The rhetoric of epistolarity: contemporary epistolary fiction and the problem of genre

Abstract Epistolary fiction is commonly defined as a particular form of literary narrative that imitates letters or digital correspondence, for instance e-mail or communication via social media. Narratological studies of epistolarity have been preoccupied with identifying structural features that define this form of narrative and consequently distinguish epistolary fiction as a certain novelistic genre. This article argues that it can be problematic to approach epistolarity within a structuralist, narratological framework. The traditional view of epistolary fiction as a genre, assumed to be defined by specific formal constituents, is concerned with classification and this article demonstrates that generic labels often obscure how epistolarity functions in specific literary works, as exemplified in readings of Sam Lipsyte’s Home Land (2004. Home land . New York: Picador) and George Saunders’s “Ghoul” (2022. Liberation day . London: Bloomsbury Publishing). To examine the various ways in which contemporary authors utilize epistolary conventions and traditions, the article suggests that epistolarity should instead be approached as a rhetorical resource in literary fiction.