FICTION GENRESBy: Lexi Nicholas

Poetry

• A literary work that uses concise, colorful, often rhythmic language to express ideas or emotions.

• Examples: ballad, blank verse, free verse, limerick, sonnet.

PROSE

• A literary work that uses the familiar spoken form of language, sentence after sentence.

Fairy Tales

• Literary genre that is a story, usually for children, about elves, hobgoblins, dragons, fairies, or other magical creatures

Fantasy

• Literary genre that is an imaginative or fanciful work

• Usually dealing with supernatural or unnatural events or characters

Tall Tales

• Literary genre that is an extravagantly and humorously exaggerated story of the backwoods exploits of an American frontiersman

Folk Tales

• Literary genre that is a tale or legend originating and traditional among a people or folk, especially forming part of the oral tradition of the common people

• Any belief or story passed on traditionally, especially one considered to be false or based on superstition

Fable

• Literary genre that is a brief, allegorical, narrative, in verse or prose, illustrating a moral thesis or satirizing human beings

• The characters of a fable are usually animals who talk and act like people while retaining their animal traits

Adventure

• Literary genre pertaining to an exciting or very unusual experience, participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises, a bold, usually risky undertaking, or hazardous action of uncertain outcome

Myth

• A traditional story intended to explain some mystery of nature, religious doctrine, or cultural belief

• The gods and godesses of mythology have supernatural powers, but human characters usually do not

Mystery

• Literary genre whose plot involves a crime or other event that remains unsettled until the very end

Drama

• Also called a play• This writing form uses dialogue to share its

message and is meant to be performed in front of an audience

Historical

• Literary genre pertaining to or characteristic of history or past events

• Based on or reconstructed from an event, custom, or style, in the past or having once existed or lived in the real world, as opposed to being part of legend of fiction or as distinguished from religious belief

Novel

• A book-length, fictional prose story• Because of its length, a novel’s characters and

plot are usually more developed than those of a short story

Short Story

• Shorter than a novel, this piece of literature can usually be read in one sitting

• Because of its length, it has only a few characters and focuses on one problem of conflict

Science Fiction

• Literary genre in which a background of science is an integral part of the story

• Many of the events recounted in a science fiction story are within the realm of future possibility like robots, space travel, interplanetary war, or invasions from outer space

Realistic

• Literary genre interested in, concerned with, or based on what is real or practical

• Pertaining to, characterized by, or given to the representation in literature or art of things as they really are

Comedy

• Writing that deals with life in a humorous way, often poking fun at people’s mistakes

Nonfiction GenresInformational

Literary genre that is intended for teaching and related informational purpose

Primarily intended to educate rather than entertain

Biography Literary genre that is a written account of

another person’s life

• http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=prose+children+pictures&qs=n&form=QBIRMH&pq=prose+children+pictures&sc=0-15&sp=-1&sk=&adlt=strict#a

• http://genresofliterature.com/• http://

education-portal.com/academy/lesson/literary-genres-definition-types-characteristics-examples.html

• http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/cr/rl/litrlgenres.asp• Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2013

Works Cited