From Commentary, a controversial piece by D. G. Myers (meaning that it’s sure to piss off some of the literary types). His two main points:
1. The term literary fiction was popularized by the New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani, and it has become standard usage for distinguishing fiction of deep and earnest intent from bestsellers and “genre fiction.”
The distinction is bunk…
2. Literary fiction — or what the British novelist Linda Grant has taken to calling LitFic — ought to be a haughty way of saying “good fiction.” But that’s not how the term is used. What, then, is it? Easy. Literary fiction (like 98.5% of poetry these days) is written by and for the entrenched bureaucracy of the creative writing faculty in the universities. There is good fiction, there is bad fiction, and there is fiction written in creative writing workshops.
Perhaps I should quit thinking about my book as potentially literary fiction, as though the label is something to aspire to. It isn’t.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 James Ament 
I’ve heard that song before, at least the “bunk” part.
One evening in the 1970s I saw Leslie Fiedler on “Firing Line”, where he spent most of the time he was given repeating and refining his position that the distinction between high art and popular art was bogus. (Or maybe the word was “serious”, not “high”.) The panel that got to ask questions at the end consisted of three professors of English literature. What I remember as the first question was, “Well, then Dr. Fiedler, how do distinguish high art and popular art?”
Over a year ago, when I finished my manuscript, then attended a day-long workshop on publishing, I realized that I knew nothing about the publishing world. I’ve learned a lot in the last year, but I also learned that the book I wrote is difficult to categorize, which publishers want to do so they know where to put the book on the bookshelf. It’s all about book sales—better to write a book that’s genre specific. Okay, I’ll do that with my next book.
I heard one description of literary fiction that goes something like this: If it doesn’t easily fall into any specific category and you’ve been anointed by the recognized literary critics, e.g. at the NYT, then it can be called literary fiction.
I meet the first part, but do not expect the second part. Nonetheless, I do think I wrote a good story.
A great topic for academics to ponder and write about—it keeps them off the streets.