HIT: Genre or Literary Form

[ktclemen <ktclemen@UNCG.EDU>]

I was not intending to create a hit; however, I had received
requests to do so. I have included all
of the responses I have received but included only the person’s
initials. Thanks to all who
responded.

Kevin Clement
MLIS graduate student
Department of Library and Information Studies
University of North Carolina Greensboro
349 Curry
Greensboro, NC 27401
ktclemen@uncg.edu

Personally, I think poetry, fiction, and non-fiction are literary
forms
 and I agree with you on that. Genre refers to the type of story,
type
 of music, or type of poetry. If you are talking about genre
of fiction
 books some of them would be adventure, mystery, romance, science

 fiction, westerns, contemporary issues, etc. In music genres
could be
 rock n roll, blues, jazz, classical, country/western, easy listening,

 heavy metal. I just taught a lesson to eighth graders in my
school
 today about genre.

 KG

****************************************************************
According to A Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms by International

 Reading
 Association, (c) 1981, these are the definitions:
 Genre: 1. n. a form or type of literary and other artistic content,
as a
 novel, tragedy,
 comedy, poem, etc. 2. n. paintings which are realistic, portraying

 everyday life scenes.

Literary form: 1. the formal structure or organization of the
parts of
 literay or other
 artistic works stat unifies them and determines their total
effect. 2.
 the structure used to
 express literary and other artistic types of content; genre;
as sonnet
 form, short story form. 3. the how (form) rather than the what
(content).

Prentice Hall Literature, the American Experience (date unknown)
has a
 section called
 Handbook of Literary Terms and Techniques. Their definition
for
 Genre: is a division or type of literature. Literature is commonly

 divided into three major genres: poetry, prose, and drama. Each
major
 genre can in turn be divided into smaller genres. Poetry can
be divided
 into lyric, concrete, dramatic, narrative, and epic poetry.
Prose can be
 divided into fiction (novels and short stories) and nonfiction
(biography,
 autobiography, letters, essays, and reports). Drama can be divided
into
 series drama, tragedy, comic drama, melodrama, and farce.
 Literary from was not defined in that section.
 Hope that helps.
 MAL

***********************************************************
You are correct. Fiction, non-fiction and poetry are literary
forms and
 fantasy, romance, etc. are genres.

 LDV

*******************************************************************
Lately New York State has mandated that elementary students be
familiar with
 genre... meaning science fiction, fantasy, etc.

 Fiction, non-fiction and the like are types, not genre.

 LW

  ****************************************************
 I just graduated with a BA in lit.... so i don't know anything,
but if i has
 to answer, I'd say...form is poetry, fiction, non...... and
genre is the
 type of material, sci-fi, mystery, adventure

 but what do i know? good question though!

 bm

**********************************************************
I have just tried for dictionaries (two US, one British - the
Shorter
 Oxford- and one Australian) all four had basically the same
definition
 which encompases both uses of the term. They really are both
correct
 but that is not very helpfull. I once checked a dictionary of
literary
 terms which only gave the "literary form" definition, but I've
always
 used the type of fiction definition whenever I've used the word.
There
 are of course also sub-genres such as time travel as a sub-
genre of
 science fiction or forensic novels as a sub- genre of the mysteries.

 There are also stories that belong in two genres such as historical

 detective stories (my favourites are Ellis Peters' Cadfael and
Lindsay
 Davis' Falco)

 JN
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