University Cheikh Amoud Ben Mokhtar _ILLIZI

FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

Department of English

Literary Genres
 The Meaning of Genres
The Genre /ˈ(d)ʒɒnrə/
is a specific style or category
of art, music, or literature.

For Example:
Your favorite literary genre might be
science fiction, and your favorite movie
genre might be horror .In music, genre
refers to musical style such as jazz, salsa
or rock.
 Main Genres in Literature
• There is a lot, but they are all under just three
major genres. The rest are all sub-genres. The
three major genres are:

Prose Poetry Drama

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 Myths & Legends
• A traditional story, especially one concerning
the early history of a people or explaining a
natural or social phenomenon, and typically
involving supernatural beings or events.
 Horror and Mystery
• Mystery fiction includes police investigations, private
detective, and crime has already been happened
(usually a murder) and the story is about to find out
who did it. Horror fiction includes gothic and
paranormal stories.
• E.g.,
• Frankenstein. by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.
• Dracula. by Bram Stoker.
• 'Young Goodman Brown' by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
• 'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe.
 Historicals fiction & Realistic ficion
• Historical fiction is a form of fiction based on
historical events. Some characters may be actual
people from history, but the story is fictional.
• Realistic fiction is a story that can really happen in
the real life. The setting is real and the characters act
and speak as real people.
( real life & events)
Drama and Poetry
• Drama in literature refers to the
performance of written dialogue and
stage action. It's a literary genre that
allows actors to act out a writer's
fiction. There are the four main
types of drama Tragedy, comedy,
tragicomedy, and melodrama.
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