Genre

A genre is a division of a particular form of art according to criteria particular to that form. In all art forms, genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries. Genres are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions.

Overall definition

Genre is originally a French word meaning "kind", "sort" or "type"; in grammatical terminology, it refers to the artificial concept of masculine or feminine grammatical gender (the noun "genre" itself belongs to the masculine gender in French, for example).

Related Topics:
French - Grammatical gender

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In general there are three types of genre:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Those of setting, such as westerns or science fiction;
• Those of mood, such as comedy or horror;
• Those of format, such as musicals or non-fiction.

In artforms such as music, painting, and sculpture, genre tends to be determined by format and style.

Related Topics:
Music - Painting - Sculpture

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Genres are often divided into sub-genres. In literature, for instance, can be organized according to the "poetic genres" and the "prose genres". Poetry might be subdivided into epic, lyric, and dramatic, while prose might be subdivided into fiction and non-fiction. Further subdivisions of dramatic poetry, for instance, might include comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and so forth. This parsing into subgenres can continue: "comedy" has its own genres, for example, including farce, comedy of manners, burlesque, and satire.

Related Topics:
Literature - Poetry - Epic - Lyric - Dramatic - Prose - Fiction - Non-fiction - Comedy - Tragedy - Melodrama - Farce - Comedy of manners - Burlesque - Satire

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~