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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
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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.
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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.
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