Literary Genres Flashcards
Absurdist Fiction
Novel or play that presents humanity’s plight as meaningless and without purpose. Arose in the 20th century and reflects a reaction against war, society, and the stresses of modern life.
Ex: Joseph Heller’s Catch-22
Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
Allegory
Fictional narrative that contains a second, symbolic meaning in addition to its overt story. In this type of story, characters represent human qualities such as virtues and vices or abstract concepts such as death.
Ex: John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress
C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
George Orwell’s Animal Farm
Ballad
Songlike poem that tells a story and often has a refrain, or repeated line or lines. Many ballads are iambic with altering lines of four stresses and three stresses. Popular in Europe from the Middle Ages to the 1800s. Often accounts of murders, revenge, and violence.
Ex: Rudyard Kipling
Comic Novel
Feature of British and American literature. It seeks to amuse the reader with larger-than-life characters and outlandish events.
Ex:
Evelyn Eaugh
P.G. Wodehouse
Mark Twain
Dystopia
Narrative that depicts an anti-utopia, a world where ordinary people live regimented lives at the whim of a totalitarian government.
Ex: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
George Orwell’s 1984
Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We
Epic
Long narrative poetic work in a formal or elevated style that features a heroic lead character who often must undertake a journey or a great trial to overcome a powerful for.
Ex:
Ramayana
Homer’s Odyssey
Epistolary Novel
A prose work in the form of letters, diaries, and journal entries.
Ex: Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple
Fable
A tale that provides a moral lesson and feature personified animals
Ex:
Aesop’s Fables
La Fontaine
Essay
Prose work written in the first-person expressing strong opinions about some topic of life experience.
Ex: Ralph waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance
Fairy Tale
Story tat features fantasy characters from folklore and usually ends happily.
Ex:
Brother’s Grimm
Fantasy
Genre that blends historical material, such as Viking warriors or knights, with invented elements such as wizards with magical powers and mythical creatures.
Ex:
JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings
Farce
Comic play that employs stock situations and characters and exaggerated emotions.
Legend
Traditional story that has become part of the collective experience of a nation, ethnic group, or culture. Features characters that are historical but seem to have existed some time in the distant past.
Ex: King Arthur
Fountain of Youth
Lyric Poem
Brief work in verse that addresses the reader directly and expresses the poet’s feelings and perceptions.
Myth
An ancient story the presents the exploits of gods or heroes to explain some aspect of life or nature. The Greek myth of Persephone, for example, explained the cycle of the seasons and the rebirth of spring. Many Native American myths address the origins of the world.
Novel
Long work of prose that is often realistic and tends to address the concerns of society in which it is produced. Adaptable.
Parody
Work written in imitation of an author’s style of a genre in order to make fun of it and mock its conventions.
Ex: Max Beerbohm’s The Mote in the Middle Distance
Poem
Literary work that is generally written in rhythmic lines of various lengths that may be divided into groups of stanzas. Formal verse historically but free verse now.
Haiku
Japanese poetic form consisting of three lines with 5, 6, 5 syllables.
Limerick
Comic five-line poem (AABBA)
Ode
Meditative poem written in praise of someone or about a serious subject
Pastoral
Poem that depicts rural life or the life of shepherds in an idealized form, often for urban audiences
Sonnet
14-line poetic form that originated in Italy then Shakespeare’s England.
Italian/ Petrarchan Sonnet
Consists of 2 quatrains (4 line stanzas ABBA) and six lines rhymed in pairs.
Shakespearean Sonnet
Three quatrains (ABAB) and a closing couplet
Triolet
Eight line poetic form based on French models. First, fourth, and seventh lines are identical as are its second and final lines
Villanelle
Intricate French poetic form with 19 lines divided into 5 three-line stanzas (tercets) and one final quatrain. Only 2 rhymed sounds
Satire
Work that ridicules the follies and cives of individuals and society, through comic exaggeration.
Science Fiction
Scientific and technological breakthroughs and their effects on future society.
Short Story
Work of prose fiction that often concentrates on a single incident and one or two main characters
Utopian Novel
Describes what a perfectly ordered society would look like.
