GENRE: the French term meaning “a type of”. A literary genre is a recognizable and established category of written work employing such common conventions as will prevent readers or audiences from mistaking it [with] another kind. writing2.richmond.edu/jessid/eng216/216terms.html
OK: now that we’ve defined it, let’s say it together: “g” – pronounced the same way as the name of the elderly actress Zsa Zsa Gabor; or the sound represented by the “s” in Asia – “ah” – as in “open your mouth and say…”; and “nra”, as in the middle part of corporate cheats, E“nro”n.
CONTINUING: What’s it all mean? The absolute basics of genre are this: you can clearly recognize what you like to read and there’s a place for it at Barnes & Noble/Borders/Waldenbooks/Half-Price Books. If you say, “I want a romance,” and the floor clerk leads you to a section that has a sign above it that says ROMANCE, then that’s a genre.
FINALLY: The genres listed on Wikipedia are: action-adventure, crime, detective, fantasy, horror, mystery, realistic fiction (historicals are part of this), romance (historicals are also part of this), science fiction and western. ALL of these have “special divisions” such as action-adventure (thrillers), crime (true crime), detective (hard-boiled), fantasy (urban), horror (slasher), mystery (cozy), realistic fiction (history), romance (historical, steamy), science fiction (cyberpunk – the word invented by Bruce Bethke) and western (historical here, too).
LAST OF ALL: If genre is what you enjoy, the go forth and WRITE IT!
1 comment:
The thing I don't like about genre is that it keeps people from discovering writers they would probably like, but end up completely missing because they never walk down those particular aisles of the bookstore. Here's a link to a really, really good essay by Dan Simmons that talks about the very beginnings of genre as a way of classifying books: http://www.dansimmons.com/news/message/2008_02.html.
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