List of genres

This is a list of genres of literature and entertainment, excluding genres in the visual arts. Genre is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment, e.g. music, whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented and the use of old ones are discontinued. Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

Literary genres

Absurdist/surreal/whimsical

Absurdist and surreal fiction challenges causal reasoning and the purposefulness of life. There is often, though not always, a connection to comedy.

The whimsical and related styles exaggerate real life in a whimsical, eccentric, quirky or fanciful way, sometimes including 'magical' extensions of reality.

The absurdist genre focuses on the experiences of characters in situations where they cannot find any inherent purpose in life, most often represented by ultimately meaningless actions and events that call into question the certainty of existential concepts such as truth or value.

The closely related/overlapping surreal genre is predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical. Constructions of surreal humour tend to involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational or absurd situations and expressions of nonsense.

Whimsical and related styles are exemplified by films such as Underground, Amélie, Micmacs and Dieta Mediterranea (Mediterranean Food).[1]

Action

An action story is similar to adventure, and the protagonist usually takes a risky turn, which leads to desperate situations (including explosions, fight scenes, daring escapes, etc.). Action and Adventure are usually categorized together (sometimes even as "action-adventure") because they have much in common, and many stories fall under both genres simultaneously (for instance, the James Bond series can be classified as both).

Adventure

An adventure story is about a protagonist who journeys to epic or distant places to accomplish something. It can have many other genre elements included within it, because it is a very open genre. The protagonist has a mission and faces obstacles to get to their destination. Also, adventure stories usually include unknown settings and characters with prized properties or features.

Comedy

Comedy is a story that tells about a series of funny or comical events, intended to make the audience laugh. It is a very open genre, and thus crosses over with many other genres on a frequent basis.

Crime

(See also: Mystery below)

A crime story is about a crime that is being committed or was committed. It can also be an account of a criminal's life. It often falls into the action or adventure genres.

Drama

Within film, television and radio (but not theatre), drama is a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone,[2] focusing on in-depth development of realistic characters who must deal with realistic emotional struggles. A drama is commonly considered the opposite of a comedy, but may also be considered separate from other works of some broad genre, such as a fantasy.

Fantasy

Fairy tales and legends, such as Dobrynya Nikitich's rescue of Zabava Putyatichna from the dragon Gorynych, have been an important source for fantasy.

A fantasy story is about magic or supernatural forces, rather than technology, though it often is made to include elements of other genres, such as science fiction elements, for instance computers or DNA, if it happens to take place in a modern or future era. Depending on the extent of these other elements, the story may or may not be considered to be a "hybrid genre" series; for instance, even though the Harry Potter series canon includes the requirement of a particular gene to be a wizard, it is referred to only as a fantasy series.

Historical

A story about a real person or event. Often, they are written in a text book format, which may or may not focus on solely that.

Historical fiction

The genre historical fiction includes stories that are about the past. To distinguish historical fiction from any fiction that is written about an era in the past, the criteria that the book must have been written about a time that occurred in a historical context in relation to the author of the book.[3][4] The criteria that the story be set before the middle of the previous century is sometimes added.[4] Historical fiction stories include historical details and includes characters that fit into the time period of the setting, whether or not they are real historical people.[3]

Horror

An Illustration of Poe's 'The Raven' by Gustav Dore
An Illustration of Poe's 'The Raven' by Gustave Doré

A horror story is told to deliberately scare or frighten the audience, through suspense, violence or shock. H. P. Lovecraft distinguishes two primary varieties in the "Introduction" to Supernatural Horror in Literature: 1) Physical Fear or the "mundanely gruesome" and 2) the true Supernatural Horror story or the "Weird Tale". The supernatural variety is occasionally called "dark fantasy", since the laws of nature must be violated in some way, thus qualifying the story as "fantastic".

Magical realism

Magical realism, also called Magic realism, is literary works where magical events form part of ordinary life. The reader is forced to accept that abnormal events such as levitation, telekinesis and talking with the dead take place in the real world. The writer does not invent a new world or describes in great detail new creatures, as is usual in Fantasy; on the contrary, the author abstains from explaining the fantastic events in order to avoid making them feel extraordinary. It is often regarded as a genre exclusive to Latin American literature, but some of its chief exponents include English authors. One Hundred Years of Solitude, for which Gabriel García Márquez received the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature, is considered the genre's seminal work of style.

Mystery

A mystery story follows an investigator as he/she attempts to solve a puzzle (often a crime). The details and clues are presented as the story continues and the protagonist discovers them and by the end of the story the mystery/puzzle is solved. For example, in the case of a crime mystery the perpetrator and motive behind the crime are revealed and the perpetrator is brought to justice. Mystery novels are often written in series which allows a more in-depth development of the primary investigator.[5][6]

Paranoid

Paranoid fiction is works of literature that explore the subjective nature of reality and how it can be manipulated by forces in power. These forces can be external, such as a totalitarian government, or they can be internal, such as a character's mental illness or refusal to accept the harshness of the world he or she is in.

Philosophical

Philosophical fiction is fiction in which a significant proportion of the work is devoted to a discussion of the sort of questions normally addressed in discursive philosophy. These might include the function and role of society, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, and the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge. Philosophical fiction works would include the so-called novel of ideas, including a significant proportion of science fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, and Bildungsroman. The modus operandi seems to be to use a normal story to simply explain difficult and dark parts of human life.

Political

Political fiction is a subgenre of fiction that deals with political affairs. Political fiction has often used narrative to provide commentary on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction often "directly criticize an existing society or... present an alternative, sometimes fantastic, reality." Prominent pieces of political fiction have included the totalitarian dystopias of the early 20th century such as Jack London's The Iron Heel and Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here. Equally influential, if not more so, have been earlier pieces of political fiction such as Gulliver's Travels (1726), Candide (1759) and Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Political fiction frequently employs the literary modes of satire, often in the genres of Utopian and dystopian fiction or social science fiction.

Romance

Romance novels are emotion-driven stories that are primarily focused on the relationship between the main characters of the story. Beyond the focus on the relationship, the biggest defining characteristic of the romance genre is that a happy ending is always guaranteed.[7][8] The happy ending does not require the characters to be married and living "happily ever after", simply that the reader feels that there is hope for the future of the romantic relationship.[8] Due to the wide definition of romance, romance stories cover a wide variety of subjects and often fall into other genre categories as well as romance.[7][8]

Saga

The sagas (from Icelandic saga, plural sögur) are stories about ancient Scandinavian and Germanic history, about early Viking voyages, about migration to Iceland, and of feuds between Icelandic families. They were written in the Old Norse language, mainly in Iceland. The texts are epic tales in prose, often with stanzas or whole poems in alliterative verse embedded in the text, of heroic deeds of days long gone, tales of worthy men, who were often Vikings, sometimes Pagan, sometimes Christian. The tales are usually realistic, except legendary sagas, sagas of saints, sagas of bishops and translated or recomposed romances. They are sometimes romanticised and fantastic, but always dealing with human beings one can understand.

Satire

Often strictly defined as a literary genre or form, although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, the purpose of satire is not primarily humour in itself so much as an attack on something of which the author strongly disapproves, using the weapon of wit. A very common, almost defining feature of satire is its strong vein of irony or sarcasm, but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. The essential point, is that "in satire, irony is militant." This "militant irony" (or sarcasm) often professes to approve (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist actually wishes to attack.

Science fiction

Science fiction is similar to fantasy, except stories in this genre use scientific understanding to explain the universe that it takes place in. It generally includes or is centered on the presumed effects or ramifications of computers or machines; travel through space, time or alternate universes; alien life-forms; genetic engineering; or other such things. The science or technology used may or may not be very thoroughly elaborated on; stories whose scientific elements are reasonably detailed, well-researched and considered to be relatively plausible given current knowledge and technology are often referred to as hard science fiction.

Slice of Life

A slice of life is a story that might have no plot, but represents a portion of (everyday) life. It uses naturalistic representation of real life, sometimes used as an adjective, as in "a play with 'slice of life' dialogue".

Speculative

Speculative fiction speculates about worlds that are unlike the real world in various important ways. In these contexts, it generally overlaps one or more of the following: science fiction, fantasy fiction, horror fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history.

Suppositional fiction is a subcategory in which stories and characters are constrained within an internally consistent world, but this category is not necessarily associated with any particular genre.[9][10][11] A work of suppositional fiction might be science fiction, alternate history, mystery, horror, or even suppositional fantasy, depending on the intent and focus of the author.

Thriller

A common theme in thrillers involves innocent victims dealing with deranged adversaries, as seen in Hitchcock's film Rebecca (1940), where Mrs. Danvers tries to persuade Mrs. De Winter to leap to her death

A Thriller is a story that is usually a mix of fear and excitement. It has traits from the suspense genre and often from the action, adventure or mystery genres, but the level of terror makes it borderline horror fiction at times as well. It generally has a dark or serious theme, which also makes it similar to drama.

Urban

Urban fiction, also known as street lit, is a literary genre set, as the name implies, in a city landscape; however, the genre is as much defined by the race and culture of its characters as the urban setting. The tone for urban fiction is usually dark, focusing on the underside. Profanity (all of George Carlin's seven dirty words and urban variations thereof), sex and violence are usually explicit, with the writer not shying away from or watering-down the material. In this respect, urban fiction shares some common threads with dystopian or survivalist fiction. In the second wave of urban fiction, some variations of this model have been seen.

Western

Stories in the Western genre are set in the American West, between the time of the Civil war and the early twentieth century.[12] The setting of a wilderness or uncivilized area is especially important to the genre, and the setting is often described richly and in-depth. They focus on the adventure of the main character(s) and the contrast between civilization or society and the untamed wilderness, often featuring the characters working to bring civilization to the wilderness.[12][13] This genre periodically overlaps with historical fiction, and while a more traditional definition of westerns is that of stories about lone men facing the frontier, more modern definitions and writings are often expanded to include any person or persons in this time period that feature a strong tone of the contrast between civilization and wilderness and emphasize the independence of the main character(s).[12]

Film and television formats and genres

See also: Film genre

Genres are listed under the sub-sectioned formats:

Animation

See also: Animation

Live-action scripted

Live-action unscripted

Other television formats

Other television-related topics

Video game genres

Genres in video games are somewhat different from other forms of art as most video game genres are based on the way in which the player interacts with the game. All genres from all other types of media can be applied to video games but are secondary to the genre types described below.

Genres unique to video games:

Music genres

The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s in preference to the earlier term hillbilly music; it came to encompass Western music, which evolved parallel to hillbilly music from similar roots, in the mid-20th century. The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres. In 2009 country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, and second most popular in the morning commute in the United States.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1198340/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ "Drama". Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. 2015. a play, movie, television show, or radio show that is about a serious subject and is not meant to make the audience laugh
  3. 1 2 Saricks, Joyce. The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. pp. 291–292. ISBN 978-0-8389-0989-8.
  4. 1 2 Orr, Cynthia. Genreflecting. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-59884-841-0.
  5. ↑ Saricks, Joyce. The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. pp. 197–198. ISBN 978-0-8389-0989-8.
  6. ↑ Orr, Cynthia. Genreflecting. pp. 129–130. ISBN 978-1-59884-841-0.
  7. 1 2 Saricks, Joyce (2009). The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Chicago: American Library Association. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-8389-0989-8.
  8. 1 2 3 Orr, Cynthia (2013). Genreflecting. California: Libraries Unlimited. pp. 229–230. ISBN 978-1-59884-841-0.
  9. ↑ Izenberg, Orin. Being Numerous: Poetry and the Ground of Social Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011; p. 210
  10. ↑ Leitch, Thomas M. What Stories Are: Narrative Theory and Interpretation University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986; p. 127
  11. ↑ Domańska, Ewa. Encounters: Philosophy of History After Postmodernism Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1998; p. 10
  12. 1 2 3 Saricks, Joyce. The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. pp. 313–314. ISBN 978-0-8389-0989-8.
  13. ↑ Orr, Cynthia. Genreflecting. pp. 208–209. ISBN 978-1-59884-841-0.
  14. ↑ McFedries, Paul. "Dramality". Word Spy. Retrieved November 30, 2011. External link in |work= (help)
  15. ↑ "Definition of dramality". MacMillan Dictionary. Retrieved November 30, 2011. External link in |work= (help)
  16. ↑ Siddle, John (June 13, 2011). "Auditions for Only Way Is Essex-type dramality show filmed in Liverpool". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  17. ↑ Hundley, Wendy (January 5, 1995). "Baring All On a Talk Show is No Way to Solve Problems". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved April 10, 2015.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/17/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.