defined as “classics.” I guess my best def would be a book that addresses the human condition.

I think that “literature” may have more layers of meaning, more allusions to history/art/etc/, more metaphors…

There’s a part of my brain that gets tickled when I’m reading something I’d consider literature versus popcorn. Also, I’d consider books that make me cry after reading them literature.

I think literature v fiction is subjective. For ME lit has philosophy like Hesse or Sartre or is “written well” like Fitzgerald or Pynchon or Irving but some folks think lit just = old. Not for me. It’s content and style.

There’s a fair amount of snobbery involved in lit vs popular fiction. But also the legacy behind the novels.

That last statement is very interesting. It’s unfortunate that in many instances, this is the primary perception, that literature is more “high brow” than the rest, made up of books we had to read in school, won prestigious awards, or are only the kind literary critics can read and understand.

In a way, many of those who commented have a point about what literature actually is, at least currently.

Generally, it includes: works of the Western canon, Pulitzer winners, Nobel Prize winners, Poet Laureates, and works by authors who may not be in the canon or have won any awards, but whose oeuvre has been critically well received and is considered canonical.

The only thing is, this still leaves the process up to subjective reasoning and choice as there is no one set of standards and no true consensus regarding whose works qualify. Which brings up another debate going on at the moment regarding literature: genres. Just ask someone about defining young adult or speculative fiction.

But this isn’t really a genre we are talking about. Yet, in our current culture, it appears as if this is exactly how it is being treated.

I do like stores having a “Literature” section even though it would be much easier to have a one section of fiction alphabetized by author’s last name. But how disconcerting would it be to see some classics sharing the shelves with Clancy and Patterson? Can they rub shoulders? Should they?

I’m not advocating anything here, just musing over a thought that occurred to me the other day while purchasing The Grapes of Wrath and Moll Flanders. I was nearly struck dumb when the lady excitedly cried, ”Oh my, someone likes  reading Literature!”

Why yes, yes I do.

Except I have a feeling that what I feel is literature may differ slightly than hers, or yours. And you know what? I think that’s just fine. As long as we are reading, enjoying, sharing with others our passion for the art, who cares what form it takes. I certainly don’t.