Chick lit
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- For the We Are Scientists song, see Chick Lit (We Are Scientists song).
Chick lit is a term used to denote genre fiction within women's fiction written for and marketed to young women, especially single, working women in their twenties and thirties. The genre sells well, with chick lit titles topping bestseller lists and the creation of imprints devoted entirely to chick lit. It generally deals with the issues of modern women humorously and lightheartedly. [1]
Although usually including romantic elements, women's fiction (including chick lit) is generally not considered a direct subcategory of the romance novel genre, because in women's fiction the heroine's relationship with her family or friends may be equally as important as her relationship with the hero.[2]
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[edit] Composition
Chick lit features hip, stylish, career-driven[1] female protagonists, usually in their twenties and thirties. The women featured in these novels may be obsessed with appearance or have a passion for shopping.[1]
The setting is generally urban and the plot usually follows the characters' love lives and struggles for professional success (often in the publishing, advertising, public relations, or fashion industry). The style is usually of an airy, irreverent tone and includes frank sexual themes. It frequently makes use of current slang and cliches.
[edit] Variations
The genre began targeted at white, single, young females[1], but variations have developed to appeal to specific audiences, such as "Chica Lit," aimed at English-dominant, middle-class American Latinas, the top-seller being novelist and film writer/producer Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez; Christian Chick Lit, Matron Lit (aka Hen Lit) for middle-aged women, Young Adult Chick Lit (also Teen Lit) and Indian chick lit.
[edit] Indian chick lit
The popularity of Indian chick-lit novels like Rajashree's Trust Me [3] and Swati Kaushal's Piece of Cake [4] can be seen in the context of the rise of regional varieties of chick-lit. [5] In an interview to the New York Times, Helen Fielding said, 'I think it had far more to do with zeitgeist than imitation.' If the chick lit explosion has 'led to great new female writers emerging from Eastern Europe and India, then it's worth any number of feeble bandwagon jumpers.' [6] Sunaina Kumar wrote in the Indian Express, 'Ten years after the publication of Bridget Jones's Diary, the genre of fiction most recognisable for its pink cover art of stilettos, martini glasses and lipsticks, is now being colourfully infused with bindis, saris, and bangles. ' Sometimes referred to as 'ladki-lit', Indian chick-lit seems to be coming of age.[7][8][9]
[edit] History
[edit] Origins of the term
"Chick" is an American slang term for young woman and "Lit" is short for "literature". The phrase "chick lit" is analogous to the term chick flick.
The term appeared in print as early as 1993 as college slang for the "female literary tradition." [10]. In 1995, Cris Mazza and Jeffrey DeShell used the term as an ironic title for their edited anthology Chick Lit: Postfeminist Fiction. The genre was defined as a type of post-feminist or second-wave feminism that went beyond female-as-victim to include fiction that covered the breadth of female experiences, including love, courtship and gender. The collection emphasized experimental work, including violent, perverse and sexual themes. James Wolcott's 1996 article in The New Yorker "Hear Me Purr" co-opted the term "chick lit" to proscribe what he called the trend of "girlishness" evident in the writing of female newspaper columnists at that time. Works such as Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary and Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City are examples of such work that helped establish contemporary connotations of the term. The success of Bridget Jones and Sex and the City in book form established chick lit as an important trend in publishing. The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank[11] is regarded as one of the first chick lit works to originate as a novel (actually a collection of stories), though the term "chick lit" was in common use at the time of its publication (1999).
Publishers continue to push the sub-genre because of its viability as a sales tactic. Various other terms have been coined as variant in attempts to attach themselves to the perceived marketability of the work.
[edit] Inspiration
The genre's creation was spurred on, if not exactly created, by Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole diaries which inspired Adele Lang's Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber: The Katya Livingston Chronicles in the mid-1990s.[citation needed] Another strong early influence can be seen in the books by M. C. Beaton about Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth. The style can also be seen to be somewhat influenced by female teen angst movies like Sixteen Candles and Clueless and later with the appearance of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary and similar works.
[edit] Influence
The genre spawned Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City and its accompanying television series.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d In the Classroom or In the Bedroom Chick Lit: The New Woman’s Fiction. Edited by Suzanne Ferris and Mallory Young. Routledge Publishing, 2005. 288 pages. Trade Paperback. Reviewed by Jessica Lynice Hooten.
- ^ "What's in a Name?", Publishers Weekly, July 2, 2001, http://www.publishersweekly.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleId=CA91257&display=searchResults, retrieved on 2007-04-30
- ^ "Trust Me to spill beans on Bollywood", CNN-IBN, 2007-02-18.
- ^ India's Cheeky "Chick Lit" Finds An Audience
- ^ Asha Menon "Indian chick lit?"
- ^ Rachel Donadio "The Chick-Lit Pandemic", The New York Times, 2006-03-19.
- ^ Sunaina Kumar "The Rise of Ladki-Lit", The Indian Express, 2006-10-08.
- ^ "Write Up Their Alley"
- ^ "Comfort Read"
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary (2d ed.), entry for "chick lit", citing an April 13, 1993 Newsday article.
- ^ Melissa Bank's Salon Interview
