Types of Fiction

BILDUNGSROMAN

 Künstlerroman means "artist's novel" in English, is a narrative about an artist's growth

to maturity; deals with the youth and development of an individual who becomes—or is
on the threshold of becoming—a painter, musician, or poet.
Example: James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
 Psychological Novel is a work of fiction in which the thoughts, feelings, and motivations
of the characters are of equal or greater interest than is the external action of the
narrative. In a psychological novel the emotional reactions and internal states of the
characters are influenced by and in turn trigger external events in a
meaningful symbiosis.
Example: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
 Prose Tale follows regular grammatical conventions and does not contain a formal
metrical structure; is a story, especially one that's full of creative embellishments.
Example: One Thousand and One Nights
 Mini Saga is a short story based on a long story. It should contain exactly 50 words, plus
a title of up to 15 characters. However, the title requirement is not always enforced and
sometimes eliminated altogether.
Example: Michael Chang (China): Saving Money

DYSTOPIAN

 Local Color Novel or regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the
characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region.
Example: Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
 Roman A Clef is a novel in which real persons or actual events figure under disguise.
Example: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
 Fable is a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as
characters.
Example: “The Lion and the Mouse” by Aesop
 Flash Fiction a style of literature in which stories are extremely short and often consist
of less than 300 words.
Example: “Chapter V” by Ernest Hemingway

EPISTOLARY NOVEL

 Picaresque Novel is a genre of prose fiction that depicts the adventures of a roguish, but
"appealing hero", of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt society.
Picaresque novels typically adopt a realistic style, with elements of comedy and satire.
 Example: Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache
 Novel of Social Protest also known as the social problem novel is a "work of fiction in
which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized
through its effect on the characters of a novel”.
Example: Amelia by Henry Fielding
 Allegory is a story within a story. It has a “surface story” and another story hidden
underneath. For example, the surface story might be about two neighbors throwing rocks
at each other’s homes, but the hidden story would be about war between countries. Some
allegories are very subtle, while others (like the rock-throwing example) can be more
obvious.
Example: Animal Farm by George Orwell
 Novella is a type of prose fiction, which is shorter than full length novels and longer than
short stories. It originates from an Italian word “novella“, which means “new.” It is a
well-structured yet short narrative; often satiric or realistic in tone.
Example: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

GOTHIC FICTION

 Philosophical Novel refers to the class of works of fiction which devote a significant
portion of their content to the sort of questions normally addressed in
discursive philosophy. These might include the function and role of society, the purpose
of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, and the role of experience
or reason in the development of knowledge.
Example: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
 Thesis Novel is a novel that advances, illustrates or defends a thesis
Example: Willa Cather’s short story, “Paul’s Case”
 Prose Satire is a genre of literature and performing arts, in which vices, follies, abuses,
and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals,
corporations, government, or society itself into improvement.
Example: Gulliver’s Travel by Jonathan Swift
 Graphic Novel is a story that is presented in a comic-strip format and published as a
book.
Example: 100 Bullets by Brian Azarello