Literary Genres Flashcards
Fictional Prose
Fictional works written in standard form with a natural flow of speech and without poetic structure. Includes grammatically complete sentences and a paragraph structure to convey a message
Classical Fiction
A fictional work considered timeless in its message or theme, remaining noteworthy and meaningful over decades or centuries.
Ex. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
Ex: Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Fables
Short fiction that generally features animals, fantastic creatures, or other forces within nature that assumes human-like characters and has a moral lesson for the reader.
Ex: Aesop’s Fables
Fairy Tales
Children’s stories with magical characters in imaginary, enchanted lands, usually depicting a struggle between good and evil, a sub- genre of folklore.
Ex: Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid”
Ex: Brother’s Grimm “Cinderella”
Fantasy
Fiction with magical or supernatural elements that cannot occur in the real world, sometimes involves medieval elements in language. Usually includes some form of sorcery/witchcraft and sometimes set on a different world.
Ex: J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”
Ex: J.K. Rowling “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”
Ex: George R.R. Martin’s “A Game of Thrones”
Folklore
Types of fiction passed down from oral tradition, stories indigenous to a particular region or culture, with a local flavor in tone, designed to help humans cope with their condition in life and validate cultural traditions, belief, and customs
Ex: William Laughead’s “Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox”
Ex: the Buddhist story of “The Banyan Deer”
Mythology
Related to folklore but more widespread. Featured mystical, otherworldly characters and addresses the basic question of why and how humans exist, relies heavily on allegory and features gods or heroes captured in some sort of struggle.
Ex: Greek myths, Genesis I and II, and Arthurian legends
Science Fiction
Used the principle of extrapolation-loosely defined as a form of prediction to imagine future realities and problems of the human experience
Ex: Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Ex: Ayn Rand’s “Anthem”
Ex: Isaac Asimov’s “I, Robot”
Ex: Phillip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”
Short Stories
Short works of prose fiction with fully-developed themes and characters, focused on mood, generally developed with a single plot, with a short period of time for settings.
Ex: Edgar Allen Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher”
Ex: Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”
Ex: Issac Bashevis Singer’s “Gimpel the Fool”
Drama
A form of literature written to be performance for an audience
Comedy (Drama)
A humorous play designed to amuse and entertain, often with an emphasis on the common person’s experience, generally resolved in a positive way.
Richard Sheridan’s “School Scandal”
Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew”
Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple”
History (Drama)
A play based on recorded history where the fate of a nation or kingdom is at the core of the conflict.
Ex: Christopher Marlowe’s “Edward II”
Ex: Shakespeare’s “King Richard III”
Ex: Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”
Tragedy (Drama)
A serious play that often involves the downfall of the protagonist. In modern tragedies, the protagonist is not necessarily in a position of power or authority.
Jean Racine’s “Phedre”
Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”
John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”
Melodrama (Drama)
A play that emphasizes heightened emotion and sensationalism, generally with stereotypical characters in exaggerated or realistic situations and with moral polarization.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Pygmalion”
Tragi-comedy (Drama)
A play that has elements of both tragedy (a character experiencing a tragic loss) and comedy (the resolution is often positive with no clear distinctive mood for either).
Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”
Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”
Poetry
Literary works that focuses on the expression of feelings and ideas through the use of structure and linguistic rhythm to create a desired effect.
Ballad
A poem or song passed down orally which tells a story and in English tradition usually uses an ABAB or ABCB rhyme scheme.
William Butler Yeats’ “The Ballad of Father O’Hart”
Epic
A long poem from ancient oral tradition which narrates the story of a legendary or heroic protagonist.
Homer’s “The Odyssey”
Virgil’s “The Aeneid” 
Haiku
A Japanese poem of three unrhymed lines with 5, 7 and 5 syllables (in English) with nature as a common subject matter.
Limerick
A five line poem written in AABBA rhyme scheme with a witty focus.
From Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense
Ode
A formal lyric poem that addresses and praises a person, place, thing, or idea.
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Ode to Silence”
Sonnet
A fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter.
Shakespeare’s Sonnets 18 and 130
Literary nonfiction
Prose writing that is based on current or past real events or real people and includes straightforward accounts as well as those that offer opinions on facts or factual events.
Biography
A biography is a written work about a real person (historical or currently living). It involves factual accounts of the persons life often in a re-telling of those events based on available research factual information. 
