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Julian Mueller
Professor Cunningham
English 2089
31 May 2013
The Understanding of Genre
There are many ways to look at genre and it can be shown that literature can be broken
down into three main genres as stated by Robert L. Root. The following is a quote from Robert
L. Root and Michaels Steinberg’s book titled, The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers of/on
Creative Nonfiction, “Traditionally, the study of literature has been centered on analysis and
interpretation in three genres--poetry, fiction, and drama; the study of creative writing has also
focused on those genres; and composition has become the domain of nonfiction” (Nordquist 3).
This quote can be applicable towards the basis of genre because there are many types of genre
that we have to ask ourselves how we classify a piece of work and place it in a genre. It can also
be argued that here are many more genres than just the three stated in the quote. Genre can be
defined as a “class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique,
or the like” (Dictionary.com 1).
When dealing specifically with literature, the term genre can be used to broadly
categorize a piece of work, but can give little insight to what the piece is specifically about. This
is because genre is viewed as the common denominator that all literature shares and can be
further broken down into what a writing is specifically about. To me genre is a term that is used
to broadly classify any form of literature, art, movie or work in general. From the broad term of
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genre, I see that there are many sub-genres further specifying what a piece of work is about. We
have to ask ourselves when investigating genre: how do we get to the point where we classify
what we are reading/writing? As literature continues to develop, it can be seen that texts written
will burst through different genres crossing paths and changing the way we perceive the term
genre.
The term genre has been around for many millennia, being used to classify different types
of work, not being limited to just literature. When one is regarding genre, it can be seen that
works of similar background share similar ideas and concepts. One can say that “A particular
genre works with an expected subject matter, structure, and style” (The Hutchinson Unabridged
6). One of the first specific definitions of genre was created by Aristotle who lived during the 4th
century BC. The way that he first classified genre was into three basic classes. The first style of
writing that he defined was called “lyric” (The Hutchinson Unabridged 3). This style of writing
referred to all literature works written in the first person. As one reconsiders what different
genres entail, it can be seen that lyric helped aid in the categorizing of different genres. It can be
said that “The hist. of the revaluation of genres, such as the ascendancy of lyric, is also the hist.
of the categorization of individual works and the reconfiguration of generic categories
themselves” (The New Princeton 11).
The second genre that Aristotle defined was called epic or narrative. This type of writing
was also written in the first person, but the difference between his first genre and this is that the
story is told in first person by the character. Aristotle’s third genre he defined was called drama.
This is literature in which only the characters do the talking. For example, plays would be
considered drama (The Hutchinson Unabridged 3). Even during this time period, using three
genres was too broad of a way to classify literature, so writers started to create specific sub
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categories for genres such as tragedy, comedy, and satire. This is an example of how the term
genre was too broad and needed to be better defined in order to give the reader/listener a better
understanding of the classification for a piece of literature.
As genre continues to evolve, it can be seen that it is difficult to place text under a single
genre. Instead of considering a text a certain genre, new works are crossing the boundaries over
to other genres. However this has not always been the idea of how literature should be classified.
During the Renaissance time period up until the 18th century, there was the belief that genres
should remain pure and not be mixed or categorized into other types of genre (The Hutchinson
Unabridged Encyclopedia 4). This idea of a text only being classified into one genre and not
being able to cross genres was phased out during the 1700s. During the 18th and 19th centuries, it
was seen that there was an expansion of the genre theory. The reason for this change in ideals of
writers was because many writers felt that any historically set of fixed genres would hinder the
development of new works in literature (The New Princeton 6). Many saw the expansion of
genres as inevitable and were open to the idea of writing newly developed genres and even
crossing into several different genres. Additionally there were some authors who went even
further and tried to refrain from writing in the general categories of genre. These ideas led to the
development of new styles of writing and new genres.
The idea of genre can be seen as an umbrella term that incorporates the various subcategories within a specific type of genre. A critic of literature who believes this way is Jacques
Derrida. He believes that no text can exist without generic identification, meaning that no matter
the type of literature is being written there will always be some broad general genre that it can be
categorized into. While believing that no text can exist without a general identification, he also
believes that no text can be pure. Derrida states that “genres are fundamentally contaminated by
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other genres that exist in parasitical relationship with one another, and it is, therefore, a model of
participation rather that belonging” (The Encyclopedia of Literary 4). This relates back to the
ideals shift during the late 18th century and early 19th century stating that genres do not have to
remain pure and can be mixed into one another.
Another belief that Derrida has is that genres act like laws, pre- and pro-scribing (The
Encyclopedia of Literary 4). This is an interesting idea that can be seen to be true. In order for a
piece of work to be considered a science fiction novel, there are some certain criteria or laws the
text would have to meet to be classified as such. First in order for a work to be considered a,
“novel” it has to be considered a narrative of book length. Another requirement or law for a text
to be considered sci-fi, the work would need the necessary criteria to be considered so. But at the
same time, Jacques would suggest that a science fiction novel would not be purely sci-fi and
have other genres incorporated into it as well.
As one looks more deeply into how a genre is developed, they will find that a single type
of genre incorporates several sub-genres into it. There is argument about when the genre of
science fiction was actually created. One idea is that it originates in the fantastical travel
narratives of ancient Greece or medieval quest romances (The Encyclopedia of Literary 4).
Another idea of how sci-fi came to be is that it has been recently developed by current trends and
advancements in scientific technologies. While some critics will argue that sci-fi is a genre that
has been around for a long time, since before the 19th century, others would say “Science fiction
is a genre of popular culture, commonly considered to have emerged as a literature in the West in
the nineteenth century, which addresses what it means to live in technologically saturated
societies” (The Encyclopedia of Literary 1). Whichever way one chooses to look at how sci-fi
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was originally created, there is the common idea that sci-fi was developed because of multiple
genres merging into one another.
A couple of genres that helped lead to the development of science fiction is scientific
romance and gothic romance. Scientific romance had a great impact on the development of
science fiction because scientific romance often included speculation about alternative forms of
society (Encyclopedia of American Studies 7). This concept about a futuristic idea and time is a
very prevalent in many science fiction works. Science fiction is a broad term that can be used to
describe a wide range of topics. Even one can see the differences between how American writers
and English writers approach science fiction. For example, English sci-fi writers’ often included
ideas that contained anti-cultural and even antihuman topics. On the other hand, American sci-fi
topics often related to the successes of engineers and scientists during the time period. This is
another way showing how science fiction works contained different ideas and genres which led
to the development of this genre.
A second genre that has been influenced by another genre is fantasy. When analyzing
what the genre fantasy is about, one can see that there are several types of genre incorporated
into what fantasy is. Some of the more common genres seen in fantasy are adventure, horror and
most prevalent science fiction. As discussed earlier, science fiction was created because of the
presence of other genres helping to develop it. This is a similar case when talking about fantasy.
One of the characteristics that make fantasy what it is, is that events occur outside the ordinary
laws that operate within the universe (The Fantasy Genre 1). The main way fantasy can operate
this way is because magic is central to the fantasy genre. The aspect about events occurring
outside the universe laws is very similar to how sci-fi stories are told. Science fiction is able to
do this because the wonders of technology allow them to do so.
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Another similarity that fantasy and sci-fi stories share is that often times there is a portal
between worlds. A good example of a fantasy passing through a portal going to a different
dimension would be the Harry Potter series. In these stories, J.K. Rowling takes the reader from
the world you and I know and sends them to a magical place that can only be accessed through a
portal, which in this case is platform 9 and ¾. Portal jumping is something similar that can be
seen in science fiction too, but usually it is based off the miracles of science. This idea that
fantasy has events happen outside the ordinary laws of the universe is something that is shared
by science fiction which makes fantasy and science fiction for that matter not a “pure” genre.
As one can see there are many different forms of genre, each form incorporating their
own ideas and characteristics into one another. After doing research and the weekly assignments,
I feel that I have gained a better understanding of what genre means to me. From the research
that I have conducted for our weekly assignments and this essay, I have found that the idea that a
genre is, “pure” where it does not share any aspect with another genre is nonexistent. Every
genre that exists has been influenced by another genre in one way or another. Even the earlier
genres such as lyric, epic or narrative, and drama stated by Aristotle during 4th BC can be seen as
sharing certain characteristics. The early notions declared during the Renaissance that genres
were seen as fixed literary types and should remain “pure” has been broken. As literature
continues to develop, we the reader will only continue to see the mixing of genres into one
another.
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Works Cited
Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 27 May. 2013. <Dictionary.com
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genre>.
Encyclopedia of American Studies. :Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010. Credo Reference.
Web. 19 May 2013.
Nordquist, Richard. “Genre.” About.com. 13 May 2013.
<http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/genreterm.htm>.
The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory. Hoboken: Wiley, 2011. Credo Reference.
Web. 14 May 2013.
The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory. Hoboken: Wiley, 2011. Credo Reference.
Web. 19 May 2013.
“The Fantasy Genre.” Children’s Literature Classics. 20 May 2013.
<http://childliterature.net/childlit/fantasy/>.
The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather guide. Abington: Helicon,
2010. Credo Reference. Web. 14 May 2013.
The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2012. Credo Reference. Web. 14 May 2013.