Lecture 3: The Idea of Genre

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:15]Hello dear learner once again very warm welcome to you all in this 8-week course entitled understanding literary genres and devices I am Dr. Dr. Vishal Singh, assistant professor in the department of English at Vasantaa College for women rajhat admitted to the privileges of Banaras Hindu University.

[00:00:42]This course has been designed in collaboration with professor Mandre Sunjunwala head department of English was college for women Raj Khart.

[00:00:54]Dear learner, in last lecture we tried to cover the concept of text and close reading.

[00:01:06]What does mean by text?

[00:01:09]What is its literal meaning and what is its deeper meaning?

[00:01:17]We also tried to talk about Ronald Baris meaning of what is text.

[00:01:23]Then we discussed about what is close reading and what are the ways by which we should approach a text and what are the characteristics and features of the close reading.

[00:01:42]This course is not only for the student of English literature but also for all of them who have interest in literature in reading and enjoying any text any work of art.

[00:02:02]Now moving forward in today's session we are going to deal with the idea of genre.

[00:02:14]Before beginning the session, let me talk about the outline of this lecture.

[00:02:22]What are the topics which we are going to cover in this lecture?

[00:02:28]So we'll define genre.

[00:02:31]What is genre?

[00:02:32]Functions of genre. Classical genres.

[00:02:37]Latter categorization of genre.

[00:02:40]Subzers and hybrid. Modern genre theory.

[00:02:45]Joner as a social construct.

[00:02:48]Jon versus forms versus mood. Let's take this question.

[00:02:56]What comes in our mind when we hear this word genre?

[00:03:01]How do we classify literature? Actually, why we need to classify it? We will deal with all these things.

[00:03:13]Does the division guide interpretation or limit creativity?

[00:03:20]For example, do we read a novel differently if it's called romance versus thriller?

[00:03:31]So this is a question to all of us.

[00:03:34]What comes in our mind when we are going to hear these different terms like psychological novel, historical novel, domestic novel.

[00:03:53]Why there are different terms for the same form of writing novel?

[00:03:59]If this division help us as a writer or as a reader to both of us we need to think over it.

[00:04:09]Moving forward what is there functions of genre before discussing this function as we had this question does this division guide interpretation or limit creativity.

[00:04:26]So yes from my side this division help us as a reader and also as a writer as a reader we have certain expectation from particular text and when we are going to choose a text we have this idea in our mind that we are going to get all these material in this text and as a writer we have certain parameter While we are writing a text, what is the road map for us?

[00:05:02]In which way I have to develop my text?

[00:05:05]In which way I have to develop my story or poem or anything any work of art. So from my side of course it is yes this division help us in reading or writing any text. Now how we'll discuss in this session? Let's talk about the definition of genre.

[00:05:28]Actually, a genre is a category or type of literary work that shares common features in form, a style or subject matter. It helps reader understand what to expect from a text and how to interpret it.

[00:05:54]about the literal meaning here also we can discuss genre is something category of literary composition with shared conventions.

[00:06:05]This word derived from Greek genoj which means category or we can say type of any literary work.

[00:06:16]How we classify any work? How we distinguish any work of art into categories on the basis of its style, its theme, its approach and elements of this work of art.

[00:06:34]Like for example, we have epic, tragedy, comedy, lyric, novel.

[00:06:44]In broader sense we have form approach, poetry, drama, anything. But when we are going to narrow down these forms as I just discussed novel, there will be historical novel, psychological novel, epistolary novel, Gothic novel, there may be anything. So this further categorization on the basis of its content and style that is called genre.

[00:07:14]This is not very rigid. This is dynamic.

[00:07:17]Why I'm saying it is dynamic? Because there's a flexibility.

[00:07:23]We can mix two kind of approach. We can mix two kind of a style in one work of art.

[00:07:30]So that it is a flexible as I already discussed it reveals expectation of either writer or reader both. It also helps readers to anticipate meaning.

[00:07:48]For example, if you are going to read detective fiction, you must be expecting that there will be a crime, there will be certain mystery and the at the end of the story there will be you know uh revelation of the suspense.

[00:08:04]So this is expectation of reader from a detective fiction and at the same time if you are a writer and you are writing detective fiction. So what you will do you will try to develop your story in that particular way which will deal with the crime and at the end resolving the mystery resolving the suspense.

[00:08:29]What are the functions of genre? Why we are categorizing genre and what are the functions of genre as I already said because of the reader's expectation from a particular text because of the writer's guidelines or you may say road map on which way he she has to develop his her text and about the cultural framework also it actually distinguishes among the huge range of text helps in organization, expectation and critique.

[00:09:09]Writers know what they are writing and readers know how to approach a text.

[00:09:19]Now let's talk about the origin, history or development of the genre.

[00:09:26]How it began the journey of genre.

[00:09:29]So in the very beginning we had classical genres which is still with us.

[00:09:36]So what were those genres there we have a very well-known name Aristotal who has written several books but two well-known books surviving with us. One is rhetoric which talks about art of speaking and there is poetics which talks about art of writing.

[00:09:59]In poetics there are 26 chapters and Aristotal has discussed explained in that about the genre.

[00:10:10]He basically or you may say in a major way he has discussed about tragedy, epic and comedy on the basis of its form, mood, purpose. He categorizes any literary work or work of art in these three categories and he has also discussed importance of these and which one is superior and which one is inferior. It has been also discussed by Aristotal in his book poetics.

[00:10:46]Basically this book dealt with the tragedy as Aristotal has given more importance to tragedy and less importance to comedy.

[00:10:56]How tragedy used to immediate action of serious people in a serious manner while comedy used to immediate action of lower kind of people. When he's saying lower means means who are lower in their behavior in their manner even in the society.

[00:11:16]So an epic dealt with a heroic theme, grand style and about the certain hero.

[00:11:27]For example, we have epic like Ramayana, Mahabharata.

[00:11:35]In English we have Iliot. In tragedy there are several example in classic classical classical time we have these text odipus rex and all but in later when we will read in Elizabeth and age we have mcbth hamlet ollo kinglier four great tragedies by william xpier in comedy also he has given you example from the classical period let's say strata but writer. We have so many comedies and it has been also divided into different categories. Comedy of manner, comedy of humor, comedy of intrigue.

[00:12:17]We have best example for comedy of manner way of the world which used to ridicule satarize the manner or lifestyle of the upper class of the society especially dealt with the theme of sexuality, adultery and all those kind of things. We cannot go in detail about that.

[00:12:39]We'll discuss it later.

[00:12:42]Now later categorization of genre moving forward from there is total at that time we had only these three tragedy, comedy and epic.

[00:12:55]Later we have in medual time especially in the field of play or you mean in drama we have miracle plays, morality plays, mystery plays.

[00:13:10]This was a kind of religious writing based on the story of Bible based on the life of saints and also about some religious stories.

[00:13:22]We had these kind of plays.

[00:13:25]Later it got expanded in neocclassical time. What we had neocclassical age which was known for the rules imitiation just copying from the past copying Greek masters.

[00:13:41]We had a so many great writers at that time in neocclassical age. We had Alexander Pope. We had Jonathan Swift.

[00:13:50]We had Dryen so many well-known at that time and how there were different kind of forms of writing got developed at that time.

[00:14:02]Periodical essay came.

[00:14:06]Then in tresd we had revenged and allegory romance even traic comedy. For traic comedy we have best example tempest by William Shakespeare. So these genre got developed in the with the time in medual age in uh renaissance period.

[00:14:29]Then we have example for Dante's divine comedy which blends epic plus allegory.

[00:14:35]Then Shakespeare's blending tragedy comedy and history. Shakespeare has also written so many history plays Henry Ford and all. Then trajic comedy blending after SDN comedy as I just discussed tempest. It has been also called a kind of farewell of Shakespeare from the stage.

[00:14:59]That is example after Z comedy. Then moving forward in 18th and 19th century how genre got developed lyric poetry, personal expressions, novels especially we can see origin and development of the English novel in this period with the four pillars of English novel.

[00:15:27]Henry Fielding, Thomas Smlet, Samuel Richardson's, Lawrence even sometime we used to call Daniel Defoy also with these people. So how novel got developed in English literature that is also a matter of discussion when because of the Puritan period because of the Oliver Cromwell and Richard Cromwell theater were being closed and also because poetry was a difficult for common people and literacy rate was increasing. So this novel got developed at that time and in the novel especially in pre-romantic age somewhere in 1740 to 1798 this Gothic novel came with Mary Sely Frankestine. So this was also kind of experiment with the genre in pre-romantic age when they started to write Gothic novel. So see how this this genre is getting developed with the time from Aristotal and moving forward in medual period. Then in 18th and 19th century in lyric poetry we have Alfred Lord Tennyson who has written bre poem. This is a kind of example of lyric poem.

[00:16:52]Then after this we have modern approach development in the genre about the modern approach. So what is that and why this kind of development came in this genre?

[00:17:08]We all know we had world war. World war first then world war second and modern period got influenced too much by the world war. Millions of the people got uh death. They died and remaining most of the people were wounded. Family lost their loved ones and were surviving they were also facing too much struggle in their life. Amputed leg, amputed arm. This was a situation of modern age.

[00:17:45]After Victorian age what happened already there was industrialization.

[00:17:50]People had a kind of confusion towards religion and science. It was a kind of is of confusion and also is of compromise. Either they had to believe in the the story of Bible about the Adam and you or they had to move forward with the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin. So they were already confused and after that 1837 to 1900 when Victorian age got finished we came in the modern period. So because of this world war, because of the anxiety, because of the estress, because of the depression from which people were suffering, they started to do experiment.

[00:18:36]And it was not only experiment in the content, but they also started experiment in the style of writing.

[00:18:45]They said now break from the past. We are not going to follow anything from the past.

[00:18:50]Forget about the patriotism. Forget about the religious notion. Forget about all those things. Whatever was prevailing in the past. Now we are moving forward with our own understanding and we are not going to follow anything what was there in the past. So it was a complete break from the tradition. It was complete break from the past. Then it came free verse.

[00:19:15]They said that we are not going to follow rhyme scheme any pattern in the poetry while we are writing poems. So we had a very great example by Waltwit man.

[00:19:24]He was using free verse. Oh captain my captain. We can read it as an example of free verse. Letter read James Joyce uh who has written Ulyses a portrait of the artist as young man and a portrait of the artist as a young man is a best example of the experimental novel though it has been also called building Roman why because the protagonist Stephan Dedelus is developing in the novel developing doesn't mean developing physically He is developing psychologically.

[00:20:04]You will see the story in the beginning how he has been explained as a a theist and later you will see he's going to become a priest. He's deciding that he will become a priest. person who was a theist in the beginning now want to become priest and later at the end of the novel you will see that he again left religion and he said that I will become a writer because writer is free from all those we cannot explain entire story a person who was in mood to become priest he had also visited prostitutes in his life he was living a life which was considered considered in Victorian age even after that also a immoral life an unethical life he was living that so we can see how writer is experimenting with the content and let's talk about the language if you'll read text of the novel you'll find in the very beginning what he's saying once upon a time there was a macau so language of the novel is a very childish in the beginning and at the end of the novel till The fifth chapter if you will approach the text you will find the no language is going to be very complex one.

[00:21:22]So writers they started to do experiment not only in their content but also in their writing style. There are several examples Virginia Wolf Henry James you just read to the lighthouse by Virginia Wolf read Mrs. Zoe how they started to talk about subjective things not objective things. They started to talk about their own self not about the society not about the entire nation.

[00:21:56]They focused on inner psyche about the psychology of the human being.

[00:22:01]So this kind of genre got developed in the modern age with the James Joy and all.

[00:22:09]Now subjres and hybrids. There are certain subjres as I already discussed.

[00:22:15]Historical novel, psychological novel, there are detective fiction which deals with the mystery, dealt with the crime.

[00:22:23]Then science fiction in which we can imagine about the future. We can talk about the scientific innovation and we can set our story in the future somewhere from our time 100 years after your time what will happen you are just imagining about that about the machines about the robot and all that is science fiction and you you are correlating with with the life of common man then horror in horror novel and gothic novel what happens though these are subjres but I'm talking about novel also In horror genre what happened? gloomy castle, some kind of graveyard. In poetry, especially in pre-romantic poetry, if you'll read about the graveyard poetry, there are great poets like Edward Ang, Robert Blair, Thomas Gray, they have written about the graveyard, they have written about the death, what happens after the death inside of the grave. Even they have also discussed about that how insects are going to deteriorate your body after the death. sometime very repulsive explanation but this is also kind of genre of poem of novel of anything then magical realism we have a very well-known name in this field Salman Razdi how you are going to mix your fantasy with the history that is called magical realism blends magical elements with everyday reality treating the extraordinary as normal.

[00:23:59]You can read about the Salim Sai in Midnight Children. How Salman Rdi has narrated, how Salman Razdi through his character Salim Sinai presented or explained the story of independence, a story of the freedom of India and also he's correlating that story with the life of Salins. So that is a kind of blend with the reality and with the fiction that is magical realism.

[00:24:29]And about the hybrid genres, what are the hybrid genres? When you are going to blend two kinds of style, two kinds of writing in one writing.

[00:24:42]For example, you may take poetic play.

[00:24:45]What is poetic play?

[00:24:48]What we know that play plays are written in pro form though play were written to perform not to read but we are reading it. So what is there it is supposed to be written in the approach form but there are chorus there are some poetic lines so that we have poetic play that is also kind of hybrid genre. We have pro poetry sometime we used to call it projic poem. What is there that will not follow any rhyme scheme that will not follow any musical pattern and that is called pros poetry. So how you are blending pro and poetry together because genre is poetry and you're writing it in a pro form. Though if you will go in the romantic age you will find what Wsworth was saying that there is no essential difference between the language approach and poetry but at the same time his contemporary estriies he's saying that I used to write poetry with the rhyme why because this is the thing which makes different between pro and poetry I'm not quoting exact line I'm just trying to tell you the summary of that what cridge had said on that theory of poetic diction of words.

[00:26:07]We have lyrical novel also. What are these lyrical novel? Lyrical novel blends poetic language and emotional expression with a narrative structure focusing more on mood, feeling and reflections than on plot.

[00:26:25]For example, the same text you can take James Joyce a portrait of the artist as hangman. So what has been explained in that novel focusing more on mood, feelings and reflections than on plot. So we can see in that novel the plot is not so well connected with each and other event from one to another event. Why? Because this is also kind of semi-autobiographical novel and James Joy is trying to explain his own life through the stepless protagonist.

[00:26:59]In a way he's a mouthpiece of James Joyce. So major focus is on the psychological development of the protagonist not on the plot or on the story. Somewhere is going in the flashback. You know how the use of a stream of consciousness came in the modern age. Flashback. A stream of consciousness. All these techniques came in the modern age. Free words. Why?

[00:27:24]because they were experimenting with the their writing not only of with the content but also with the style of their writing.

[00:27:36]Moving forward in modern genre theory we have Mikail Baktin and we have Jotin Todd Ro. So what was their approach?

[00:27:45]They were saying that genres are historically and socially conditioned evolving over time with cultural and literary changes. They said there is not fixed segregation between the genre. They are getting affected with the history culture and all.

[00:28:05]Jet and Todoro has said genres are not fixed. They are flexible and constantly changing adopting to new contexts and readers expectations.

[00:28:19]So as we already know that in modern age things were getting mixed with each other. Genres are getting blend to each other and writers were experimenting their writing.

[00:28:30]Now talking about genre as a social construct. What is that?

[00:28:37]genres are saved by social, cultural and historical context rather than being purely literary categories.

[00:28:47]They reflect society's values, norms and expectations guiding both writers in creating text and readers in interpreting them.

[00:28:59]So as we started in the very beginning, genres are uh the thing through which reader is going to expect what we are going to read, what we are going to find in this text and writers are going to create their road map that how we have to develop our text.

[00:29:21]So here we see that genres reflect society's needs and aesthetics.

[00:29:29]For example, now we have emergence of sci-fi with technology.

[00:29:34]Now moving forward, let's compare genre versus forms versus mood.

[00:29:42]Just we have to do the comparison. What is genre and what is form and what is mood? How they're different from each other and how they're related to each other also. So genre as we discussed system of classifying works by style, theme and conventions.

[00:29:59]I mean about its content, about its material, what we are going to write inside of that form. Examples it may be essay, maybe novel, maybe autobiography, maybe travel but even in the novel maybe different kind of novel that is a kind of genre. In form we know form is something which is based on the structure of the work. What kind of language have been used? What kind of vocab have been used and what is pattern of writing? What is the syntax of that writing that comes under the form?

[00:30:41]For example, we have major forms pro, poetry, drama, fiction. Even under the fiction, we have different thing novel, short story and noa about mood, it is manner or attitude of presentation. What I discussed in the very beginning when Aristotal was explaining about the different genre, he has also mentioned about the mood. How novel is in a form of narration while drama is in a form of performance.

[00:31:19]So mood means manner or attitude of representation.

[00:31:24]It may be satire, maybe romance, maybe realism. Especially neocclassical age if you will read text like uh Guliver travels by Jonathan Swift you will find how he was satarizing the British government at that time and policies of British government towards the Ireland because Jonathan Sipp was an Irish and he has explained very well he has criticized British government and its policies at that time while he was writing this novel Guliver travels.

[00:32:01]So satire was a very prevailing uh kind of uh mood or genre of the writing at that time in neocclassical age. There was Alexander Pope there was Jean Dryen, there was Jonathan all of them have used satire as a major tool in their writing.

[00:32:17]We know genre is a category of literary work defined by share features in form, style or subject matter helping both writers and readers understand and interpret text. Its function includes guiding reader expectations, providing writerly conventions and reflecting a cultural framework.

[00:32:46]We discussed about the classical genre in today's session. How it begin with the total in the form of tragedy, comedy and epic. We also discussed about the medual genre in the form of miracle play, morality play, interlude, mystery plays and also in Elizabeth and how there was a revenge tdy, there was a taiic comedy. Moving forward, we also discussed in today's session about modern genre theory, about Mikail Baktin's approach, about uh Jetan Tooro approach, how genres are not fixed, they are flexible and constantly changing, adopting to new context and reader expectation. We also discussed about the uh modern age how genre got changed and how there came free verse there came a stream of consciousness there came buildings Roman count's Roman and psychological novel how attitude or approach of the writer shifted from the society to oneself from the outer world to the inner world and they started to talk about the anxiety stress depression and all that these elements came in their writing as a theme. So we discussed all these things in this uh session. Now I will just say genre is something which is a very useful tool but also a creative boundary. It has a creative boundary and the at the end genre is not a prison but a playground where we can play. We can play with our ideas. We can play with our emotion. We can play with our creativity.

[00:34:38]We can create different kind of genre.

[00:34:41]We can write in different genre on the basis of needs, demand and likeness. So thank you all for today's session. It's all happy learning. Thank you so much for being connected.