Parrot and Olivier in America

Literary fiction is a term principally used for certain fictional works that are claimed to hold literary merit. Despite the fact that all genres... have works that are well written, those works are generally not considered literary fiction. To be considered literary, a work usually must be "critically acclaimed" and "serious". In practice, works of literary fiction often are "complex, literate, multilayered novels that wrestle with universal dilemmas". Literary fiction is usually contrasted with paraliterary fiction . Literary fiction is usually not considered a genre, with associated conventions, but there are common characteristics that can help define it. Literary fiction, in general, focuses on the subjects of the narrative to create "introspective, in-depth character studies" of "interesting, complex and developed" characters. This contrasts with paraliterary fiction where "generally speaking, the kind of attention that we pay to the subject in literature has to be paid to the social and material complexities of the object". Literary fiction does not focus on plot as much as paraliterary fiction.
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