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Literary Genres

Sourced literary genres reference: history, people and documented cultural context.

Editorial graphic for: Contemporary romance: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Confessional writing: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Closet screenplay: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Collage novel: History and Key Facts

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

Editorial graphic for: Chivalric romance: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Chick lit: History and Key Facts

Chick lit: History and Key Facts

"Chick lit" is a term used to describe a type of popular fiction targeted at women.

Chicago Ledger, v. XLIX, no. 21, Saturday, May 21, 1921

Chicago Ledger: History and Key Facts

The Chicago Ledger was a story paper published in Chicago, Illinois, from 1872 until 1924.

Carnivalesque — Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. 066.jpg

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.

The abduction of Jemima Boone by Shawnee in 1776.

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.

Editorial graphic for: Bloodhound Mysteries: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Bizarro fiction: History and Key Facts

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

Editorial graphic for: Biographical novel: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Backfischroman: History and Key Facts

Backfischroman: History and Key Facts

The Backfischroman (teenage girl novel, literal meaning: baked fish novel) is a genre in German literature.

Editorial graphic for: Autotheory: History and Key Facts

Autotheory: History and Key Facts

Autotheory is a literary tradition involving the combination of the narrative forms of autobiography, memoir, and critical theory.

Editorial graphic for: Ars praedicandi: History and Key Facts

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

Cover of serial, "David Copperfield" by Charles Dickens

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

Editorial graphic for: Arabic riddles: History and Key Facts

Arabic riddles: History and Key Facts

Riddles are historically a significant genre of Arabic literature.

Old Orthodox Apocalipse Wall-painting from medieval Osogovo Monastery, Republic of Macedonia

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

Editorial graphic for: Anti-nihilistic novel: History and Key Facts

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

Title page for Fantomina

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.

Editorial graphic for: Airport novel: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Accessus ad auctores: History and Key Facts

Accessus ad auctores: History and Key Facts

The accessus ad auctores ('introduction to authors') was a literary genre of the Middle Ages.

Action Stories (Fiction House, Volume 16, number 1, December, 1940). Throughout the 1940s, Fiction House published a wide range of pulp magazines and comic books.

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.

രുസ്വവ

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.

Editorial graphic for: Absurdist fiction: History and Key Facts

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

Editorial graphic for: List of writing genres: History and Key Facts

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

Editorial graphic for: Literary genre: History and Key Facts

Literary genre: History and Key Facts

A literary genre is a category of literature.

Editorial graphic for: Epistolary novel: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Historical fiction: History and Key Facts

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.

Editorial graphic for: Climate fiction: History and Key Facts

Climate fiction: History and Key Facts

Climate fiction (sometimes shortened to cli-fi) is literature that deals with climate change.

American jazz musician Sun Ra in a publicity photo promoting the 1973 reissue of his album The Magic City through Impulse! Records and ABC/Dunhill Records. The keyboard appears to be a Farfisa Professional 222 combo organ. An alternate portrait (in color) from the same photo session appeared in the album artwork for Su

Afrofuturism: History and Key Facts

Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology.

Editorial graphic for: Dystopia: History and Key Facts

Dystopia: History and Key Facts

A dystopia (lit.

Editorial graphic for: Cyberpunk: History and Key Facts

Cyberpunk: History and Key Facts

Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction set in a dystopian future.

Editorial graphic for: Magical realism: History and Key Facts

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

Victor Frankenstein becoming disgusted at his creation. Illustration from the frontispiece of the 1831 edition. Steel engraving (993 x 71mm) to the revised edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, published by Colburn and Bentley, London 1831. The novel was first published in 1818.

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.