trailer trash
10-03-2006, 06:42 PM
Someone recenlty asked me what genre fiction was, and I gave them this link so they would have a future reference. I thought it might be useful here at writingforums.
Excerpt with links
As noted, there are many different ways of labeling and defining fiction genres. Following are some of the main genres as they are used in contemporary publishing:
Action-adventure
These stories, appealing mainly to male readers, feature physical action and violence, often around a quest or military-style mission set in exotic or forbidding locales such as jungles, deserts, or mountains. The conflict typically involves commandos, mercenaries, terrorists, smugglers, pirates, and the like. Stories include elements of courage, male bonding, and betrayal, as well as lore on technology, weapons, and other hardware.
Crime
Crime fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fiction) stories, centered on criminal enterprise, are told from the point of view of the perpetrators. They range in tone from lighthearted "caper" stories to darker plots involving organized crime or incarcerated convicts.
Detective
Detective fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction) has become almost synonymous with mystery. These stories relate the solving of a crime, usually one or more murders, by a protagonist who may or may not be a professional investigator. This large, popular genre has many subgenres, reflecting differences in tone, character, and setting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setting_%28fiction%29).
Erotica
Erotica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotica)—fiction dealing mainly with the sex lives of its characters and featuring graphic descriptions of sex acts—has become a mainstream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream) genre only since the 1990s, when many bookstores began stocking such works on their shelves. Prior to that, pornography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography) was a subculture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subculture) product, available only in "adult (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult)" bookstores.
Fantasy
Fantasy fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy) features stories set in fanciful, invented worlds or in a legendary, mythic past. The stories themselves are often epics or quests (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest), frequently involving magic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28paranormal%29). The enormous popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.R.R._Tolkien)'s Lord of the Rings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings) trilogy and J.K. Rowling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.K._Rowling)'s Harry Potter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter) novels demonstrates the wide appeal of this genre.
Horror
Horror fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_fiction) aims to evoke some combination of fear, fascination, and revulsion in its readers. This genre, like others, continues to evolve, recently moving away from stories with a religious or supernatural basis to ones making use of medical or psychological ideas.
Mystery
Mystery fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_fiction), technically involving stories in which characters try to discover a vital piece of information which is kept hidden till the climax, is now considered by many people almost a synonym for detective fiction. The standard novel stocked in the mystery section of bookstores is a whodunit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whodunit).
Romance
Romance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_novel) is currently the largest and best-selling fiction genre in North America. It has produced a wide array of subgenres, the majority of which feature the mutual attraction and love of a man and a woman as the main plot, and have a happy ending (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_ending).
Science fiction
Science fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction) is defined more by setting than by other story elements. With a few exceptions, stories off of Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth) or in the future qualify as science fiction. Within these settings, the conventions of almost any other genre may be used. A sub-genre of science fiction is alternate history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history_%28fiction%29) where, for some specific reason, the history of the novel deviates from the history of our world. Pavane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavane_%28novel%29) (1968) by Keith Roberts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Roberts) was an influential early alternate history, Harry Turtledove (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove)'s The Guns of the South (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_the_South) a popular example. Of late, alternate history has come in its own as distinct and having an independent existence from science fiction generally.
Thriller
A thriller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller) is a story intended to evoke strong feelings of suspense and danger, usually involving a high-stakes hunt, chase, or a race against time. Thrillers often involve espionage, crime, medicine, or technology.
Western
Western fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_fiction) is defined primarily by being set in the American West (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_United_States) in the second half of the 19th century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century), and secondarily by featuring heroes who are rugged, individualistic horsemen (cowboys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy)). Other genres, such as romance, have subgenres that make use of the Western setting.
Crossover works
Many works of undisputed literary merit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_merit) do in fact bear the characteristic traits of one or another genre. The result is that fans of the genre will tend to treat the work as one of their own and as showing the value of that genre; while those who look down on genre writing will tend to deny that the work in question belongs to that genre at all. Ursula K. Le Guin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin)'s The Left Hand of Darkness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness) and Mervyn Peake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Peake)'s Gormenghast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gormenghast) are the works of science fiction and fantasy, respectively, most often taken seriously as literature in their own right outside of those genres; correspondingly critics are often hesitant to so classify them. A more extreme example would be Thomas Pynchon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon)'s Gravity's Rainbow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity%27s_Rainbow), widely considered one of the most important novels of the century. It is never called science fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction), despite the fact that a great deal of fictional (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiction) science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science) is central to its plot. Such marginal works often receive the designation of experimental fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_fiction), magical realism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_realism) or slipstream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_%28literature%29).
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Excerpt with links
As noted, there are many different ways of labeling and defining fiction genres. Following are some of the main genres as they are used in contemporary publishing:
Action-adventure
These stories, appealing mainly to male readers, feature physical action and violence, often around a quest or military-style mission set in exotic or forbidding locales such as jungles, deserts, or mountains. The conflict typically involves commandos, mercenaries, terrorists, smugglers, pirates, and the like. Stories include elements of courage, male bonding, and betrayal, as well as lore on technology, weapons, and other hardware.
Crime
Crime fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_fiction) stories, centered on criminal enterprise, are told from the point of view of the perpetrators. They range in tone from lighthearted "caper" stories to darker plots involving organized crime or incarcerated convicts.
Detective
Detective fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective_fiction) has become almost synonymous with mystery. These stories relate the solving of a crime, usually one or more murders, by a protagonist who may or may not be a professional investigator. This large, popular genre has many subgenres, reflecting differences in tone, character, and setting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setting_%28fiction%29).
Erotica
Erotica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotica)—fiction dealing mainly with the sex lives of its characters and featuring graphic descriptions of sex acts—has become a mainstream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream) genre only since the 1990s, when many bookstores began stocking such works on their shelves. Prior to that, pornography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography) was a subculture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subculture) product, available only in "adult (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adult)" bookstores.
Fantasy
Fantasy fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy) features stories set in fanciful, invented worlds or in a legendary, mythic past. The stories themselves are often epics or quests (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest), frequently involving magic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_%28paranormal%29). The enormous popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.R.R._Tolkien)'s Lord of the Rings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings) trilogy and J.K. Rowling (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.K._Rowling)'s Harry Potter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter) novels demonstrates the wide appeal of this genre.
Horror
Horror fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_fiction) aims to evoke some combination of fear, fascination, and revulsion in its readers. This genre, like others, continues to evolve, recently moving away from stories with a religious or supernatural basis to ones making use of medical or psychological ideas.
Mystery
Mystery fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_fiction), technically involving stories in which characters try to discover a vital piece of information which is kept hidden till the climax, is now considered by many people almost a synonym for detective fiction. The standard novel stocked in the mystery section of bookstores is a whodunit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whodunit).
Romance
Romance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_novel) is currently the largest and best-selling fiction genre in North America. It has produced a wide array of subgenres, the majority of which feature the mutual attraction and love of a man and a woman as the main plot, and have a happy ending (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_ending).
Science fiction
Science fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction) is defined more by setting than by other story elements. With a few exceptions, stories off of Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth) or in the future qualify as science fiction. Within these settings, the conventions of almost any other genre may be used. A sub-genre of science fiction is alternate history (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_history_%28fiction%29) where, for some specific reason, the history of the novel deviates from the history of our world. Pavane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavane_%28novel%29) (1968) by Keith Roberts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Roberts) was an influential early alternate history, Harry Turtledove (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove)'s The Guns of the South (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_the_South) a popular example. Of late, alternate history has come in its own as distinct and having an independent existence from science fiction generally.
Thriller
A thriller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriller) is a story intended to evoke strong feelings of suspense and danger, usually involving a high-stakes hunt, chase, or a race against time. Thrillers often involve espionage, crime, medicine, or technology.
Western
Western fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_fiction) is defined primarily by being set in the American West (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_United_States) in the second half of the 19th century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_century), and secondarily by featuring heroes who are rugged, individualistic horsemen (cowboys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy)). Other genres, such as romance, have subgenres that make use of the Western setting.
Crossover works
Many works of undisputed literary merit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_merit) do in fact bear the characteristic traits of one or another genre. The result is that fans of the genre will tend to treat the work as one of their own and as showing the value of that genre; while those who look down on genre writing will tend to deny that the work in question belongs to that genre at all. Ursula K. Le Guin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin)'s The Left Hand of Darkness (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness) and Mervyn Peake (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Peake)'s Gormenghast (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gormenghast) are the works of science fiction and fantasy, respectively, most often taken seriously as literature in their own right outside of those genres; correspondingly critics are often hesitant to so classify them. A more extreme example would be Thomas Pynchon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon)'s Gravity's Rainbow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity%27s_Rainbow), widely considered one of the most important novels of the century. It is never called science fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction), despite the fact that a great deal of fictional (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiction) science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science) is central to its plot. Such marginal works often receive the designation of experimental fiction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_fiction), magical realism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_realism) or slipstream (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_%28literature%29).
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia