Critical Fiction — FAQ
Definitions
—
The critical fiction may be simply defined as a literary form that adopts the
techniques and language found in one or more source texts to form a critical
response and a satisfying fiction.
— The critical fiction is an approach to reading, a way of looking,
not
an
essay in discursive exegesis (i.e., expository writing).
—
Critical fiction offers an approach to material otherwise resistant to ordinary
criticism, and an opportunity to make something new and unexpected happen.
— Critical fiction is the literary equivalent of what happens when a visual artist
creates a work in direct response or hommage to another artist’s work.
— In a critical fiction, form (story) and critical
content are inseparable ; the work explicitly addresses itself as a critique
of another
work of literature.
Aims
The website « criticalfiction.net » is intended to encourage
and promote literary discourse and formal innovation, and to provide a forum
for discussion of texts, techniques, and related issues.
Reading List
Available here.
Citations
“ an omnivorous dredging of the whole body of fantastika so marks contemporary
writing that it might seem tautological to identify any modern text as metatextual
in particular: for none [is] not ” — John Clute, in Foundation.
“ I would go so far as to say that all modern writing is about some other text,
and that this is so much the case that many writers are guardedly furtive about
it, while knowing that their only hope of meaning is in our ultimately finding
that other text. ” — Guy Davenport, “ The Critic as Artist ”, in Every Force Evolves a Form (North
Point Press, 1987), p. 105.
Distinctions
—
Where fan fiction has as its principal aim the building of further incident
within the world of the source fiction, the function and form of the critical
fiction aim to create a wider context within which to examine the source fiction,
literature, and the reader’s own experience.
— Where pastiche uses a source fiction, its aim is primarily to satirize it,
the world it represents, and the connections between that world and our own.
Like the critical fiction, the pastiche examines and generates a new fiction,
but the objects of its examination are primarily social entities rather than
textual,
metatextual, or aesthetic ones.
Moderation
Comments are published on « criticalfiction.net » at
the sole discretion of the publisher.
Copyright
The website « criticalfiction.net » is copyright © 2011
by Temporary Culture and by individual contributors. In the words of Andrei
Codrescu, we authorize memorization but forbid reproduction. If you are going
to cite,
please do so accurately.
Contribute
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and projects. The « criticalfiction.net » website accepts
contributions
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Spanish.
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Contact
The website « criticalfiction.net » is published by
Henry Wessells.
Address : Temporary
Culture, P.O. Box 43072, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043-072
USA.
Electronym : wessells [at] aol [dot] com