"Literary fiction offers multi-layered, character-driven stories. The writing style and language tends to be as important as the story itself. It transcends established genre absolutes to create distinctive reading experiences that focus on the human experience in all its complexity: its joys and sorrows, hopes and regrets, victories and defeats. "
(Don Quixote by Miquel de Cerventes Saavedra is considered to be one of the the first novels of this type.)
~definition from Novelist
Characteristics of literary fiction:
Explores the human condition: While genre fiction (as a whole) seeks to distract the reader through light entertainment, literary fiction is much more introspective in its objective. Literary fiction as a whole wants to make sense of the world around us by exploring the human condition.
Character focused: While genre fiction is inextricably tied to the plot, literary fiction has the same relationship with the character. The characters must be explored and defined and the impetus that moves the story forward. Literary fiction doesn’t just show the characters in action, it also shows how every action changes the character. Literary fiction usually takes you on a journey into a person’s heart and soul.
Creative Storytelling: No formula: Because literary fiction isn't bound tot he strict standards of a specific genre, every author is free to make up their own rules as they go along. The reader is never quite sure where the adventure will take them.
Vocabulary and writing style: Literary fiction works usually use allegory and symbolism to convey it's deeper meaning, which is more than what we see on the surface. Literary fiction authors tend to use high-level vocabulary and rely on plenty of imagery to get the point across.