pulp fiction

American  

noun

1. fiction dealing with lurid or sensational subjects, often printed on rough, low-quality paper manufactured from wood pulp.

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Usage

What is pulp fiction? Pulp fiction refers to a genre of racy, action-based stories published in cheaply printed magazines from around 1900 to the 1950s, mostly in the United States. Pulp fiction gets its name from the paper it was printed on. Magazines featuring such stories were typically published using cheap, ragged-edged paper made from wood pulp. These magazines were sometimes called pulps. Pulp fiction created a breeding ground for new and exciting genres. Though the heyday of pulp fiction magazines has passed, their eye-catching covers and dramatic, fast-paced, and simple stories have left behind a legacy that can be seen in today’s movies, TV, books, and comics featuring action heroes and over-the-top villains.

Etymology

Origin of pulp fiction

An Americanism dating back to 1950–55

Example Sentences

Amidst the audience, actor Jamie Dornan was spotted, amusedly gazing at fleeting images of himself woven into pulp fiction video collages that spanned from paparazzi shots to art history and social media.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 20, 2024

The villains seem to have sprung from the pages of cheap graphic novels that make pulp fiction look like Shakespeare.

From Salon • Sep. 7, 2023

He is Ol’ Man River Goes to Hollywood, a pulp fiction I unpack again and again until I can comprehend the lucid delirium he must have endured to live through those two opposing circumstances.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2023

Their writers are genre fiction authors and experimentalists, nature poets and satirists, pulp fiction practitioners and trans-nationalists, writers of the weird, the quirky, the unsettled and unsettling.

From New York Times • Mar. 7, 2023

Transcriber's Note: This book is an example of early pulp fiction.

From The Dock Rats of New York by Halsey, Harlan Page