Experimental Fiction
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What do you expect to see when you first open a book? You probably expect to see chapters and, within each chapter, paragraphs with words running from the right-hand corner of the page to the left. Or perhaps when you look at the genre the book has been written in, you expect a tragedy to have a sad ending whereas a romance to have a happy one.
Now forget everything you just pictured because experimental fiction is exactly the opposite of what you'd expect from an ordinary book. It is a genre that defies the 'typical' definition of storytelling. It is all about breaking the rules and creating new ones! Now let's look at the techniques one can use to 'experiment' within literature, alongside a few examples of experimental books and short stories.
Experimental Fiction Definition
In 'normal' literary works (otherwise known as traditional realist works), there are several rules or expectations that all stories must follow for the comfort and understanding of the reader. These could be expectations about characterisation, such as the traits we associate with a protagonist versus an antagonist. We expect genres to have recurring themes and tropes. The structure of a story is usually laid out in a chronological sequence of events. Narration is stable and consistent. Language and syntax are predictable and easily comprehensible because they follow the rules of grammar. Well, writing experimental fiction is like entering a new foreign land with no awareness of these rules and expectations. It is about creating your own rules in literature or challenging the existing ones.
Experimental fiction is a genre of literary work wherein writers focus on using innovative storytelling techniques that are playful, bizarre, risky, controversial or sometimes, even incomprehensible. Writers do this in order to push past the creative boundaries of existing traditional storytelling techniques to explore new ways of telling new stories. Some experimental writers also aim to pave the way for groundbreaking forms, techniques and genres, sort of like a new scientific discovery - but in literature!1
Experimental fiction: A genre that defies the literary norms and conventions established by traditional realist works within the literary canon.
Experimental writers are usually focused on producing something unique and innovative rather than something that can be understood. Hence, experimental fiction places more emphasis on form rather than subject matter. Experimental writers often play around with structure, formatting, language and syntax in unexpected ways while writing. They may include segments of poetry in prose. Readers may be greeted by empty white spaces upon opening a book. The traditional narrative structure established by Aristotle (384 BC- 322 BC) of a beginning, middle and end may also be challenged to create something that is non-linear.
Here is an example taken from the first page of David Detrich's novel Big Sur Marvels & Wondrous Delights (2001) that blends the forms of prose and poetry to present the journal writing meshed with fictive elements.
Fig. 1 - The first page of Big Sur Marvels & Wondrous Delights (2001) by David Detrich.
Ernest Vincent Wright's Gadsby (1939) is a 50,000-word novel that was written without any use of the letter 'e', the most commonly used letter in English. This was a piece of experimental fiction aiming to show that it is possible to create a story free from the constraints of ordinary grammar and vocabulary.
Some experimental writers even fiddle around with genre conventions. For instance, they may choose to write a story with main characters that have no redeemable qualities. Instead of writing a crime novel where the mystery is solved at the end, the writer may pile the reader with more loose ends. Fictional stories can be interrupted by the writer recounting real-life memories or sharing their opinions. The possibilities are endless!
The first piece of experimental fiction ever recorded was Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759). This was written so early on that, at the time, there were no established 'conventions' of literature. However, Sterne breaks his narrative with an all-black page following the death of a major character in his novel in true experimentalist fashion.
It is important to note that experimental fiction must be viewed in the context that the text has been written in. A piece of literary work may be unfamiliar, controversial or 'weird' today, but over time, these new forms and contents may conventionalise and become a part of mainstream literature. Hence, works of experimental fiction can only be considered 'experimental' for the time and place that they are produced in.1
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) may not be considered experimental fiction today, but it makes use of some complex narrative devices and structures that were unconventional during publication, and some may argue, even now. Frankenstein (1818) consists of three different first-person narrators, and the events of the story are presented in the form of letters written by them or to them. The story begins from Walton's perspective, who is writing about the protagonist Victor's story who is then narrating the monster's story. The point of view, therefore, keeps switching between these three characters in a way that had truly never been seen before.
Fig. 2 -
Inside cover art from the 1831 edition of Frankenstein
Experimental Fiction Techniques
It is very difficult to establish the techniques and tropes of a genre that places emphasis on not having any techniques and tropes at all! Hence, it is easier to describe what experimental fiction attempts to not be rather than what it actually is. So here are some of the many conventions of literature that experimental fiction seeks to challenge.
Characters and setting
Traditional works of fiction consist of characters with clearly defined traits placed in realistic and predictable settings. For instance, there is always a clear demarcation between a protagonist and an antagonist, with the former being portrayed as more sympathetic than the latter.
However, writers of experimental fiction often blur the lines between the protagonist and antagonist. Sometimes, there are no clear-cut heroes or villains in the story. They may base stories around protagonists completely lacking any redeemable qualities, otherwise known as an anti-hero. Who knows - maybe they choose to not have any main characters at all!
Genre tropes
As mentioned before, we expect tragedies to have unhappy cathartic endings; works of crime fiction to end with the writer solving the mystery for the reader. Horror consists of supernatural forces, dark, secluded settings and foreshadowing.
Experimental fiction challenges these very genre tropes, often in unexpected ways, such as by suddenly deviating from genre conventions or by genre mashing. For instance, a tragedy may suddenly include traces of comedy. An innocent romance story may turn into something sinister and dark. A murder mystery may become progressively obscure and mysterious.
Linear storylines
Traditional plot structures of having an exposition, internal conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution can be restrictive to experimental writers.
Hence, experimental writers often break the chronological order of plotlines to produce stories that are non-linear and unexpected.
Courttia Newland's 'Reversible' (2016) is a short story that applies the logic of time travel to narrate its events. It is a murder mystery that is being told backwards. The story opens with a description of the victim's body and then moves on to describe the scene of the murder. Moving backwards this way, the writer retraces her steps right to the point where the victim is safe at home, unaware of the tragedy that is about to befall him.
Fictional vs non-fictional narratives
In experimental fiction, fictional stories are often interrupted with segments of non-fictional anecdotes. Writers may suddenly link fictional events in the story to non-fictional anecdotes from their real lives or provide a commentary on the plotline or their writing style.
Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) by George Saunders is an experimental novel inspired by the death of Abraham Lincoln's son William Wallace Lincoln. Saunders was inspired by newspaper accounts of Lincoln visiting his son's grave, which made him contemplate how a father may grieve the loss of his son while running a nation. While the story consists of historical facts about Lincoln, it is set in a fictional place called Bardo, which is a space between life and death where Lincoln's dead son is greeted by multiple fictional characters (who are also dead) trying to help him pass over.
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