diff --git a/gallery_dl/formatter.py b/gallery_dl/formatter.py
index 27d5e40e..d1b3a8a7 100644
--- a/gallery_dl/formatter.py
+++ b/gallery_dl/formatter.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ _CACHE = {}
 _CONVERSIONS = None
 _GLOBALS = {
     "_env": lambda: os.environ,
+    "_lit": lambda: _literal,
     "_now": datetime.datetime.now,
 }
 
@@ -219,6 +220,10 @@ def parse_field_name(field_name):
     first, rest = _string.formatter_field_name_split(field_name)
     funcs = []
 
+    if first[0] == "'":
+        funcs.append(operator.itemgetter(first[1:-1]))
+        first = "_lit"
+
     for is_attr, key in rest:
         if is_attr:
             func = operator.attrgetter
@@ -344,3 +349,15 @@ def _default_format(format_spec):
     def wrap(obj):
         return format(obj, format_spec)
     return wrap
+
+
+class Literal():
+    # __getattr__, __getattribute__, and __class_getitem__
+    # are all slower than regular __getitem__
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def __getitem__(key):
+        return key
+
+
+_literal = Literal()
diff --git a/test/test_formatter.py b/test/test_formatter.py
index 4cce8a38..efb69636 100644
--- a/test/test_formatter.py
+++ b/test/test_formatter.py
@@ -208,6 +208,22 @@ class TestFormatter(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertRegex(out1, r"^\d{4}-\d\d-\d\d \d\d:\d\d:\d\d(\.\d+)?$")
         self.assertNotEqual(out1, out2)
 
+    def test_literals(self):
+        value = "foo"
+
+        self._run_test("{'foo'}"       , value)
+        self._run_test("{'foo'!u}"     , value.upper())
+        self._run_test("{'f00':R0/o/}" , value)
+        self._run_test("{'foobar'[:3]}", value)
+        self._run_test("{z|'foo'}"     , value)
+        self._run_test("{z|''|'foo'}"  , value)
+
+        self._run_test("{_lit[foo]}"       , value)
+        self._run_test("{_lit[foo]!u}"     , value.upper())
+        self._run_test("{_lit[f00]:R0/o/}" , value)
+        self._run_test("{_lit[foobar][:3]}", value)
+        self._run_test("{z|_lit[foo]}"     , value)
+
     def test_template(self):
         with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmpdirname:
             path1 = os.path.join(tmpdirname, "tpl1")