Genre
A
genre is a division of a particular
form of art or
utterance according to criteria particular to that form. In all art forms, genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries. Genres are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. The scope of the word "genre" is usually confined to
art and
culture. In
genre studies the concept of genre is often compared to
originality.
Genres are often divided into subgenres.
Literature, for instance, can be organized according to the "poetic genres" and the "prose genres".
Poetry might be subdivided into
epic,
lyric, and
dramatic, while
prose might be subdivided into
fiction and
non-fiction. Further subdivisions of dramatic poetry, for instance, might include
comedy,
tragedy,
melodrama, and so forth. This parsing into subgenres can continue: "comedy" has its own genres, for example, including
farce,
comedy of manners,
burlesque, and
satire.
Science Fiction has perhaps more generally recognized subgenres than many other fields of literature as a science fiction story may be firmly rooted in real scientific possibilities (See:
Hard science fiction) as they are understood at the time of writing, or be highly and speculatively imaginative tales set in an
extraterrestrial civilization for example, or in a
parallel universe, an
Alternate history, or outright
Fantasy, all recognized subgenres of science fiction. A perhaps more apt term as coined by
Robert A. Heinlein all part of,
'Speculative fiction' Thus, even fiction that depicts innovations ruled out by current scientific theory, such as stories about or based on
faster-than-light travel, may still be classified as science fiction. And more recently, the term "science fantasy" which category covers stories which have elements of both hard science and fantasy has come into play as a subgenre.
This term describes traditions for each genre. These conventions help to define each genre; for example, they differentiate between an essay and journalistic writing or an autobiography and political writing.
Although most genres are often only vaguely definable, genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read. Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding publications that support them, such as
magazines and websites. Books and movies that are difficult to categorize into a genre are often less successful commercially.
In the field of
painting, there exists a "
hierarchy of genres" associated with the
Académie française which once held a central role in
academic art. These genres in hierarchical order are:
*
History painting*
Genre painting*
Portrait painting*
Landscape painting*
Still life paintingThese categories played an important role between the
17th century and the modern era, when
painters and
critics began to rebel against the many rules of the Académie française, including the Académie's preference for history painting.
The concept of "genre" has played a notable role among
philosophers of language, figuring very prominently in the works of philosopher and literary scholar
Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin's basic observations were of "speech genres" (the idea of
heteroglossia), modes of speaking or writing that people learn to mimic, weave together, and manipulate (such as "formal letter" and "grocery list", or "university lecture" and "personal anecdote"). The work of
Georg Lukács also touches on the nature of
literary genres, appearing separately but around the same time (1920s–1930s) as Bakhtin.
*
Genre studies*
Literary genreGenre articles by field
*
Biblical genre*
Computer and video game genres*
Crime fiction*
Film genre*
Genre fiction*
Horror (genre)*
Literary genre*
Romantic fiction*
Music genre*
Spy fiction*
Webcomic genres*
Western (genre)Lists of media by genre
*
List of novelists by genre*
List of computer and video games by genre*
Helping Children Understand Literary Genres*
Genres of film at the
Internet Movie Database*
How to analyse genre
