Genres+of+Literature

Genres of Literature

A. FICTION SOURCES:

1. Allegory: a story in which the characters stand for ideas, such as Love, Pride, Greed, or Tolerance. The plot usually has a message or moral about real life.

2. Fable: Like an allegory but short, with fewer characters and a simple moral. Aesop, a writer in ancient Greece, is probably the best -known writer of fables.

3. Fairy tale: An adventure in which the heroes are often royalty or beloved by royalty and villains are evil witches, sorcerers, or monsters.

4. Fantasy: A tale set in an imaginary world with imaginary characters. For example, animals can talk and fairies roam the countryside in fantasies.

5. Folktale: an exaggerated story that has been shared over generations by word of mouth to convey a tradition

6. Historical fiction: Stories based on history, with fictional main characters. Historical fiction is sometimes set in real places and includes real people among its characters.

7. Horror: Tales about scary things, from ghosts and goblins, to monsters and murderers.

8. Informational fiction: A story or book that uses fictional characters or settings to tell about real things. For example, a story that explains science experiments might be told by a science teacher working in a fictional lab.

9. Legend: An exaggerated story about a real person or event. For example, there is a story that George Washington, our first president, could never tell a lie.

10.Mystery: Stories in which a problem is created by an unknown element. Mysteries are often crime stories. The main characters in mysteries are frequently detectives searching for a solution.

11. Myth: A story made up to explain real events. Myths help us understand the beliefs and everyday life of people described in them. Myths were once used to answer difficult questions, such as how the moon and stars came to be, why the seasons change, why the leopard has spots. Human beings and gods.

12. Realistic fiction: Stories with imaginary characters and events that are so believable that they could take place in the real world.

13. Romance: Stories in which the main characters are looking for love and happiness. Some romances are historical an share many features of historical fiction.

14. Science fiction: Stories, often set in the future, that use elements of modern science. Some science fiction stories are set on other planets. Others tell of aliens landing on Earth or of computers that run the world.

15. Tall Tales: Humorous stories that are full of exaggeration. Tall Tales may or may not be about real people or events.

16. True Adventure: Stories based on real people or real events, but the plot, setting, and characters are partly made up by the author.

17. Plays/ Drama: Fictional stories told in dialogue and through actions seen on stage.

B. NONFICTION SOURCES:

1. Autobiography: The story of the author’s life told chronologically.

2. Memoir- The story of the author’s life but centers around a specific event. It includes the writer’s current viewpoint about a past situation.

3. Biography: A story of a person’s life written by another person.

4. Essay: A nonfiction story that discusses one topic or theme from a personal point of view

5. History: An account of a past event or era

6. Journal: A diary or record of day-to-day events

7. News Stories: Reports written in a special format, usually used in newspapers and magazines.

8. Reference: A collection of useful facts and information organized for quick study rather than for leisurely reading.

a. Encyclopedias: Collections of articles arranged alphabetically; range from general to special-purpose and can be on almost any subject

b. Almanac: Facts and statistics on current events and matters of historical record

c. Biographical reference: entries in dictionaries, short articles in encyclopedias, collections of biographies

d. Literary reference books: for anything from famous quotations,, poems, characters, and historical background

e. Vertical Files: contain current information in the form of pamphlets, handbooks, catalogs, and clippings on a variety of subjects.

f. Atlases: collections of maps and related data such as population and climate

g. Periodicals and Newspapers: Articles listed by author/subject in the annual Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature; especially valuable for current topics

8. Travelogue: Nonfiction writing, often in the style of a journal or a news story, that tells about a journey or trip to a particular place

C. DRAMA Drama is categorized as skits, musicals, or plays that use language, song, or dance to convey messages. Like fiction, dram has characters, plots, settings, beginnings, middles, and ends. The main difference is that, in a skit, play or musical, the story is told in dialogue or song and through the actions seen on a stage.

D. POETRY Poetry is verse that uses sounds, rhythm, figurative language, and sensory images to convey ideas.

a. Ballad: A narrative poem that tells a story, often a sad one. Ballads have a tricky rhyme scheme. A literary ballad has three eight-line stanzas plus a quatrain at the end.

b. Blank verse: A poem in which the verses have a regular rhythm but do not rhyme.

c. Cinquain: A five- line stanza

d. Couplet: A pair of lines that share something, usually rhythm and rhyme

e. Epic: A longe poem that tells a story, usually based on historic fact, about a hero and his actions.

f. Lyric: A short, musical poem that expresses a feeling rather than tells a whole story

g. Narrative: A poem that tells a story. It can be short or long.

h. Ode: A poem, often set to music, that has a them of nobility or goodness

i. Quatrain: A four-line stanza

j. Sonnet: A love poem with a set rhyme scheme, written in 14 lines. Shakespeare wrote many sonnets.

l. Haiku: A poem written in three lines. The first line is five syllables long, the second seven syllables long, and the last five syllables long. Most haiku is about nature

m. Limerick: A humorous poem written in five lines.