Gothic fiction: History and Key Facts
Gothic fiction, often referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting.
Literary Genres archive
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Magical realism: History and Key Facts
Magical realism, magic realism, or marvellous realism is a style or genre of fiction and art that presents a realistic view of the world while also incorporating magical elements, often blurring
Cyberpunk: History and Key Facts
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction set in a dystopian future.
Dystopia: History and Key Facts
A dystopia (lit.
Afrofuturism: History and Key Facts
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology.
Climate fiction: History and Key Facts
Climate fiction (sometimes shortened to cli-fi) is literature that deals with climate change.
Historical fiction: History and Key Facts
Historical fiction is a literary genre in which a fictitious plot takes place in the setting of particular real historical events.
Epistolary novel: History and Key Facts
An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative.
Literary genre: History and Key Facts
A literary genre is a category of literature.
List of writing genres: History and Key Facts
Writing genres (more commonly known as literary genres) are categories that distinguish literature (including works of prose, poetry, drama, hybrid forms, etc.) based on some set of stylistic cri
Absurdist fiction: History and Key Facts
Absurdist fiction is a genre of novels, plays, poems, films, or other media that focuses on the experiences of characters in situations where they cannot find any inherent purpose in life, most o
Aattakatha (performance): History and Key Facts
Aattakatha is a literary genre in Malayalam language consisting of the libretto used for the Indian classical dance drama kathakali.
Action fiction: History and Key Facts
Action fiction is a genre in literature that focuses on stories involving high-stakes, high-energy, and fast-paced events.
Accessus ad auctores: History and Key Facts
The accessus ad auctores ('introduction to authors') was a literary genre of the Middle Ages.
Airport novel: History and Key Facts
The airport novel represents a literary genre that is defined not so much by its plot or cast of stock characters, but by the social function it serves.
Amatory fiction: History and Key Facts
Amatory fiction is a genre of British literature that became popular during the late 17th century and early 18th century, approximately 1660–1730.
Anti-nihilistic novel: History and Key Facts
An anti-nihilistic novel is a form of novel from late 19th-century Russian literature, that came as a result of the disillusionment in the Russian nihilist movement and revolutionary socialism of
Apocalypse: History and Key Facts
Apocalyptic literature (from Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis) 'revelation, disclosure') is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 B
Arabic riddles: History and Key Facts
Riddles are historically a significant genre of Arabic literature.
Autobiographical novel: History and Key Facts
An autobiographical novel, also known as an autobiographical fiction, fictional autobiography, or autobiographical fiction novel, is a type of novel which uses autofiction techniques, or the merg
Ars praedicandi: History and Key Facts
Ars praedicandi (Latin for "the art of preaching", plural artes praedicandi) was a literary genre of the later Middle Ages, comprising treatises and manuals to aid preachers in composing and deli
Autotheory: History and Key Facts
Autotheory is a literary tradition involving the combination of the narrative forms of autobiography, memoir, and critical theory.
Backfischroman: History and Key Facts
The Backfischroman (teenage girl novel, literal meaning: baked fish novel) is a genre in German literature.
Biographical novel: History and Key Facts
The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life.
Bizarro fiction: History and Key Facts
Bizarro fiction is a contemporary literary genre which often uses elements of absurdism, satire, and the grotesque, along with pop-surrealism and genre fiction staples, in order to create subvers
Bloodhound Mysteries: History and Key Facts
The Bloodhound was an imprint of Duell, Sloan & Pearce for the publishing of its suspense, crime, and detective fiction novels.
Captivity narrative: History and Key Facts
Captivity narratives are typically personal accounts of people who have been captured by an enemy, generally an enemy with a foreign culture.
Carnivalesque: History and Key Facts
The Carnivalesque is a literary mode that subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos.
Chicago Ledger: History and Key Facts
The Chicago Ledger was a story paper published in Chicago, Illinois, from 1872 until 1924.
Chick lit: History and Key Facts
"Chick lit" is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at women.
Chivalric romance: History and Key Facts
As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of high medieval and early modern Europe.
Collage novel: History and Key Facts
Collage novel is used by different writers and readers to describe three different kinds of novel: 1) a form of artist's book approaching closely (but preceding) the graphic novel; 2) a literary
Closet screenplay: History and Key Facts
Related to closet drama, a closet screenplay is a screenplay intended not to be produced/performed but instead to be read by a solitary reader or, sometimes, out loud in a small group.
Confessional writing: History and Key Facts
Confessional writing is a literary style and genre that developed in American writing schools following the Second World War.
Contemporary romance: History and Key Facts
Contemporary romance is a subgenre of contemporary and romance novels that have been published after 1945 and the Second World War.
Crime fiction: History and Key Facts
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the in
Dime novel: History and Key Facts
The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century American popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paperbound editions.
Domestic noir: History and Key Facts
Domestic noir is a literary subgenre within crime fiction.
Domestic tragedy: History and Key Facts
In English drama, a domestic tragedy is a tragedy in which the tragic protagonists are ordinary middle-class or working-class individuals.
Ecofiction: History and Key Facts
Ecofiction (also "eco-fiction" or "eco fiction") is the branch of literature that encompasses nature or environment-oriented works of fiction.