Everything about Literary Genre totally explained
A
literary genre is "a loose set of criteria for a category of literary composition." Genres can be determined by
literary technique,
tone,
content, or even (as in the case of fiction) length.
The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order)
epic,
tragedy,
comedy,
novel,
short story, and
creative nonfiction. They can all be in the genres
prose or
poetry, which shows best how loosely genres are defined. Additionally, a genre such as
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're 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-genres
Genres are often divided into sub-genres.
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 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 terms 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, for example, including
comedy of manners,
sentimental comedy,
burlesque comedy, and
satirical comedy.
Creative nonfiction can cross many genres but is typically expressed in essays, memoir, and other forms that may or may not be narrative but share the characteristics of being fact-based, artistically-rendered prose.
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") isn't 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.
Genres may be easily be confused with
literary techniques, but though only loosely defined, they're not the same, examples are
parody,
Frame story,
constrained writing,
stream of consciousness.
List of literary genres
Further Information
Get more info on 'Literary Genre'.
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