Genres and Subgenres

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Genres and Subgenres

• Classifying Stories

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Genres and Subgenres

• Texts can be separated into groups
• called genres and subgenres.

Text
Genre
Subgenre
Banana
is a Food
is a Fruit
Harry Potter Book
is Fiction
is Fantasy
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Genres

• Fiction made-up creative or imaginative writing.
• Nonfiction writing that is true or factual.
• Folklore stories once passed down orally.
• Usually will say retold by or adapted by
• Dramas a work of storytelling in which the
  characters are represented by the actors and
  which is acted out on a stage before an audience.
  
• Poetry expresses how the poet feels, makes the
  reader see something ordinary in a new way, and
  tends to be rhythmic.

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Fiction Subgenres
Mystery
Fiction
Adventure
Realistic Fiction
Historical Fiction
Science Fiction
Fantasy
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Realistic Fiction

• Imaginative writing that accurately reflects life
  as it could be lived today.
• Everything in a realistic fiction story could
  actually happen to real people living in todays
  world.

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Science Fiction

• speculates on a world that, given what we know of
  science, might one day be possible.
• It stresses the scientific advancements (flying
  cars, robots, etc) and technological inventions
  could be scientifically possible.

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(Modern) Fantasy

• Fantasy creates another world for characters and
  readers, asking that the reader believe this
  other world could exist.
• Usually includes monsters, magic or super powers.

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• What distinguishes science fiction from fantasy
  is that fantasy presents a world that never was
  and never could be, while the world presented in
  science fiction may one day exist.

Why do these titles fall into both fantasy and
science fiction?
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Historical Fiction

• realistic stories that are based on real
  historical events that have happened in the past.
  
• There are three types of historical fiction. In
  one type, the author weaves a fictional story
  around actual events and people of the past.
• In another type, the story has little or no
  reference to recorded historical events or real
  people, but how the characters live and make
  their living and the conflicts they must resolve
  are true to the time period.
• In the third type, the story tells of the past
  through another genre, such as fantasy.

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Adventure

• a fast action story that includes suspense and
  risk, and some sort of quest, exploration, and/or
  journey.

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Mystery

• presents a puzzle or investigation to be solved.
• Mysteries contain a character who acts as the
  detective, and contain clues to help he reader
  solve the puzzle. Mysteries have a suspenseful
  mood and contain foreshadowing.

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• Realistic Fiction stories that could be true,
  but arent. (Holes, Diary of a Wimpy Kid)
• Science Fiction has aliens, advanced technology,
  or is set in the future. (Star Trek, Hunger
  Games)
• Historical Fiction a made up story set around a
  real event or person from history. (Titanic, Gone
  With the Wind)
• Fantasy has monsters, magic, or super
  powers.(Hobbit, Harry Potter, Eragon)
• Adventure a fast action story that includes
  suspense and risk, and some sort of quest,
  exploration, and/or journey.(Hatchet, Chronicles
  of Narnia)

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Nonfiction Subgenres
Nonfiction
Informational Writing
Essay/Speech /Article
Biography
Autobiography
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Informational Writing

• provides facts or information.
• Such as textbooks, how-to books, magazines,
  encyclopedias, etc

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Biography

• ones life story written by someone else.
• biolife
• graphywriting

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Autobiography

• ones life story written by oneself.
• Auto Self Bio Life Graphy Writing

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Essay/Article/Speech

• a writing or speech meant to inform or influence
  the reader/listener.

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Non-fiction and Historical Fiction

• Whats the difference?
• Non-fiction biographies and auto-biographies are
  written about the actual lives of real people
  while
• Historical fiction stories are made up stories
  that are usually set in an historical time period
  or around something that actually happened, but
  the characters dont really exist. Look for clues
  such as characters.

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Folklore Subgenres
Folklore
Fable
Fairy Tale
Tall Tale
Myth
Legend
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Fable

• very brief stories, usually with animal
  characters, that point clearly to a moral or
  lesson.
• Moral lesson of the story (clearly stated).

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Tall Tale

• Funny story usually set in the Wild West main
  characters size or skill exaggerated
• American tall tales are a combination of history,
  myth, and fact.

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Legend

• a story that might be true, but is exaggerated.
• stories that are similar to myth but are based on
  more historical truth and less upon the
  supernatural. Examples include Trojan War, Robin
  Hood, and King Arthur.

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Myth

• stories containing fanciful or supernatural
  incidents intended to explain nature and tell
  about gods and demons of early people.

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Fairy Tales

• tales of magic and the supernatural usually
  begin Once upon a time and end and they lived
  happily ever after.

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Fairytales Fantasies

• Both have monsters, magic, or talking animals.
• Whats the difference?
• Fairytales are part of the oral tradition.
• Usually it will say retold by or adapted by.
• Fairytales often start Once Upon a Time.

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Tips for Identifying

1. Find the main genre first
2. Look for details that reveal subgenre

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1

• The Lion and the Mouse
• Retold by Jerry Pinkney
• A Lion was sleeping when a Mouse woke him up.
  The Lion was about to eat him when the Mouse
  said, Free me and I shall never forget it who
  knows? I may help you some day." The Lion
  laughed so much at the idea of the Mouse being
  able to help him, that he let him go. Some time
  later the Lion was caught in a hunters trap. The
  little Mouse happened to pass by and, seeing the
  trapped Lion, he gnawed through the ropes and
  freed him. Little friends can be a big help.

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2

• War Brides
• By Helen Bryan
• 1939 as Britain prepares for war with Germany
  in World War II, the lives of five young women
  are about to collide in the sleepy Sussex
  village. Together they will face hardship,
  passion and danger, forming bonds of friendship
  that will inspire a desperate plan, And, fifty
  years later, an act of revenge ...

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3

• The Adventures of Robin Hood
• Adapted by Howard Pyle
• In this work, Pyle sorts through the many
  folktales concerning the mythical Robin Hood, who
  may have been a real person, and made them
  suitable for children. Robin Hood's dashing acts
  of wealth redistribution (from the rich to the
  poor) have captured the imagination and
  fascination of millions of delighted readers
  through the ages.

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4

• The Best Book of Sharks
• by Claire Llewellyn
• This beautiful book offers insight into the
  deep-sea lives of one of natures deadliest
  killing machines. Learn where sharks live, what
  they feed on, how they bear their young.

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5

• Escape From Earth (OASIS)
• by Ivis Bo Davis
• LEAVE EARTH OR DIE the electromagnetic field
  around the Earth is fading away. Soon the planet
  will burn, and everything and everyone on the
  planet will die. Deep Space Vessel Trisznov is
  the first human interstellar colony ship, and she
  is nearly ready to launch in search of a new
  habitable planet to colonize among the stars...

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6

• In My Time A Personal Political Memoir
• by Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney
• A written account by the Cheneys about their
  life by them.

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7

• Pecos Bill
• by Steven Kellogg and Laura Robb
• After falling off his parents wagon as a baby,
  Pecos Bill is raised by coyotes. He then becomes
  the toughest cowboy in the Wild West by wrestling
  giant bulls and outrunning a daemon horse.

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8

• Eclipse
• by Stephenie Meyer
• The story of Bella Swan and her vampire love,
  Edward Cullen. The novel explores Bella's choice
  between her love for Edward and her friendship
  with werewolf Jacob Black, along with her dilemma
  of leaving mortality behind in a terrorized
  atmosphere, a result of mysterious vampire
  attacks in Seattle.

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9

• Perseus The Hunt for Medusa's Head
• Adapted by Paul D. Storrie
• Could a monster whose very look turns men to
  stone be too perilous even for the son of Zeus?
  King Polydectes wants to get rid of young
  Perseus. So he tricks the young hero into
  performing an impossible task slaying the
  snake-haired monster Medusa. But as the son of
  Zeus, king of the gods, Perseus has many powerful
  allies. Will Perseus' strength and courage allow
  him to do the impossible?

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• A People's History of the United States
• by Howard Zinn
• Zinn tells the untold history of the United
  States by focusing on the unrepresented minority
  groups women, Native Americans, and African
  Americans. He covers the Bill of Rights to
  Clintons presidency and everything in between.