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Compare and Contrast
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Structures and traditions
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What is a literary genre?
Genre means a type of art, literature, or music characterized by a specific
form, content, and style. For example, literature has five main genres:
poetry, prose, drama, fiction, and non-fiction. All of these genres have
particular features and functions that distinguish them from one another.
Types of Genre
Poetry
Poetry is the first major literary genre. All types of poetry share specific characteristics. In
fact, poetry is a form of text that follows a meter and rhythm, with each line and syllable.
Drama
Drama is a form of text that is performed in front of an audience. It is also called a play. Its
written text contains dialogues, and stage directions. This genre has further categories such
as comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy.
Prose
This type of written text is different from poetry in that it has complete sentences
organized into paragraphs. Unlike poetry, prose focuses on characters and plot, rather than
focusing on sounds.
Types of Genre
Fiction
Fiction has three categories that are, realistic, non-realistic, and semifiction.
Usually, fiction work is not real and therefore, authors can use complex figurative
language to touch readers’ imaginations.
Non-Fiction
Non-fiction is a vast category that also has sub-genres; it could be creative like a
personal essay, or factual, like a scientific paper. I
21st Century Literary Genres and
Structures of the World
The following 21 Century literary genres and structures are as follows: Speculative
Fiction, Metafiction, Memoir, Testimonio, Literary Journalism, Thetrical
Adaptation, Spoken Poetry, Blog/Vlog, Fliptop/Rap Battle, and Comics.
SPECULATIVE FICTION
Speculative fiction is a literary “super genre,” which encompasses a number of
different genres of fiction, each with speculative elements that are based on
conjecture and do not exist in the real world.
METAFICTION
Metafiction is a form of fiction that emphasizes its own constructedness in a way
that continually reminds readers to be aware that they are reading or viewing a
fictional work.
MEMOIR
A memoir (/memwar/; from French: mémoire: memoria, meaning memory or
reminiscence) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author’s personal
memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual.
TESTIMOΝΙΟ
Spanish for “testimony”
A testimonio is a first-person account by the person (narrator) who has faced
instances of social and political inequality, oppression, or any specific form of
marginalization.
LITERARY JOURNALISM
Literary journalism is a form of nonfiction that combines factual reporting with
narrative techniques and stylistic strategies traditionally associated with fiction.
This form of writing can also be called narrative journalism or new journalism.
THEATRICAL ADAPTATION
In a theatrical adaptation, material from another artistic medium, such as a novel
or a film is re-written according to the needs and requirements of the theatre and
turned into a play or musical.
SPOKEN WORD POETRY
Spoken word poetry refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on
the poetic as well as the performer’s aesthetic qualities. It is a continuation of the
ancient oral artistic tradition that started in the late 20th century and focuses on
the aesthetics of recitation and word play, such as the performer’s live intonation
and voice inflection.
BLOG/VLOG
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (/vlog/), is a form of blog
for which the medium is video and is a form of web television. Vlog entries often
combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other
metadata.
FLIPTOP/RAP BATTLE
FlipTop/Rap Battle League (Fliptop for short) is the first and largest running
professional rap battle conference in the Philippines founded by Alaric Riam Yuson
(known as Anygma) in 2010.
COMIC STRIP
Comic Strip or simply Comics is a medium of expression that communicates ideas
via images, often combined with text or other forms of visual information. Comics
frequently takes the form of juxtaposed sequences of panels of images.
