reader or viewer for action to come” (Source
“Used to designate the types or categories into which literary works are grouped according to form, technique, or, sometimes, subject matter. The French term means “kind,” “genus,” or “type.” The traditional genres include tragedy, comedy, epic, lyric, and pastoral. Today a division of literature into genres would also include novel, short story, essay, television play, and motion picture scenario. [. . .] Critics today frequently regard genre distinctions as useful descriptive devices but rather arbitrary ones. Genre boundaries have been much subject to flux and blur in recent times, and it is almost the rule that a successful work will combine genres in some original way” (Source
The related term genre fiction refers to several types of popular fiction such as thrillers, westerns, mysteries, romance novels, and science fiction. Each type has its own set of standard characteristics that most novels of the type exhibit. Genre fiction is often used pejoratively to mean something like “mere genre fiction,” which refers to a formulaic novel that rigidly follows the conventions of its type and exhibits little creativity. gothic
alternate terms: gothic novel, gothic narrative
A type of fiction that arose in the 18th century. “It was characterized by horror, violence, supernatural effects, and medieval elements, usually set against a background of gothic architecture, especially a gloomy and isolated castle” ( Source
See also: Southern gothic
Examples: Rebecca by Daphne duMaurier epitomizes the gothic novel. Other works by duMaurier, including Jamaica Inn, also include gothic elements. Top
Hammett Prize
This prize is awarded annually by the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers for the best work, either fiction or nonfiction, of literary excellence in crime writing. hard-boiled
\of realism with a subject of increasing interest: urban crime. Hard-boiled fiction gained a reputation for laconic, witty, and sometimes realistically crude dialogue; the graphic and objective depiction of violence; and the introduction of seedy, corrupt, and sordid settings\(Source
\who is the focus of interest\
A hero traditionally has positive qualities such as high ethical standards, commitment to duty, perseverance, and courage. An antihero possesses negative qualities such as cowardice and dishonesty. Protagonist is a neutral term denoting simply the main character of a work. Top
\rhetoric, a deliberate dissembling for effect or to intensify meaning. In the most general sense, two categories of irony can be identified: verbal irony, in which it is plain that the speaker means the opposite of what he says, and circumstantial, or situational, irony, in which there is a discrepancy between what might reasonably be expected and what
actually occurs-between the appearance of a situation and its reality. One of the most common forms of verbal irony is the use of praise when a slur is intended?Tragic irony results from a perception of the intensity of human striving and the indifference of the universe?In dramatic irony, a speaker may utter words that have a hidden meaning intelligible to the audience but of which he himself is unaware?\( Source
magical realism
alternate term: magic realism
\worldwide twentieth-century tendency in the graphic and literary arts, especially painting and prose fiction. The frame or surface of the work may be conventionally realistic, but contrasting elements-such as the supernatural, myth, dream, fantasy-invade the realism and change the whole basis of the art\( Source
A term introduced by the Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier, who \in magic realism the capacity to enrich our idea of what is 'real' by incorporating all dimensions of the imagination, particularly as expressed in magic, myth, and religion\http://www.notesinthemargin.org/glossary.html> : Benet's, 635).
Example: Snow in August
\sensationally, with little regard for motivation and with an excessive appeal to the emotions of the audience. The object is to keep the audience thrilled by the arousal anyhow of strong feelings of pity, horror, or joy. Poetic justice is superficially secured, the characters (either very good or very bad) being rewarded or punished according to their deeds. Though typically a melodrama has a happy ending, tragedies that use much of the same technique are sometimes referred to as melodramatic\
motif (motive)
\that tend to unify the work are called motives\
\?its purpose is to recount events?There are two forms: simple narrative , which recites events chronologically, as in a newspaper account; and narrative with plot, which is less often chronological and more often arranged according to a principle determined by the nature of the plot and the type of story intended\
See narration
\ostensible author or teller of a story. In fiction presented in the first person, the 'I' who tells the story is the narrator; the narrator may be in any of various relations to the events described, ranging from being their center (the protagonist) through various degrees of importance (minor characters) to being merely a witness. In fiction told from an omniscient point of view, the author acts self-consciously as narrator, recounting the story and freely commenting on it. A narrator is always present, at least by implication, in any work, even a story in which a self-effacing author relates events with apparent objectivity. A narrator may be reliable or unreliable. If the narrator is reliable, the reader accepts without serious question the statements of fact and judgment. If the narrator is unreliable, the reader questions or seeks to qualify the statements of fact and judgment\
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