Genre
"Genre" is originally a French word meaning "kind", "sort" or "type"; in grammatical terminology, it refers to the artificial concept of masculine or feminine grammatical gender (the noun "genre" itself belongs to the masculine gender in French, for example).
A genre is always a vague term with no fixed boundaries. Many works also cross into multiple genres. In general there are three types of genre:
- Those of setting, such as westerns or science fiction
- Those of mood, such as comedy or horror
- Those of format, such as musicals or non-fiction
While vague, genre is also extremely important. 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 pigeonhole into a genre are often less successful.
Genres are also divided into sub-genres. In literature, we often refer to the "poetic genres" and the "prose genres". Poetry might be subdivided into epic, lyric and dramatic, while prose might be divided into fiction and non-fiction. These can be further subdivided with dramatic poetry divided into comedy, tragedy, melodrama and so forth. This division can continue: "comedy" has its own genres, including farce, comedy of manners, burlesque, satire.
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2 Genres by field 3 Lists of media by genre 4 External links |
