Literary Genre
Literary genre
A literary genre is category of literary
composition. Genre may be determined by literary technique, tone content, or
event (as in the case of fiction) length. Genre should not be confused with age
category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young-adult,
or children’s. They also must not be confused with format such as graphic novel
or picture box. The distinction between
genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined often with subgroups.
The most general genres in literature
are (in loose chronological order) epic, tragedy (4),
comedy, novel, short story and creative nonfiction. They can all be on the
genres prose or poetry, which shows best how loosely genres are defined.
Additionally a genre such a satire, allegory, or pastoral might appear in any
of the above, not only as a sub genre (see below), but as a mixture of genres.
Finally, they are defined by the general cultural movement of the historical;
period in which they were composed. The concept of “genre” has been criticized
by Jacques Derrida.
Sub genre
Genres are often divided into sub
genres. Literature, for instance, is divided into three basic kinds of
literature, the classic genres of Ancient Greece, drama, and prose. Poetry may
then be subdivided into epic, lyric and dramatic. Subdivisions of drama include
foremost comedy and tragedy, while eg. Comedy itself has sub-genres, including
farce, comedy of manners burlesque, satire, and so on. However any of these
terms would be called “genre” and its possible more general term implied.
Dramatic poetry, for instance,
might include comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and mixtures like tragicomedy. This
parsing into sub genres can continue: “comedy” has its own genres including,
for example, comedy of manners, sentimental comedy, burlesque comedy, and
satirical comedy.
Creative nonfiction can cross many
genres but is typically expressed in essay, memoir and other forms that may not
be narrative but share the characteristic of being fact-based,
artistically-rendered prose.
Often the criteria used to divided
up works into genres are not consistent and may change constantly, and be
subject f argument, change and challenge by both authors’ and critic. However,
even a very loose term like fiction (literature created from the imagination,
not present d as fact, thought it may be based on the true story or situation)
is not universally applied to all fictitious literature, but instead is
typically restricted to the use for novel, short story, and novella, but not
fables, and is also usually a prose text.
Semi-fiction spans stories that
include a substantial amount of non-fiction. It may be the retelling of true
story with only the named changed. The other way around, semifiction may also
involve fictional events with a semi-fictional character, such as Jerry Seinfeld.
Genres may easily be confused with
literary technique, but thought only loosely defined, they are not the same;
examples are parody, frame story, constrained writing stream of consciousness (5&6).
List of literary
Genre
This list is incomplete you can help by
expanding it. Some important part of the following genres will be discussed
next.
·
Fable, fairy tale,
folklore
·
Fiction
·
Adventure novel
·
Comic novel
·
Crime fiction
·
Detective fiction
·
fantasy
o bangsian
fantasy
o comic
fantasy
o conteporeer
fantasy
o urban
fantasy
o fairytale
fantasy
o heroic
fantasy
o high
fantasy
o historical
fantasy
o Juvenile
fantasy
o Low
fantasy
o Romantic
fantasy
o Sword
and sorcery
o etc
·
Gaweda
·
gothic fiction
o Southern
fiction
·
historical fiction
·
holocaust
·
horror
·
medical novel
·
micro fiction
·
mystification
·
musical fiction
·
mystery fiction
·
philosophical fiction
·
political fiction
·
political fiction
·
quest
·
religious fiction
·
romance novel
·
saga, family saga
·
satire
·
short story
·
slave narrative
·
speculative fiction
o alternative
history
o science
fiction
·
surrealist novel
·
thriller
·
tragedy
·
urban fiction
·
western
·
non fiction
o biography
o diaries
and journal
o erotic
literature
o essay,
treatise
o history
o religious
text
- apopogenetic
- proverb
- scripture
- Christian
- literature
References
(4) Bakhtin
M. M. (1981) The dialogic Imagination:
Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans Caryl Emerson and Michael
Holquist. Austin ad London; University of Texas Press. 1981, p.3
(5) Derrida Jacques The Law of Genre (Critical Inquiry) vol.
7, No. 1, On Narrative. (Autumn, 1980),pp. 55-81. Easy contained in On Narrative W.J.T. Michell,ed. Chichago
and London: University of Chicago Press.1981
(6) Michael Herzfled, review of On Narrative, American Anthropologist 1983, p.195
