CNF_LESSON1

Literary Genres
It seems like there is an infinite amount of genres in literature, but in reality, there are actually
many sub-genres. These sub-genres stem from the three primary forms of literature: Poetry, Drama,
and Prose. Students will typically encounter these forms of literature for most of what they read and
write about in school, so it’s important for students to be able to recognize them and know their key
characteristics.
Main Literary Genres
Poetry
Poetry is the most intense form of writing. It allows a writer to express his or her
deepest emotions and thoughts in a very personal way. It relies heavily on figurative language,
rhythm, and imagery to relay its message to readers.
Primary Sub-Genres of Poetry
 Songs and Ballads
 Lyric
 Epic
 Dramatic
 Narrative
Drama
Drama is a literary work written to be performed in front of an audience. It contains
dialogue, and actors impersonate the characters. It is usually divided into acts or scenes, and
relies on props or imaginative dialogue to create a visual experience for the audience.
Primary Sub-Genres of Drama
Tragedy
Comedy
History
Melodrama
Musical
Prose
Prose is the most common form of writing. It is not restricted by rhythm or dialogue, and
it most closely resembles everyday speech. It is usually straightforward, and may utilize
figurative language, dialogue, characters, and imagery.
Prose writing is often divided into two primary categories:
Fiction
Fiction is narrative writing that originates from the author’s imagination. It is designed to
entertain, but it can also inspire, inform, or persuade.
Primary Sub-Genres of Fiction
 Novel
 Novella
 Short Story
 Myths and Legends
 Fables
Nonfiction
Nonfiction is writing that is based on true events, people, places, and facts. It is designed
to inform, and sometimes to entertain.
Primary Sub-Genres of Nonfiction
 Autobiography
 Biography
 Essay
 Diaries and Journals
 Narrative Nonfiction
 WHAT IS CREATIVE NON FICTION?
For many, the label “creative nonfiction” is still somewhat awkward. Also known as
literary or narrative nonfiction, the genre is almost as difficult to define as it is to name. It is
perhaps easier to start with what creative nonfiction does NOT include: technical or
instructional works, conventional newspaper reportage, and nonfiction work characterized
by a neutral (so-called objective) third person perspective.
Characteristic of creative nonfiction is a personal, identifiable voice. The writer is
usually quite present in the text. Works of creative nonfiction include – but are not limited to –
memoirs, biography, historical investigation, literary journalism, political commentary, social
or cultural criticism, and essays that are personal or lyric or narrative.
The emphasis in creative nonfiction is on the use of inventive and dramatic techniques
when writing about the actual world rather than a fictional one. The adjective “creative” in
creative nonfiction is occasionally misunderstood. Being creative in their work does not
license nonfiction writers to invent facts or imagine experiences as fiction writers do. Creative
nonfiction allows its writers to access the same techniques available to fiction writers without
misrepresenting the actual events in their work.
Creative nonfiction is a genre of creative writing that treats factual material in a
literary manner. It applies techniques drawn from literary fiction and poetry to content that
might be at home in a magazine or textbook. Also known as literary nonfiction, narrative
nonfiction, and verfabula, it’s both stylish and accurate. At its very best, CNF marries the
technical virtuosity of a well-crafted novel with the fact-checked rigor of
reporting.
COMMON CREATIVE NONFICTION GENRES AND FORMS
1. MEMOIR
A memoir is a narrative, written from the perspective of the
author, about an important part of their life. It’s often conflated with
autobiography, but there are a few important differences. An
autobiography is also written from the author’s perspective, but the
narrative spans their entire life. Although it’s subjective, it primarily
focuses on facts – the who-what-when-where-why-how of their life’s
entire timeline.
Example: The Diary of a Teenage Girl
2. PERSONAL ESSAYS
Personal essays condense the first-person focus and intimate scope of the memoir into a
smaller, tighter package. As a result, they tend to be more restricted in scope — tunneling
down into a single theme or narrative strand within the vast library of the author’s personal
experience.
A personal essay is a short work of autobiographical nonfiction characterized by a sense of
intimacy and a conversational manner. Also called a personal statement.
3. BIOGRAPHIES
Biographies can be monumental works of historical scholarship, written in the dense,
chalk-dusted prose of the academy and filled with painstaking endnotes in Latin and Greek.
A biography is a description of a real person’s life, including factual details as well as
stories from the person’s life. Biographies usually include information about the subject’s
personality and motivations, and other kinds of intimate details excluded in a general
overview or profile of a person’s life. The vast majority of biography examples are written
about people who are or were famous, such as politicians, actors, athletes, and so on.
However, some biographies can be written about people who lived incredible lives, but were
not necessarily well-known. A biography can be labelled “authorized” if the person being
written about, or his or her family members, have given permission for a certain author to
write the biography.