1980s setting would not meet my criteria for historical fiction.
It's said that a good rule of thumb for classifying a work as historical fiction is a minimum of 50 years from the time of writing, but I am still dissatisfied with that. With many people living longer than ever before, there will be many readers for whom something set in, say, 1951 (exactly 50 years ago) is within their clear and vivid living memory. I would call such a work "General fiction" (or "mystery" or "adventure" or "modern literature", as the genre may be) and in a separate field note that it's set in the 1950s period.
In my view, it's very much a case of transporting the reader to a past era not in living memory, of which the details to recreate that setting are the result of research, not memory/experience.
Also in my view, it's fine if one's writing a novel set during WWII and there are some relatives or friends or what-have-you who lived through that time, whose recollections can help to give authentic flavour and colour to whatever written research the writer undertakes.
NOTE: I am disregarding any possibility of the Highlander butting into this thread and saying, "No, no, if such is your definition, what about me and my living memories?" Go away, immortals, and don't sabotage my argument.
