Genre

By Prof. Marylou Schiller

“Genre is a French term derived from the Latin genus, generis, meaning "type," "sort," or
"kind." It designates the literary form or type into which works are classified according to what
they have in common, either in their formal structures or in their treatment of subject matter,
or both. The study of genres may be of value in three ways. On the simplest level, grouping
works offers us an orderly way to talk about an otherwise bewildering number of literary texts.
More importantly, if we recognize the genre of a text, we may also have a better idea of its
intended overall structure and/or subject. Finally, a genre approach can deepen our sense of
the value of any single text, by allowing us to view it comparatively, alongside many other texts
of its type.”

The way I divide literary genre into categories is to first point out the primary division or
dichotomy: the two major types of literature are PROSE and POETRY.

PROSE includes all writing which is NOT poetry. It includes all literary and everyday oral and
written narratives.

POETRY is very difficult to define. We can only establish some of its main characteristics that
distinguish it from PROSE. What most distinguishes poetry from prose is that it has (1)
rhythm. Other particularities are poetry is (2)exact[and I add here that poetry is also concise],
(3)intense, (4)significant, (5)concrete, (6)complex, and (7)formal.
These ideas on poetry have been adapted from the classical work of Donald Stauffer. The
Nature of Poetry. New York: Norton & Company (1962).

Now, perhaps most important in categorizing genre, classification according to:

FORM
(How the literary work is structured according to its intended purpose.)

POEMS have a particular form or shape different from other imaginative literary forms
because they have rhythm and other s is exact, concise], intense, significant,
concrete, complex, and formal. Poetry is probably the oldest form of literature.

NOVELS AND SHORTSTORIES have the form of long (novels) or short (short stories)
imaginative narratives (fiction) that include certain formal elements particular to
fiction. Under this category fall many different variations such as science fiction,
historical novels, romances, adventure, fables, fairy tales, etc.

DRAMAS OR THEATRICAL PLAYS is fiction or imaginative writing meant to be

performed. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical
Greek: δρᾶμα, drama), which is derived from "to do","to act" (Classical
Greek:δράω, draō). Today dramatic works include scripts for cinema and
television. The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on
a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and
a collective form of reception. The early modern tragedy Hamlet (1601)
by Shakespeare and the classical Athenian tragedyOedipus the King (c. 429 BCE)
by Sophocles are among the masterpieces of the art of drama.[3] A modern example
is Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill (1956).[4]
For more, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drama

EXPOSITORY WRITING is a type of oral or written discourse that is used to explain,

describe, give information or inform. EXPOSITION is non-fiction. This is the
kind of oral and written literature we encounter in our daily lives television news
and reports, magazine and newspaper articles, textbooks, cooking recipes,
professor´s lectures, political discourse, etc. It is based on fact, or should be. The
creator of an expository text can not assume that the reader or listener has prior
knowledge or prior understanding of the topic that is being discussed.
 For more see:http://www.stanford.edu/~arnetha/expowrite/info.html

Classification By Types of what we might call “style”

While the number of genres and their subdivisions has proliferated since classical times, the
division of the literary domain into three major genres (by Plato, Aristotle, and, later, Horace),
is still useful. These are lyric, drama, and epic, and they are distinguished by "manner of
imitation," that is, by how the characters and the action are presented. The chart briefly
summarizes the main differences in the way action and characters are presented in the lyric,
drama, and the epic.

Lyric: The poet writes
the poem as his or her
own experience; often the
poet uses first person
("I"); however, this
speaker is not necessarily
the poet but may be a
fictional character or
persona.
Drama: The characters are obviously
separate from the writer; in fact, they
generally seem to have lives of their
own and their speech reflects their
individual personalities. The writer is
present, of course, in stage directions
(which the audience isn't aware of
during a performance), and
occasionally a character acts as a
mouthpiece for the writer.
Epic: This long narrative
is primarily written in
third person. However,
the epic poet makes his
presence known,
sometimes by speaking in
first person, as when the
muses are appealed to for
inspiration (the
invocation) or by
reporting the direct
speech of the characters.

The lyric includes all the shorter forms of poetry, e.g., song, ode, ballad, elegy,sonnet.
Up to the nineteenth century, the short lyric poem was considered the least important of the
genres, but with the Romantic movement the prestige of the lyric increased considerably.
The relative brevity of the lyric leads to an emphasis upon tight formal construction and
concentrated unity. Typically, the subject matter is expressive, whether of personal
emotions, such as love or grief, or of public emotions, such as patriotism or reverence or
celebration.

Drama presents the actions and words of characters on a stage. The conventional formal
arrangement into acts and scenes derives ultimately from the practice in Greek drama of
alternating scenes of dialogue with choral sections. From classical example also comes the
standard subdivision into tragedy and comedy. Historically, many of the specific
conventions of these two types have changed. We refer, for instance, to Greek tragedy, or
to medieval tragedy, or to Shakespearean tragedy. This does not deny interrelationships
between them; rather, it emphasizes the equal importance of their distinctive features. One
thing that Greek tragedy and Shakespearean tragedy share is the "Tragic Vision."

It is helpful, in discussing plays, to have some familiarity with some basic conventions of
drama. Every play typically involves the direct presentation of actions and words by
characters on a stage. Although the structural principles are quite fluid, dramatic form often
tends to move from exposition or presentation of the dramatic situation,
throughcomplication, setting of the direction of the dramatic conflict, to a climax or turning
point (connected to Aristotle's peripeteia or "change of fortune"), and then through further
action, resolving the various complications, to the denouement or conclusion of the play.
This conventional movement in drama is not an absolute, but a tendency we observe, and
variations are frequent. ("Exposition" of character motivation, for example, need not be
limited to the first act.) It is useful to understand this conventional structure of drama so
that we can better appreciate departures from it, as well as apply it more specifically to
tragedies, as well as to comedies.

The epic, in the classical formulation of the three genres, referred exclusively to the
"poetic epic." It was of course in verse, rather lengthy (24 books in Homer, 12 books in
Virgil), and tended to be episodic. It dealt in elevated language with heroic figures (human
heroes and deities) whose exploits affected whole civilizations or even, by implication, the
whole of mankind. Its lengthiness was properly a response to the magnitude of the subject
material.

Today, we classify epics with other forms of the "mixed kind." That is, we see the classical
epic as but one of the generic subdivisions of the epic or fiction. This broader classification
can include many kinds of narratives, in prose as well as in verse. Thus the "mixed kind"
now includes the novel, the folktale, the fable, the fairy tale, even the short story and novella,
as well as the romance, which can be in either prose or verse. Of these, the novel and the
romance tend to continue the epic tradition of length (we speak of the "sweep" of a sizeable
novel).

It should be noted that the three-part division of lyric, drama, and epic or fiction, while
useful and relatively comprehensive, does not provide a place for all of the known literary
genres. Some obvious omissions are the essay, the pastoral, biography and autobiography,
and satire.

How Literary Critics Have Used Genres

Critics have employed the genre approach to literature in a number of ways. From the
Renaissance through most of the eighteenth century, for example, they often attempted to
judge a text according to what they thought of as the fixed "laws of kind," insisting upon
purity, that is, fidelity to type. Thus the placement of comic episodes in otherwise
predominantly serious works was frowned upon, and hybrid forms like tragicomedy were
dismissed. There was also a tendency to rank the genres in a hierarchy, usually with epic or
tragedy at the top, and shorter forms, such as the epigram and the subdivisions of the lyric,
at the bottom. Modern critics have a different view of genres, and are likely to point out how,
in actual practice, writers play against as well as with generic traditions and how specific
conventions are imitated or defied, modified or renovated.

Literary Genres: Conclusion

All of the arts consist of genres. To name some of the outstanding types: in painting,
there are the landscape, the still life, the portrait; in music there are the sonata, the
symphony, the song; in film we have the domestic comedy, the horror/thriller, the Western.
If students think of the forms with which they are most familiar (perhaps the film genres),
they will understand that for sophisticated appreciation, they need always to be acquainted
with the specific conventions of the type. The study of genres essentially is the study of
conventions. And in literature as in the other arts, an acquaintance with generic conventions
is critical to enriching our responses to particular texts. It is true that since we are reading
"landmarks," there will always be something marvelously unique about each great work
studied. But in each case there will also be a set of expectations connected to its type, to its
generic tradition, as well as to the Zeitgeist (the "spirit of the time") in which the work was
written.

The last two pages of this lecture are from A Guide to the Study of Literature: A
Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarks of Literature, ©English Department,
Brooklyn College.