Fiction vs. literature

Earlier this week I happened to find myself in a bookstore. While in the bookstore I noticed that along one wall they had a section that they called 'Fiction.' Across from this section was a section called 'Literature.' That they had two such categories was striking, if not because many people wouldn't differentiate between the two classes, but because it would likely be a nightmare to organize/classify.

When I asked a staff member how the books were classified she suggested that there really wasn't much of a hard and fast protocol. Classics and award winners always went in the literature section while romance and thrillers were always placed in the fiction section. The middle was, she freely admitted, a bit of a grey area.

The use of the terms 'fiction' and 'literature' in this context are very value laden. Clearly 'fiction' is a step down from literature. To shop in such a section in a store that also has a 'Literature' section might be taken as an indication that you either have poor taste or aren't much of a reader. It is conceivable to me that many may actively chose not to shop in this particular section of the store because of the message they fear it will send. On the other hand, there are some that might see shopping in the 'literature' section to be pretentious and elitist, particularly when it so clearly differentiated from popular fiction (though I imagine that this would be a smaller segment in such a bookstore).

I guess what I find surprising is that a bookstore would be so willing to risk losing sales either because of the desire of a reader not to be seen in the 'fiction' section or because a customer just doesn't know that the book they are looking for happens to be on the other side of the store.

The following are a few of the authors from the fiction section:
Joel Hynes
Bernice Morgan
Douglas Coupland


The following are a few of the authors from the literature section:
Jane Austen
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Miriam Toews