literary genre

A literary genre is a genre of literature, that is "a loose set of criteria for a category of literary composition", depending on literary technique, tone, or content.

The most general genres in literature are (in chronological order) epic, tragedy,^[1] comedy, novel, and short story.^{[citation needed]} They can all be in the genres prose or poetry, which shows best how loosely genres are defined. Additionally, a genre like satire, allegory or pastoral might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre (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.^[2][3]

Subgenres

Genres are often divided into subgenres. Literature, for instance, is divided into three basic kinds of literature, classic genres of Ancient Greece, poetry, drama, and prose. Poetry may then be subdivided into epic, lyric, and dramatic. Subdivisions of drama includes foremost comedy and tragedy, while eg. comedy itself has subgenres, including farce, comedy of manners, burlesque, satire, and so on. However, any of these terms would be called "genre", and its possible more general terms implied.

To be even more flexible, hybrid forms of different terms have been used, like a prose poem or a tragicomedy. Science fiction has many recognized subgenres; a science fiction story may be rooted in real scientific expectations as they are understood at the time of writing (see Hard science fiction). A more general term, coined by Robert A. Heinlein, is "speculative fiction," an umbrella term covering all such genres that depict alternate realities. Even fiction that depicts innovations ruled out by current scientific theory, such as stories about or based on faster-than-light travel, are still science fiction, because science is a main subject in the piece of art.

Dramatic poetry, for instance, might include comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and mixtures like tragicomedy. This parsing into subgenres can continue: "comedy" has its own genres, for example, including comedy of manners, sentimental comedy, burlesque comedy, and satirical comedy.

Often, the criteria used to divide up works into genres are not consistent, and may change constantly, and be subject of argument, change and challenge by both authors and critics. However, even a very loose term like fiction ("literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a 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.

A subgenre may join non-contradicting criteria: Romance and mystery are marked out by their plots, and Western by its setting, which means that a work can easily be a Western romance or Western mystery.

Genres may be easily be confused with literary techniques, but though only loosely defined, they are not the same, examples are parody, Frame story, constrained writing, stream of consciousness.

List of literary genres

• Autobiography, Memoir, Spiritual autobiography
• Biography
• Campus novel
• Children's literature
• Comedy

• Diaries and Journals
• Erotic literature

• Epic
  • Haiku
  • Lied
  • Lyric
  • Ode
  • Rhapsody
  • Song
  • Limerick
  • Sonnet
  • Speculative poetry

• Essay
• Fable, Fairy tale

• Fiction
  • Adventure novel
  • Crime fiction
    • Detective fiction
    • Hardboiled
    • Whodunit
    • Newgate novel, Prison literature
  • Historical fiction
  • Fantasy (for more details see Fantasy subgenres; fantasy literature)
  • Gothic fiction (initially synonymous with horror)
    • Southern Gothic
    • Mystery fiction
    • Horror
      • Lovecraftian horror
      • Weird menace
    • Thriller
      • Conspiracy fiction
      • Legal thriller
      • Spy fiction/Political thriller
      • Techno-thriller
      • Psychological thriller
  • Science fiction (for more details see Science fiction genres and related topics)
• Medical novel
• Philosophical novel

• Romance
• Romance novel
  • Historical romance
  • Regency romance
  • Chick lit
    • Matron lit

• Saga, Family Saga
• Slave narrative

• Satire
• Tragedy
  • Revenge tragedy
• literary criticism
• Magic Realism and Dictator Novels, Latin American genres
• Non-fiction; Oral Narrative (Oral History)

• Poetry (see that article for an extensive list of sub-genres)
  • Aubade
  • Clerihew
  • Rhymed prose
  • Maqama
  • Saj'
  • Fu (literature)
• Travel literature
• Western

Notes

1. ^ Bakhtin 1981, p.3
2. ^ Derrida 1981
3. ^ Michael Herzfeld, review of On Narrative, American Anthropologist 1983, p.195

References

• Bakhtin, M. M. (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Ed. Michael Holquist. Trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin and London: University of Texas Press.
• John D. Dorst Neck-Riddle as a Dialogue off Genres: Applying Bakhtin's Genre Theory The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 96, No. 382 (Oct. - Dec., 1983), pp. 413-433 doi:10.2307/540982
• Derrida, Jacques The Law of Genre [Critical Inquiry] Vol. 7, No. 1, On Narrative. (Autumn, 1980), pp. 55-81. [1]. essay contained in On Narrative W.J.T. Mitchell, ed. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

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