Genres of Literature

 Writing genres or literary genres are determined by

narrative tone, content, and by critic’s definitions of
the genres.
 Genre is a label that characterizes elements a reader
can expect in a work of literature
 The major forms of literature can be written in various
genres, categorized by similarities in style or subject
matter.
Characteristics of the Poetry Genre
 Has stanzas and verses (form and structure)
 Typically evokes strong emotion in the reader
 Predominant use of words and images that appeal to
the senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell
Genres of Literature
 Two basic genres of literature
 Fiction
 Non-fiction
Fiction
 Fiction is the classification for any story created by the
imagination and, therefore, not based strictly on history or fact.
 The term originally and most commonly refers to the major
narrative forms of literature, including the novel, novella, short
story, and play.
 Fiction constitutes an act of creative invention, so that
faithfulness to reality is not typically assumed; in other words,
fiction is not expected to present only characters who are actual
people or descriptions that are factually true.
 The context of fiction is generally open to interpretation, due to
fiction's freedom from any necessary embedding in reality;
however, some fictional works are claimed to be, or marketed as,
historically or factually accurate, complicating the traditional
distinction between fiction and non-fiction.
Common Genres of Fiction:
Classified by Form
 Classic – fiction that has become part of an accepted literary canon, widely taught in
schools
 Comic Book – scripted fiction told visually in artist drawn pictures, usually in panels and
speech bubbles
 Drama – stories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical performance, where
conflicts and emotion are expressed through dialogue and action
 Fanfiction – fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV
series, movie, etc.
 Fiction in verse – full-length novels with plot, subplot(s), theme(s), major and minor
characters, in which the narrative is presented in verse form (usually free verse)
 Fiction narrative – literary works whose content is produced by the imagination and is
not necessarily based on fact
 Historical fiction – story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting
 and natural phenomena by its symbolism; often pertaining to the actions of the gods
 Realistic fiction – story that is true to life
 Short story – fiction of such brevity that it supports no subplots
 Novels
Common Genres of Fiction:
Classified by Content
 Crime/detective – fiction about a crime, how the criminal gets caught, and the repercussions of the crime
 Fable – narration demonstrating a useful truth, especially in which animals speak as humans; legendary, supernatural
tale
 Fantasy – fiction with strange or otherworldly settings or characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality
 Folklore – the songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a people or "folk" as handed down by word of mouth
 Horror – fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread and sometimes fear in both the characters and the reader
 Humour – Usually a fiction full of fun, fancy, and excitement, meant to entertain and sometimes cause intended
laughter; but can be contained in all genres
 Legend – story, sometimes of a national or folk hero, that has a basis in fact but also includes imaginative material
 Magical realism – story where magical or unreal elements play a natural part in an otherwise realistic environment
 Mystery – this is fiction dealing with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets
 Mythology – legend or traditional narrative, often based in part on historical events, that reveals human behavior
 Science fiction – story based on impact of actual, imagined, or potential science, usually set in the future or on other
planets
 Suspense/thriller – fiction about harm about to befall a person or group and the attempts made to evade the harm
 Western – set in the American Old West frontier and typically set in the late eighteenth to late nineteenth century
Non-Fiction
 Nonfiction or non-fiction is content (often, in the form of a
story) whose creator, in good faith, assumes responsibility
for the truth or accuracy of the events, people, and/or
information presented. In contrast, a story whose creator
explicitly leaves open if and how the work refers to reality is
usually classified as fiction.
 Common literary examples of nonfiction include
expository, argumentative, functional, and opinion pieces;
essays on art or literature; biographies; memoirs;
journalism; and historical, scientific, technical, or
economic writings (including electronic ones)
Common Genres: Non-Fiction
 Biography/autobiography – narrative of a person's life; a
true story about a real person
 Essay – a short literary composition that reflects the
author's outlook or point.
 Journalism – reporting on news and current events
 Memoir – factual story that focuses on a significant
relationship between the writer and a person, place, or
object; reads like a novel
 Narrative nonfiction/personal narrative – factual
information about a significant event presented in a format
which tells a story
 Speech – public address or discourse
 Poetry
 In some ways, creative nonfiction is like jazz—it’s a
rich mix of flavors, ideas, and techniques, some of
which are newly invented and others as old as writing
itself. Creative nonfiction can be an essay, a journal
article, a research paper, a memoir, or a poem; it can be
personal or not, or it can be all of these.
- Lee Gutkind, Creative Non-fiction
Background
 Creative nonfiction (also known as literary nonfiction
or narrative nonfiction) is a genre of writing that uses
literary styles and techniques to create factually
accurate narratives.
 Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction,
such as academic or technical writing or journalism,
which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not written
to entertain based on writing style or florid prose.
 As a genre, creative nonfiction is still relatively young,
and is only beginning to be scrutinized with the same
critical analysis given to fiction and poetry.
 The words “creative” and
“nonfiction” describe the form.
 The word “creative” refers to the
use of literary craft, the
techniques fiction writers,
playwrights, and poets employ
to present nonfiction—factually
accurate prose about real people
and events—in a compelling,
vivid, dramatic manner.
 The goal is to make nonfiction
stories read like fiction so that
your readers are as enthralled by
fact as they are by fantasy.
The Critic
 a person who judges the merits of literary, artistic, or
musical works, especially one who does so
professionally.
What does a film critic do?
 Examines how a director has put together a movie
about a particular subject

 Analyzes what works and what doesn’t.

 Offers an opinion as to whether seeing the movie is

successful/valuable/worth seeing

 Critiques not just the topic of the movie, but how the
director treats that topic.
Why the critical essay?
 It can improve critical thinking skills
 It can help understand the complexities of the field
 It can allow participation in discussions about your
field
 A critical essay is a composition that offers an analysis,
interpretation, and/or evaluation of a text.

 Usually intended for an academic audience, a critical

essay often takes the form of an argument. Educators J.
Richards and T. Farrell remind us that in this context
"the word critical does not connote negativity as it
does in everyday conversation; rather, it is used in its
original Greek meaning, 'to separate' and 'to discern'"
(Professional Development for Language Teachers,
2005).
The Critical Essay
 What is it?
 How does it differ from other types of essays?
 How do we read one?
 How do we write one?
 Critiquing the treatment rather than the topic is an
important distinction for writing a critical essay.
Topic vs Treatment
 Example: Twilight
 Topic: Teen vampire romance between Bella and
Edward.
 Topic analysis:
 Edward is creepy, a 150 year old vampire trying to court a
17 year old girl.
 Bella was a fool to marry Edward; she should have
chosen Jacob.
 This only addresses the topic, and not how the director
treated the topic
Topic vs Treatment
 Treatment
 How did the creator portray the subject of vampires? Of
romance?

 Example: Twilight shows the teenage fascination with

“darkness” as a teenage fantasy about being with a
perpetually-handsome, always attentive young man for
the rest of their life.
 This is a possible critique, not about vampirism itself, but of
the message being relayed in the film.
 The Critical Essay is similar to a film critique.
 Instead of watching a movie, we read a text.
 Instead of critiquing the work of the director, we
critique the work of the author.

 Remember:
 Critique TREATMENT, not topic.
 Critique THEME, not subject
 Example: Extra-Judicial Killings

 The critical essay does not just discuss the subject…

 Extra-judicial killing is wrong
 The critical essay discusses how the author has treated the
topic.
 The essay presents a well-supported argument about the
negative effects of extra-judicial killings
 The essay fails to address several instances of killings being
legal (because of self-defense)
 It becomes an analysis of what the essay wrote about extra-
judicial killings
Critical Reading
 The most characteristic features of critical reading are:

 examine the evidence or arguments presented;

 check out any influences on the evidence or
arguments;
 check out the limitations of study design or focus;
 examine the interpretations made; and
 decide to what extent you are prepared to accept the
authors’ arguments, opinions, or conclusions.
Key parts of a critical essay
 Identify the following:
 What is the topic?
 What is the writer’s position on the topic?
 What is your position on the writer’s position?

 Your position on the writer’s position is the essence of

a critical essay.
 But before you can have a position, you have to
understand what the writer is trying to say.
What is the topic?
 What is the subject of the essay?
 What are the themes discussed in the essay?

 Additionally…
 What do you know about the topic?
 What else have you read about the topic?
 What other perspectives are there regarding the topic?
 Why is the topic important?
What is the writer’s position on the
topic?
 Who is the writer?
 Does he have affiliations? Motivations? Biases? Ulterior
Motives?
 What is his/her tone?
 Is he approving? Distrustful? Sarcastic?
 What are his/her main points?
 Make sure you know them, point by point.
 How does she explain them?
 Is her position clear? Logical? Believable?
 How does she support them?
 Does she give evidence? Are they credible?
What’s your position?
 Are you convinced with what the writer said? Do you
agree? Why or why not?
 Once we have considered the writer’s position, we can
proceed to the critical essay.
 A critical essay is an analysis of a text such as a book, film,
article, or painting. The goal of this type of paper is to offer
a text or an interpretation of some aspect of a text or to
situate the text in a broader context.
 For example, a critical analysis of a book might focus on the
tone of the text to determine how that tone influences the
meaning of the text overall.
 Or, a critical analysis of a film might focus on the
significance of a recurring symbol in the film. Regardless, a
critical essay should include an argumentative thesis about
the text and plenty of textual evidence sources to help
support your interpretation of the text
Steps in writing a critical essay
 Perform a critical reading of your source(s). A
critical essay assignment asks you to evaluate a book,
an article, a movie, a painting, or some other type of
text.
 In order to perform a critical analysis of any text, you
need to become very familiar with the primary text.
Get to know the text inside and out by reading and
rereading it. If you have been asked to write about a
visual text like a film or piece of art, watch the film
multiple times or view the painting from various
angles and distances.
 Take notes as you read your text. Taking notes as you
read will help your to remember important aspects of the
text, and it will also help you to think critically about the
text. Keep some key questions in mind as you read and
attempt to answer those questions through your notes.
 What is the text about?
 What are the main ideas?
 What is puzzling about the text?
 What is the purpose of this text?
 Does the text accomplish its purpose? If not, why not? Is
so, how so?[
 Review your notes to identify patterns and problems.
After you have finished reading and taking notes on your
text, look over your notes to determine what patterns are
present in the text and what problems stand out to you. Try
to identify a solution to one of the problems you have
identified. For example, you may notice that Frankenstein's
monster is often more likable than Doctor Frankenstein,
and make an educated guess about why this is.
 Your solution to the problem should help you to develop a
focus for your essay, but keep in mind that you do not need
to have a solid argument about your text at this point. As
you continue to think about the text, you will move closer
to a focus and a thesis for your critical analysis essay.
 Find appropriate secondary sources if required. If you are
required to use sources for your critical essay, you will need to do
some research. See your assignment guidelines or ask your
instructor if you have questions about what types of sources are
appropriate for this assignment.
 Books, articles from scholarly journals, magazine articles,
newspaper articles, and trustworthy websites are some sources
that you might consider using.
 Use your library’s databases rather than a general internet search.
University libraries subscribe to many databases. These
databases provide you with free access to articles and other
resources that you cannot usually gain access to by using a search
engine.
 Evaluate your sources to determine their
credibility. It is important to use only trustworthy
sources in an academic essay, otherwise you will
damage your own credibility as an author. Using the
library’s databases will also help to ensure that you are
getting plenty of trustworthy sources for your paper.
 Develop your tentative thesis or main idea Once
you have developed your ideas about your primary
source and read your primary sources, you should be
ready to write a thesis statement. Effective thesis
statements express the main focus of a paper and state
an arguable claim. You may find it helpful to use a
multi-sentence thesis statement, where the first
sentence offers the general idea and the second
sentence refines it to a more specific idea
 Begin your essay with an engaging sentence that
gets right into your topic. Your introduction should
immediately begin discussing your topic. Think about
what you will discuss in your essay to help you
determine what you should include in your
introduction. Keep in mind that your introduction
should identify the main idea of your critical essay and
act as a preview to your essay.
 Provide background information to help guide
your readers. Providing adequate background
information or context will help to guide your readers
through your essay. Think about what your readers will
need to know in order to understand the rest of your
essay and provide this information in your first
paragraph. This information will vary depending on
the type of text you have been asked to write about
 Use your body paragraphs to discuss specific
components of your text. Rather than trying to talk
about multiple aspects of your text in a single paragraph,
make sure that each body paragraph focuses on a single
aspect of your text. Your discussion of each of these aspects
should contribute to proving your thesis.
 For each body paragraph, you should do the following:
Provide a claim at the beginning of the paragraph.
 Support your claim with at least one example from your
primary source(s).
 Support your claim with at least one example from your
secondary sources.
 Develop a conclusion for your essay. Your conclusion should
emphasize what you have attempted to show your readers about
your text. `Before you write your conclusion, spend some time
reflecting on what you have written so far and try to determine
the best way to end your essay. There are several good options for
ending an academic essay that might help you decide how to
format your conclusion. For example, you might: Summarize and
review your main ideas about the text.
 Explain how the topic affects the reader.
 Explain how your narrow topic applies to a broader theme or
observation.
 Call the reader to action or further exploration on the topic.
 Present new questions that your essay introduced.
Example Critical Essay: Analysis of
Babycakes
 Analysis of BABYCAKES by Neil Gaiman

 This story opens with the line, ‘A few years back all the animals went away.’ And
this sets you up with everything you need to know.

 No one knows how or why the animals vanished; they just weren’t around
anymore. Someone points out that life shouldn’t change just because the
animals have gone. There is no reason to change eating habits, or stop product
testing.

 We still have babies.

 So babies replace animals. They’re eaten, ‘Baby flesh is tender and succulent.’
Their skin is flayed and worn, ‘Baby leather is soft and comfortable.’ They are
tested on, and everything goes back to normal. Until… ‘Yesterday, all the babies
were gone.’
Example Critical Essay: Analysis of
Babycakes
 I think this story is a great narration on humanity, with
an excellent first line that sucks you in immediately.
It’s especially relevant now considering the
controversial Palm Oil industry. With only 6,000
orang-utans left in the world, this story is scarily
familiar.
 This story makes you think. The thoughts it conjures
towards the end last longer than the 500-odd words it
takes to tell. Humans treat animals like tools or
ingredients for their own satisfaction. But when does it
go too far? As the author writes, ‘Babies can’t talk.
They can hardly move. A baby is not a rational,
thinking creature.’ If this is true for animals, how long
before we can shift the thinking onto babies?
 I would hope that the target audience is the thinking
person. Neil Gaiman wrote it for a publication to
benefit PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals). It is quite disturbing, and as someone who
wears leather and eats meat it doesn't come across as
preachy. It makes you step back and think about
things. I hope it does anyway.
Example Critical Essay: Analysis of
Babycakes
 Tension is successfully created with the way the author
writes. He puts important lines in their own
paragraphs – and there are many of them.

 The conflict is the human way of life. It’s not

sustainable, and something needs to change. After
animals, babies are the next most vulnerable. Humans
see the small picture and can’t see in the end they are
destroying themselves.
 The plot is believable because he’s making a point, and
okay, perhaps people won’t go so far as to eat babies.
Nothing is resolved at the end but I don’t think it is
meant to be. You’re left on the edge – thinking. This
story haunts you.

 This short story is perfect for what it is, and what it was
written for.
Sample of Satire
 Satire is a genre of literature, and sometimes graphic
and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses,
and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with
the intent of shaming individuals, corporations,
government or society itself, into improvement.
 Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its
greater purpose is often constructive social criticism,
using wit to draw attention to both particular and
wider issues in society.
 A feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm; but
parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition,
comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all
frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This
"militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve
of (or at least accept as natural) the very things the
satirist wishes to attack.
 Satire is nowadays found in many artistic forms of
expression, including literature, plays, commentary,
television shows, and media such as lyrics.
 Laughter is not an essential component of satire; in
fact there are types of satire that are not meant to be
"funny" at all. Conversely, not all humour, even on
such topics as politics, religion or art is necessarily
"satirical", even when it uses the satirical tools of irony,
parody, and burlesque.

 Even light-hearted satire has a serious "after-taste": the

organizers of the Ig Nobel Prize describe this as "first
make people laugh, and then make them think"
 Satire is a diverse genre which is complex to classify
and define, with a wide range of satiric "modes“
Differences: Parody and Satire
 A Parody (sometimes referred to
as a spoof) is essentially
imitative work. It uses the
skeleton of an original work and
adds its own comedic elements
that strive towards either
exaggerating the flaws of the
original work or trivializing it, or
in some cases both.
 There are many examples of
parodies out in the mainstream
media right now. There are also
channels on YouTube entirely
dedicated to building parodies
of hit videos and movies.
Sample Parody Video
Differences: Parody and Satire
 Although the three devices mentioned here
might share some fundamental elements, they
are meant to serve very distinct purposes in
the art of storytelling

 A Satire on the other hand uses irony, and in

some cases, exaggeration to expose vices and
shortcomings of an entity, be it an individual
or a complex and interdependent system such
as our society. Humor might be part of it, but
the end result is almost never funny. It is used
to elicit thinking and realization in the
audience.
 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift is
considered one of the best satirical works in
English literature. Some contemporary
examples of satire would be shows like The
Colbert Report, The Daily Show, etc. where the
hosts use humor to provide social commentary
on issues that currently plague the society.
Sample Satire Video
Types of Satire
Types of Satires: Horatian
 Horatian satire, named for the
Roman satirist Horace (65–8 BCE),
playfully criticizes some social vice
through gentle, mild, and light-
hearted humour.
 Horace wrote Satires to gently
ridicule the dominant opinions and
"philosophical beliefs of ancient
Rome and Greece" (Rankin).
 Rather than writing in harsh or
accusing tones, he addressed issues
with humor and clever mockery.
Horatian satire follows this same
pattern of "gently ridiculing the
absurdities and follies of human
beings" (Drury).
Types of Satires: Juvenalian
 Juvenalian satire, named for the writings
of the Roman satirist Juvenal (late first
century – early second century AD), is
more contemptuous and abrasive than
the Horatian.
 Juvenal disagreed with the opinions of
the public figures and institutions of the
Republic and actively attacked them
through his literature. "He utilized the
satirical tools of exaggeration and parody
to make his targets appear monstrous
and incompetent" (Podzemny).
 Juvenal satire follows this same pattern
of abrasively ridiculing societal
structures. Juvenal also, unlike Horace,
attacked public officials and
governmental organizations through his
satires, regarding their opinions not just
as wrong, but as evil.
 Following in this tradition, Juvenalian satire addresses
perceived social evil through scorn, outrage, and
savage ridicule. This form is often pessimistic,
characterized by the use of irony, sarcasm, moral
indignation and personal invective, with less emphasis
on humor. Strongly polarized political satire can often
be classified as Juvenalian.
 Types of satire can also be classified according to the topics
it deals with. From the earliest times, at least since ancient
Greece and Rome, the primary topics of literary satire have
been politics, religion and sex.
 This is partly because these are the most pressing
problems that affect anybody living in a society, and partly
because these topics are usually taboo.
 Among these, politics in the broader sense is considered
the pre-eminent topic of satire. Satire which targets the
clergy is a type of political satire, while religious satire is
that which targets religious beliefs.
Elements of Satire
Hyperbole
 Also called
exaggeration
 In satire, hyperbole
is used to make an
idea or situation
seem ridiculous by
taking it to the
extreme
Elements of Satire
Reversal
 Presenting the
opposite of what
people are used to
experiencing
 Makes the
audience think
about what they
consider “normal,”
and why
Elements of Satire
Parody
 Imitating someone
for comedic effect
 Often includes the
use of other
techniques
(hyperbole, irony,
etc.)
Elements of Satire
Incongruity
 Putting things
together that
normally wouldn’t
go together
 This can be used to
make ordinary
things seem
ridiculous
Elements of Satire
 Irony
 Using words in a way
that conveys the
opposite of their
literal meaning
 Can be used to show
difference between
appearance and
reality
Elements of Satire
Sarcasm
 Like irony, but
more “mean”
 Usually used to
mock a person,
situation, or idea
Sarcasm Video
Elements of Satire
 Understatement
 Like hyperbole,
this is a type of
exaggeration
 Can be used to
make a situation or
idea seem less
important than it
really is
Potential Problems with Satire
 Misunderstanding: Audience may think the satirist
is being serious

 Misuse: People hide behind the idea of satire to get

away with saying really stupid and cruel things

 Missing the Point: Too much satire can distract the

audience from the “real” message
When analyzing satire, consider:
SOAPS
 Subject: What is the main idea?

 Occasion: What event/trend is the author reacting to?

 Audience: What person/group is the satire targeting?

 Purpose: What is the “real” message behind the satire?

 Speaker: How does the author create credibility? Why

should we trust this person?
 Purpose: What is the “real” message behind the
satire?

 Speaker: How does the author create credibility? Why

should we trust this person?