Literary Genres

AP ENGLISH LITERATURE & COMPOSITION

 Gothic (combined with Romanic genre) -19th Century

evokes a sense of mystery, suspense, fear, and terror

Gloomy, Desolate Landscape
Nature as a destructive force
Weather used to depict characters’ mood)
Mysterious Happenings
Incidents of Madness
Supernatural Occurrences
Revelations of Shocking Secrets
 Romantic (late 1700s-1800s)

Human Passions/Strong Emotions

Striving for individuality in spite of social norms
placed upon gender and class that demand
conformity (breaking social norms) 
Belief in the supernatural
 Transcendentalist (early to mid 1800s)

Finding God within Oneself

Finding God in Nature
The strive for self-reliance
Modernist (beginning of 20th century {1890-1930})

Alienation from modern society – strangers moving in an

alien world
Rejection of tradition and authority
Urban focus –concerned with degeneracy caused by
urban society ; with corruption of urban society
Surrealism – revolt against realism/rationality
Importance of how the self perceives the world
(subjectivism)– thus, often uses stream of consciousness
narration
“Kafkaesque” – the nightmare of dealing with
bureaucracy and the dehumanizing effects of modern life
 Dystopian (took off in the 20th century and became very prevalent in
the years after World War II)

Sometimes considered a sub-genre of Science Fiction-

Because it describes an imagined future, often with motifs of
science and technology.
An anti-utopian novel where, instead of a paradise, everything has
gone wrong in the
attempt to create a perfect society, opposite of utopian novel.
Characterized by intense measures of social control—but these
elements are taken to horrific extremes, with emphasis upon their
negative effects (these exaggerations are a satirical comment on
the potential dangers of elements of the author’s contemporary
society. Though not intended to be funny satire, it is a form of
ridicule and critique of modern society, and a warning for the
future. See discussion of “satire” below).
 Dystopian, con.’t

Dystopian fictions are fundamentally concerned with

problems of the political and cultural context that
produces them; For example, George Orwell’s 1984, one of
the most famous dystopian novels, was written in 1948
(published 1949), shortly after World War II and the rise of
totalitarian states on the right and the left, such as Nazi
Germany and the Soviet Union under Stalin; it’s not surprising
then that Orwell would depict Big Brother and the Thought
Police, elements of a profoundly oppressive state bent on
maintaining absolute control over individuals (including even
their thoughts). Dystopian fictions almost always offer some
kind of warning (often implicit) of what will happen should
present trends continue.
What were some of the cultural and political conditions that have been popular sources of dystopian fiction in the 20 th century?

State-sponsored violence and Totalitarianism on both the right and left:

Nazi Germany, the Stalinist Soviet Union - brainwashing,
conformity/lack of individualism, surveillance, torture
Growing awareness of environmental damage (side-effects of industry)
 Rapid advances in science and technology: biological experiments
(Brave New World), television, computers and information technology
(which can have the by-product of enhancing the efficiency and power
of surveillance techniques and modifying/controlling human behavior)
After WWII, the new capability through nuclear weapons for utter
annihilation of humans and human culture as we know it
Again, it’s important to remember that Dystopian fictions tend to reflect
the fears and anxieties of the cultural context from which they emerge
 Post Modern (Mid 20th Century)
Continuation of modernist uncertainty of reality  the nature of reality is now unknowable

(relativity/subjectivity)
Disjointed story-telling

playfulness with language – word play (puns etc.)

tongue-in-cheek irony, black humor Ex., Vonnegut's humor is demonstrated primarily

through the medium of black humor, a literary technique that makes us laugh so that we don't
cry. Black humor is humor discovered in agony, despair, or horror. It can exist as an
individualized hell or as a generally pessimistic view of the universe.
One additional technique that Vonnegut employs to set the tone of the novel's black humor is
his use of words or phrases as a form of mock seriousness that gives way to the absurd.
Other German guards, Vonnegut tells us, have "gone to the comforts of their own homes in
Dresden. They were all being killed with their families." This tone of irony contrasts the
human condition of life and family with the despair of death.
Another example of mock seriousness dissolving into absurdity is demonstrated in the

dialogue of Wild Bob, the American infantry colonel who loses his entire regiment in battle.
Waiting to be loaded into the boxcars destined for the POW camp, Wild Bob assures his men
that there are dead Germans lying all over the battlefield who despair to God that they ever
encountered the 405th Infantry Regiment, the regiment under Wild Bob's command. The
seriousness of the situation quickly descends to absurdity as we realize that Wild Bob,
critically injured and about to die, is losing his mind. The men to whom he speaks are not even
part of his former regiment, yet Wild Bob hallucinates that they are.
 Post Modern, con.’t

experimentation in the form of the novel

 less reliance on traditional narrative form
 less reliance on traditional character development
 experimentation with point of view
experimentation with the way time is conveyed in the novel
mixture of "high art" and popular culture
interest in metafiction - making the artificiality of art or
the fictionality of fiction apparent to the reader and
generally disregarding the necessity for "willful suspension
of disbelief" Often employed to undermine the authority of
the author, for unexpected narrative shifts, to advance a
story in a unique way, for emotional distance, or to comment
on the act of storytelling (aka. “Breaking the Fourth Wall”)
 Satire

A literary mode based on criticism of people and society through ridicule.

The satirist aims to reduce the practices attacked by laughing scornfully at
them--and being witty enough to allow the reader to laugh, also.  Ridicule,
irony, exaggeration, and several other techniques are almost always
present. Irony or sarcasm often professes to approve (or at least accept as
natural) the very things the satirist wishes to attack The satirist may insert
serious statements of value or desired behavior, but most often he relies on
an implicit moral code, understood by his audience and paid lip service by
them. The satirist's goal is to point out the hypocrisy of his target in the
hope that either the target or the audience will return to a real following of
the code. Thus, satire is inescapably moral even when no explicit values are
promoted in the work, for the satirist works within the framework of a
widely spread value system. Many of the techniques of satire are devices of
comparison, to show the similarity or contrast between two things. A list of
incongruous items, an oxymoron, metaphors, and so forth are examples.
 Coming-of-age story

A type of novel where the protagonist is initiated into

adulthood through knowledge, experience, or both, often by a
process of disillusionment. Understanding comes after the
dropping of preconceptions, a destruction of a false sense of
security, or in some way the loss of innocence. (May often
contain the elements of a Quest). Some of the shifts that take
place are these:
ignorance to knowledge
innocence to experience
false view of world to correct view
idealism to realism
immature responses to mature responses
 Epistolary novel

A novel consisting of letters written by a character or

several characters. The form allows for the use of
multiple points of view toward the story and the
ability to dispense with an omniscient narrator.