misery lit
n. A memoir or novel that focuses on extreme personal trauma and abuse.
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Examples
2010
Today’s idea: Is women’s fiction plagued by "misery lit," obsessed with bereavement, child abuse and rape? Or "chick lit," obsessed with Prada handbags and landing the perfect catch? Or is it torn between the two? British writers have at it.
—Tom Kuntz, “Woe Is Women’s Lit,” Idea of the Day, March 18, 2010
2010
Still, prior to the Hughes and Hughes news, the recession had yet to fully impact in the way that it has in the UK, where the story is resembling something from the worst misery lit. When Borders collapsed in the UK, it left Waterstone s as the only national chain and even that has suffered losses strong enough for it to sack its chief and reshape its business model.
—Shane Hegarty, “Is closing a bookshop akin to knocking down a unicorn?,” The Irish Times, March 06, 2010
2006 (earliest)
Today's Britain, we're told, is the nation of Big Brother self-exposure and of weepy David Beckham, of therapy culture, piles of roadside flowers and self-indulgent "misery lit" memoirs on the bestsellers lists.
—Jonathan Freedland, “How London carried on,” The Guardian, July 07, 2006
Notes
But in much of the mystery-and-misery literature, that faith is sorely tried, as one character after another comes to grief in the threatening city.
—Wyn Kelley, “Melville's City,” Cambridge University Press, July 26, 1996
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