Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Transgressive
fiction is a genre of literature that focuses on characters who feel
confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of
those confines in unusual and/or illicit ways. Because they are
rebelling against the basic norms of society, protagonists of
transgressional fiction may seem mentally ill, anti-social and/or
nihilistic. The genre deals extensively with taboo subject matters such
as drugs, sex, violence, incest, pedophilia, and crime. The genre has
been the subject of controversy, and many forerunners of transgressional
fiction, including William S. Burroughs and Hubert Selby Jr., have been
the subjects of obscenity trials. Transgressional fiction shares
similarities with splatterpunk, noir and erotic fiction in its
willingness to portray forbidden behaviors and shock readers. But it
differs in that protagonists often pursue means to better themselves and
their surroundings-albeit unusual and extreme ones. Much transgressional
fiction deals with searches for self-identity, inner peace and/or
personal freedom.
