Genres of Literature

Genres of literature are important to learn about. The two main categories separating the
different genres of literature are fiction and nonfiction. There are several genres of literature
that fall under the nonfiction category. Nonfiction sits in direct opposition to fiction.
Examples from both the fiction and nonfiction genres of literature are explained in detail
below. This detailed genres of literature list is a great resource to share with any scholars.
Types of Nonfiction:
Narrative Nonfiction is information based on fact that is presented in a format which tells
a story.
Essays are a short literary composition that reflects the authors outlook or point. A short
literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic,
speculative, or interpretative.
A Biography is a written account of another persons life.
An Autobiography gives the history of a persons life, written or told by that person. Often
written in Narrative form of their persons life.
Speech is the faculty or power of speaking; oral communication; ability to express ones
thoughts and emotions by speech, sounds, and gesture. Generally delivered in the form of
an address or discourse.
Finally there is the general genre of Nonfiction. This is Informational text dealing with an
actual, real-life subject. This genre of literature offers opinions or conjectures on facts and
reality. This includes biographies, history, essays, speech, and narrative non fiction.
Nonfiction opposes fiction and is distinguished from those fiction genres of literature like
poetry and drama which is the next section we will discuss.
Genres of Fiction:

Drama is the genre of literature thats subject for compositions is dramatic art in the way it
is represented. This genre is stories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical
performance, where conflicts and emotion are expressed through dialogue and action.
Poetry is verse and rhythmic writing with imagery that evokes an emotional response from
the reader. The art of poetry is rhythmical in composition, written or spoken. This genre of
literature is for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.
Fantasy is the forming of mental images with strange or other worldly settings or
characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality.
Humor is the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical. Fiction full of fun, fancy, and
excitement which meant to entertain. This genre of literature can actually be seen and
contained within all genres.
A Fable is a story about supernatural or extraordinary people Usually in the form of
narration that demonstrates a useful truth. In Fables, animals often speak as humans that
are legendary and supernatural tales.
Fairy Tales or wonder tales are a kind of folktale or fable. Sometimes the stories are about
fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children.
Science Fiction is a story based on impact of potential science, either actual or imagined.
Science fiction is one of the genres of literature that is set in the future or on other planets.
Short Story is fiction of such briefness that is not able to support any subplots.
Realistic Fiction is a story that can actually happen and is true to real life.
Folklore are songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a person of folk that was handed down
by word of mouth. Folklore is a genre of literature that is widely held, but false and based on
unsubstantiated beliefs.
Historical Fiction is a story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting.

Horror is an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by literature that is frightfully

shocking, terrifying, or revolting. Fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread in both the
characters and the reader.
A Tall Tale is a humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the
impossible with an here of nonchalance.
Legend is a story that sometimes of a national or folk hero. Legend is based on fact but also
includes imaginative material.
Mystery is a genre of fiction that deals with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of
secrets. Anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown.
Mythology is a type of legend or traditional narrative. This is often based in part on
historical events, that reveals human behavior and natural phenomena by its symbolism;
often pertaining to the actions of the gods. A body of myths, as that of a particular people or
that relating to a particular person.
Fiction in Verse is full-length novels with plot, subplots, themes, with major and minor
characters. Fiction of verse is one of the genres of literature in which the narrative is usually
presented in blank verse form.
The genre of Fiction can be defined as narrative literary works whose content is produced
by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact. In fiction something is feigned,
invented, or imagined; a made-up story.
enre Definition
Genre means the type of art, literature or music characterized by a specific form, content
and style. For example, literature has four main genres; poetry, drama, fiction and nonfiction. All of these genres have particular features and functions that distinguish them from
one another. Hence, it is necessary on the part of readers to know which category of genre
they are reading in order to understand the message it conveys, as they may have certain
expectations prior to the reading concerned.

Types of Genre
There are five types of genres in literature, which include:
Poetry
Poetry is the first major literary genre. All types of poetry share specific characteristics. In
fact, poetry is a form of text that follows a meter and rhythm with each lines and syllables. It
is further subdivided into different genres such an epic poem, narrative, romantic, dramatic,
and lyric. Dramatic poetry includesmelodrama, tragedy and comedy, while other poems
includes ode, sonnet, elegy, ballad, song and epics. Popular examples of epic poems
are Paradise Lost by John Milton, The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer and romantic poem
includes, Red Red Rose by Robert Burns etc. All these poetic forms share specific features
such as they do not follow paragraphs or sentences; they use stanzas and lines instead.
Some forms follow very strict rules of length and number of stanzas and lines such
as villanelle, sonnet and haiku etc. while some may be free like a free verse poem Feelings,
Now by Katherine Foreman that is devoid of any regular meter and rhyme scheme. Besides
that, often poetry usesfigurative language like metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, hyperbole,
and alliteration, etc. to create heightened effects.
Drama
Drama is a form of text that is performed in front of an audience. It is also called a play. Its
written text contains dialogues, and stage directions. This genre has further categories such
as comedy, tragedy,tragicomedy etc. William Shakespeare is known as the father of English
drama. His well-known plays include Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet, while
Greek playwrights were the pioneers in this field such as Sophocles masterpiece is Oedipus
Rex and Antigone, while modern dramas includeDeath of a Salesman by Arthur Miller etc.
Prose
It is a kind of written text different from poetry in that it has complete sentences organized
into paragraphs. Unlike poetry, prose focuses on characters and plot than focusing on
sounds. It includes short stories and novels, while fiction and non-fiction are its sub genres.
Prose is further categorized into essays, speeches, sermons and interpretations.

Fiction
Fiction has three categories that are, realistic, non-realistic and semi-fiction. Usually, fiction
work is not real and therefore, authors can use complex figurative language to touch
readers imagination. Unlike poetry, it is more structured, follows proper grammatical
pattern and correct mechanics. A fictional work may incorporate fantastical and imaginary
ideas

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popular examples of literary fiction include, James Joyces novel A Portrait of an Artist as a
Young Man, Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities, Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice,
and Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird, etc.
Non-Fiction
Non-fiction is a vast category that also has sub-genres; it could be creative like
personal essay, and factual like scientific paper. It may also use figurative language,
however, not abundantly like poetry, or fiction has. Sometimes, it may tell a story like
autobiography, or sometimes it may convey the information to the readers. Other examples
of non-fiction include biographies, diaries, memoirs, journals, fantasies, mysteries and
romances. The popular example of non-fiction genre is Michael Pollans highly celebrated
book, The Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which is an account about
eating habits of Americans.
Function of Genre
Depending upon their types, different genres have different roles. For example, fiction and
dramatic genres help students and writers learn and improve their communication skills. A
poetic genre, on the other hand, enhances imaginative and emotional power of the readers.
Non-fictional texts and essays help readers develop analytical and persuasive capabilities.
However, the major function of genre is to establish a code of behavior between the writers
and audience, and keep the readers informed about the topics discussed or the themes
presented.

Elements of Fiction
Characterization is a means by which writers present and reveal characters by
direct description, by showing the character in action, or by the presentation of
other characters who help to define each other.
Characters in fiction can be conveniently classified as major and minor, static and
dynamic. A major character is an important figure at the center of the storys action
or theme. The major character is sometimes called a protagonist whose conflict with
an antagonist may spark the storys conflict. Supporting the major character are
one or more secondary or minor characters whose function is partly to illuminate
the major characters. Minor characters are often static or unchanging: they remain
the same from the beginning of a work to the end. Dynamic characters, on the other
hand, exhibit some kind of change of attitude, purpose, behavior, as the story
progresses.
Irony is not so much an element of fiction as a pervasive quality in it. It may appear
in fiction in three ways: in a works language, in its incidents, or in its point of view.
But in whatever form it emerges, irony always involves a contrast or discrepancy
between one thing and another. The contrast may be between what is said and
what is meant (verbal irony), what is expected to happen and what actually
happens (situational irony) or between what a character believes or says and what
the reader understands to be true (dramatic irony).
Plot, the action element in fiction, is the arrangement of events that make up a
story. Many fictional plots turn on a conflict, or struggle between opposing forces,
that is usually resolved by the end of the story. Typical fictional plots begin with an
exposition, that provides background information needed to make sense of the
action, describes the setting, and introduces the major characters; these plots
develop a series of complications or intensifications of the conflict that lead to a
crisis or moment of great tension. The conflict may reach a climax or turning point,
a moment of greatest tension that fixes the outcome; then, the action falls off as
the plots complications are sorted out and resolved (the resolution or dnouement).
Be aware, however, that much of twentieth-century fiction does not exhibit such
strict formality of design.
Point of view refers to who tells the story and how it is told. The possible ways of
telling a story are many, and more than one point of view can be worked into a
single story. However, the various points of view that storytellers draw upon can be
grouped into two broad categories: Third-Person Narrator (uses pronouns he, she, or
they): 1. Omniscient: The narrator is all-knowing and takes the reader inside the
characters thoughts, feelings, and motives, as well as shows what the characters
say and do. 2. Limited omniscient: The narrator takes the reader inside one (or at
most very few characters) but neither the reader nor the character(s) has access to

the inner lives of any of the other characters in the story. 3. Objective: The narrator
does not see into the mind of any character; rather he or she reports the action and
dialogue without telling the reader directly what the characters feel and think. FirstPerson Narrator (uses pronoun I): The narrator presents the point of view of only one
characters consciousness, which limits the narrative to what the first-person
narrator knows, experiences, infers, or can find out by talking to other characters.
Setting is the physical and social context in which the action of a story occurs. The
major elements of setting are the time, the place, and the social environment that
frames the characters. These elements establish the world in which the characters
act. Sometimes the setting is lightly sketched, presented only because the story has
to take place somewhere and at some time. Often, however, the setting is more
important, giving the reader the feel of the people who move through it. Setting can
be used to evoke a mood or atmosphere that will prepare the reader for what is to
come.
Style is the way a writer chooses words (diction), arranges them in sentences and
longer units of discourse (syntax) and exploits their significance. Style is the verbal
identity of a writer, as unmistakable as his or her face or voice. Reflecting their
individuality, writers styles convey their unique ways of seeing the world.
A symbol is a person, object, image, word, ore vent that evokes a range of
additional meanings beyond and usually more abstract than its literal significance.
Symbols are devices for evoking complex ideas without having to resort to
painstaking explanations. Conventional symbols have meanings that are widely
recognized by a society or culture, i.e., the Christian cross, the Star of David, a
swastika, a nations flag. A literary or contextual symbol can be a setting, a
character, action, object, name, or anything else in a specific work that maintains
its literal significance while suggesting other meanings. For example, the white
whale in Melvilles Moby Dick takes on multiple symbolic meanings in the work, but
these meanings do not automatically carry over into other stories about whales.
Theme is the central idea or meaning of a story. Theme in fiction is rarely presented
at all; it is abstracted from the details of character and action that compose the
story. It provides a unifying point around which the plot, characters, setting, point of
view, symbols, and other elements of a story are organized. Be careful to
distinguish theme from plot the storys sequence of actions and from subject
what the story is generally about.
Tone is the authors implicit attitude toward the reader, subject, and/or the people,
places, and events in a work as revealed by the elements of the authors style. Tone
may be characterized as serious or ironic, sad or happy, private of public, angry or
affectionate, bitter or nostalgic, or any other attitudes and feelings that human
beings experience.

Non-Fiction is prose writing that presents and explains ideas or

that tells about real people, places, objects, or events. It is an
account or representation of a subject which is presented as fact.
This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a
true or a false account of the subject in question. However, it is
generally assumed that the authors of such accounts believe them
to be truthful at the time of their composition. Autobiographies,
biographies, essays, reports, letters, memos, and newspaper articles
are all types of nonfiction.

Characteristics of Non-Fiction
Works of nonfiction differ from works of fiction in several ways.

The people, events, places, and ideas presented in nonfiction

are real, not invented.

Nonfiction is narrated by an author who is a real person.

It presents facts, describes true-life experiences, or discusses

ideas.

Nonfiction is written for a specific audience, or group of

readers. In addition, it addresses a clear purpose, or reason
for writing. The audience and purpose influence the type of
information a writer includes.

Tone, the authors attitude toward the subject or reader, is

displayed through the writers word choice and style.