Pat Artikel Go Bi

8/2/2019 Pat Artikel Go Bi

1/3

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 werecognize 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.

Classification By Types

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 andthe 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 notnecessarily the poet but

may be a fictional

character orpersona.

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 byspeaking 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 leastimportant of the genres, but with theRomantic movementthe 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
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#odehttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#odehttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#odehttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#balladhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#balladhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#balladhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#sonnethttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#sonnethttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.htmlhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.htmlhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.htmlhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/rom.htmlhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#sonnethttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#balladhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html#ode


2/3

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, toGreek tragedy, or tomedieval tragedy, or toShakespearean

tragedy. This does not deny interrelationships between them; rather, it emphasizesthe equal importance of their distinctive features. One thing that Greek tragedy and

Shakespearean tragedy share isthe "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, through complication, setting of the direction of the dramatic

conflict, to a climax or turning point (connected to Aristotle'speripeteia or "change

of fortune"), and then through further action, resolving the various complications, to

the denouementor conclusion of the play. This conventional movement in drama isnot 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 responseto 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.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#greekhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#greekhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#greekhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#medievalhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#medievalhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#medievalhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#shhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#shhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#shhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#shhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/trag_vsn.htmlhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/trag_vsn.htmlhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/trag_vsn.htmlhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/trag_vsn.htmlhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#shhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#shhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#medievalhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#greek


3/3

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 liketragicomedywere dismissed. There was also a tendency to rank the

genres in a hierarchy, usually with epic or tragedy at the top, and shorter forms, suchas 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 mostfamiliar (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 theZeitgeist(the "spirit of the time") in which the

work was written.

Adapted fromA Guide to the Study of Literature: A Companion Text for Core Studies 6, Landmarksof Literature, English Department, Brooklyn College.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#tragicomhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#tragicomhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#tragicomhttp://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/tragedy.html#tragicom

Documents

Pat Artikel Go Bi