Bethanie Blanchard, “This Week in Books,” Guardian Australia Culture Blog Sunday 17 November 2013

Lars Iyer, shortlisted for the Goldsmiths prize — an award celebrating innovation in the form of the novel — has argued that the time for literary novels is over. In an interesting response, Andrew Gallix considers the death of realist literary fiction and the uncertainty of its future. “Literature only coincides with itself when it claims to be what it is not. As soon as it acknowledges its made-up nature, the novel looks back at itself in anger; becomes its own worst enemy,” he writes. Gallix highlights the historical development of the form of the novel, the limitations of mimetic storytelling, and the uncertain way forward for “fighting fiction with fiction”.