genre category of creative works based on stylistic andor thematic criteria this article is about the concept of genres for a list of genres see list of genres for genre studies or genre theory see genre studies for other uses see genre disambiguation genre from french genre meaning kind sort is any form or type of communication in any mode written spoken digital artistic etc with sociallyagreed upon conventions developed over time genre is most popularly known as a category of literature music or other forms of art or entertainment whether written or spoken audio or visual based on some set of stylistic criteria yet genres can be aesthetic rhetorical communicative or functional genres form by conventions that change over time as cultures invent new genres and discontinue the use of old ones often works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions standalone texts works or pieces of communication may have individual styles but genres are amalgams of these texts based on agreedupon or socially inferred conventions some genres may have rigid strictly adheredto guidelines while others may show great flexibility genre began as an absolute classification system for ancient greek literature poetry odes epics etc prose and performance each had a specific and calculated style that related to the theme of the story speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy and even actors were restricted to their genre under the assumption that a type of person could tell one type of story best in later periods genres proliferated and developed in response to changes in audiences and creators genre became a dynamic tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictable art because art is often a response to a social state in that people writepaintsingdance about what they know about the use of genre as a tool must be able to adapt to changing meanings genre suffers from the ills of any classification system it has been suggested argue that the genius of an effective genre piece is in the variation recombination and evolution of the codes visual arts a genre painting peasant dance c 1568 by pieter brueghel the elder the term genre is much used in the history and criticism of visual art but in art history has meanings that overlap rather confusingly genre painting is a term for paintings where the main subject features human figures to whom no specific identity attaches in other words figures are not portraits characters from a story or allegorical personifications these are distinguished from staffage incidental figures in what is primarily a landscape or architectural painting genre painting may also be used as a wider term covering genre painting proper and other specialized types of paintings such as stilllife landscapes marine paintings and animal paintings the concept of the hierarchy of genres was a powerful one in artistic theory especially between the 17th and 19th centuries it was strongest in france where it was associated with the acadmie franaise which held a central role in academic art the genres in hierarchical order are history painting including narrative religious mythological and allegorical subjects portrait painting genre painting or scenes of everyday life landscape landscapists were the common footmen in the army of art according to the dutch theorist samuel van hoogstraten and cityscape animal painting still life literature literature major forms novel poem drama short story novella genres comedy drama epic erotic nonsense lyric mythopoeia romance satire tragedy tragicomedy media performance play book techniques prose poetry history and lists history modern outline glossary of terms books writers literary awards poetry discussion criticism theory critical theory sociology magazines literature portalvte literary genre and list of literary genres a literary genre is a category of literary composition genres may be determined by literary technique tone content or even as in the case of fiction length genre should not be confused with age category by which literature may be classified as either adult young adult or childrens they also must not be confused with format such as graphic novel or picture book the distinctions between genres and categories are flexible and loosely defined often with subgroups the most general genres in literature are in loose chronological order epic tragedy comedy novel and short story they can all be in the genres prose or poetry which shows best how loosely genres are defined additionally a genre such as satire might appear in any of the above not only as a subgenre but as a mixture of genres finally they are defined by the general cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed in popular fiction which is especially divided by genres genre fiction is the more usual term in literature genre has been known as an intangible taxonomy this taxonomy implies a concept of containment or that an idea will be stable foreverthe earliest recorded systems of genre in western history can be traced back to plato and aristotle grard genette a french literary theorist and author of the architext describes plato as creating three imitational genres dramatic dialogue pure narrative and epic a mixture of dialogue and narrative lyric poetry the fourth and final type of greek literature was excluded by plato as a nonmimetic mode aristotle later revised platos system by eliminating the pure narrative as a viable mode and distinguishing by two additional criteria the object to be imitated as objects could be either superior or inferior and the medium of presentation such as words gestures or verse essentially the three categories of mode object and medium can be visualized along an xyz axis excluding the criteria of medium aristotles system distinguished four types of classical genres tragedy superiordramatic dialogue epic superiormixed narrative comedy inferiordramatic dialogue and parody inferiormixed narrative genette continues by explaining the later integration of lyric poetry into the classical system during the romantic period replacing the now removed pure narrative mode lyric poetry once considered nonmimetic was deemed to imitate feelings becoming the third leg of a new tripartite system lyrical epical and dramatic dialogue this system which came to dominate all the literary theory of german romanticism and therefore well beyond 38 has seen numerous attempts at expansion or revision however more ambitious efforts to expand the tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing scope and complexity genette reflects upon these various systems comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement its structure is somewhat superior tothose that have come after fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy which each time immediately brings the whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse 74 taxonomy allows for a structured classification system of genre as opposed to a more contemporary rhetorical model of genre film film genre the basic genres of film can be regarded as drama in the feature film and most cartoons and documentary most dramatic feature films especially from hollywood fall fairly comfortably into one of a long list of film genres such as the western war film horror film romantic comedy film musical crime film and many others many of these genres have a number of subgenres for example by setting or subject or a distinctive national style for example in the indian bollywood musical music music genre a music genre is a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions music can be divided into different genres in several ways the artistic nature of music means that these classifications are often arbitrary and controversial and some genres may overlap there are several academic approaches to genres in his book form in tonal music douglass m green lists madrigal motet canzona ricercar and dance as examples of genres from the renaissance period according to green beethovens op 61 and mendelssohns op 64 are identical in genre both are violin concertos but different in form however mozarts rondo for piano k 511 and the agnus dei from his mass k 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form others such as allan f moore state that genre and style are two separate terms and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres a music genre or subgenre may be defined by the musical techniques the styles the context and content and spirit of the themes geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre though a single geographical category will often include a wide variety of subgenres several music scholars have criticised the priority accorded to genrebased communities and listening practices for example laurie argues that music genres do not belong to isolated selfsufficient communities people constantly move between environments where diverse forms of music are heard advertised and accessorised with distinctive iconographies narratives and celebrity identities that also touch on nonmusical worlds popular culture and other media this section does not cite any sources please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed may 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message the concept of genre is often applied sometimes rather loosely to other media with an artistic element such as video game genres genre and numerous minutely divided subgenres affect popular culture very significantly not least as they are used to classify it for publicity purposes the vastly increased output of popular culture in the age of electronic media encourages dividing cultural products by genre to simplify the search for products by consumers a trend the internet has only intensified linguistics in philosophy of language genre figures prominently in the works of philosopher and literary scholar mikhail bakhtin bakhtins basic observations were of speech genres the idea of heteroglossia modes of speaking or writing that people learn to mimic weave together and manipulate such as formal letter and grocery list or university lecture and personal anecdote in this sense genres are socially specified recognized and defined often informally by a particular culture or community the work of georg lukcs also touches on the nature of literary genres appearing separately but around the same time 1920s1930s as bakhtin norman fairclough has a similar concept of genre that emphasizes the social context of the text genres are different ways of interacting discoursally fairclough 2003 26 a texts genre may be determined by its linguistic function formal traits textual organization relation of communicative situation to formal and organizational traits of the text charaudeau and maingueneau 2002278280 rhetoric in the field of rhetoric genre theorists usually understand genres as types of actions rather than types or forms of texts she reasons that these recurring responses become typified that is socially constructed as recognizable types miller argues that these typified rhetorical actions p151 are properly understood as genres building off of miller charles bazerman and clay spinuzzi have argued that genres understood as actions derive their meaning from other genres that is other actions bazerman therefore proposes that we analyze genres in terms of genre systems this tradition has had implications for the teaching of writing in american colleges and universities combining rhetorical genre theory with activity theory david russell has proposed that standard english composition courses are illsuited to teach the genres that students will write in other contexts across the university and beyond history this concept of genre originated from the classification systems created by plato plato divided literature into the three classic genres accepted in ancient greece poetry drama and prose poetry is further subdivided into epic lyric and drama the divisions are recognized as being set by aristotle and plato however they were not the only ones many genre theorists added to these accepted forms of poetry classical and romance genre theory the earliest recorded systems of genre in western history can be traced back to plato and aristotle grard genette explains his interpretation of the history of genre in the architext he described plato as the creator of three imitational mimetic genres distinguished by mode of imitation rather than content these three imitational genres include dramatic dialogue the drama pure narrative the dithyramb and a mixture of the two the epic plato excluded lyric poetry as a nonmimetic imitational mode genette further discussed how aristotle revised platos system by first eliminating the pure narrative as a viable mode he then uses two additional criteria to distinguish the system the first of the criteria is the object to be imitated whether superior or inferior the second criterion is the medium of presentation words gestures or verse essentially the three categories of mode object and medium can be visualized along an xyz axis excluding the criteria of medium aristotles system distinguished four types of classical genres tragedy epic comedy and parody genette explained the integration of lyric poetry into the classical system by replacing the removed pure narrative mode lyric poetry once considered nonmimetic was deemed to imitate feelings becoming the third architext a term coined by gennette of a new longenduring tripartite system lyrical epical the mixed narrative and dramatic the dialogue this new system that came to dominate all the literary theory of german romanticism genette 38 has seen numerous attempts at expansion and revision such attempts include friedrich schlegels triad of subjective form the lyric objective form the dramatic and subjectiveobjective form the epic however more ambitious efforts to expand the tripartite system resulted in new taxonomic systems of increasing complexity gennette reflected upon these various systems comparing them to the original tripartite arrangement its structure is somewhat superior to most of those that have come after fundamentally flawed as they are by their inclusive and hierarchical taxonomy which each time immediately brings the whole game to a standstill and produces an impasse culture genre is embedded in culture but may clash with it at times there are occasions in which a cultural group may not be inclined to keep within the set structures of a genre anthony pares studied inuit social workers in genre and identity individuals institutions and ideology in this study pare described the conflict between the genre of inuit social workers record keeping forms and the cultural values that prohibited them from fully being able to fulfill the expectations of this genre amy devitt further expands on the concept of culture in her 2004 essay a theory of genre by adding culture defines what situations and genres are likely or possible devitt 24 genre not only coexists with culture but also defines its very components genres abound in daily life and people often work within them unconsciously people often take for granted their prominence and ever present residence in society devitt touches on millers idea of situation but expands on it and adds that the relationship with genre and situation is reciprocal individuals may find themselves shaping the rhetorical situations which in turn affect the rhetorical responses that arise out of the situation because the social workers worked closely with different families they did not want to disclose many of the details that are standard in the genre of record keeping related to this field giving out such information would violate close cultural ties with the members of their community audiences although genres are not always precisely definable genre considerations are one of the most important factors in determining what a person will see or read the classification properties of genre can attract or repel potential users depending on the individuals understanding of a genre genre creates an expectation in that expectation is met or not many genres have builtin audiences and corresponding publications that support them such as magazines and websites inversely audiences may call out for change in an antecedent genre and create an entirely new genre the term may be used in categorizing web pages like news page and fan page with both very different layout audience and intention rosso 2008 some search engines like vivsimo try to group found web pages into automated categories in an attempt to show various genres the search hits might fit subgenre a subgenre is a subordinate within a genre two stories being the same genre can still sometimes differ in subgenre for example if a fantasy story has darker and more frightening elements of fantasy it would belong in the subgenre of dark fantasy whereas another fantasy story that features magic swords and wizards would belong to the subgenre of sword and sorcery microgenre microgenre list of genres citations bakhtin mikhail m 1983 epic and novel in holquist michael the dialogic imagination four essays austin university of texas press isbn0292715277 charaudeau p maingueneau d and adam j dictionnaire danalyse du discours seuil 2002 devitt amy j a theory of genre writing genres carbondale southern illinois university press 2004 132 fairclough norman analysing discourse textual analysis for social research routledge 2003 genette grard the architext an introduction 1979 berkeley university of california press 1992 jamieson kathleen m antecedent genre as rhetorical constraint quarterly journal of speech 61 1975 406415 killoran john b the gnome in the front yard and other public figurations genres of selfpresentation on personal home pages biography 261 2003 6683 2007 lacapra dominick history and genre comment new literary history 172 1986 219221 miller carolyn genre as social action quarterly journal of speech 70 1984 15167 rosso mark userbased identification of web genres journal of the american society for information science and technology 59 2008 10531072 pare anthony genre and identity the rhetoric and ideology of genre strategies for stability and change eds richard m coe lorelei lingard and tatiana teslenko creskill nj hampton press 2002 sullivan ceri 2007 disposable elements indications of genre in early modern titles modern language review 1023 pp64153 look up genre in wiktionary the free dictionary wikidata has the property genre p136 see uses library resources about genre resources in your library genres of film at the internet movie database helping children understand literary genres rhetorica genre museum of broadcast communications dictionarycom vtefilm genresby style action arthouse heroic bloodshed hong kong action adventure survival art biographical christian comedy black commedia allitaliana commedia sexy allitaliana bromantic dramedy gross out horror parody mo lei tau thriller remarriage romantic sex screwball silent slapstick documentary animated docudrama mockumentary mondo pseudo semi travel drama dramedy historical legal melodrama korean erotic commedia sexy allitaliana pink sexploitation thriller educational social guidance epic swordandsandal experimental exploitation see exploitation film template fantasy comic contemporary fairy tale fantastique high historical magic realism science film noir bad girl neonoir occult detective pulp noir tech noir gothic romance southern space suburban urban horror body cannibal comedy eco fantastique found footage german underground ghost giallo holiday japanese korean lovecraftian mumblegore natural new french extremity occult detective psychobiddy psychological religious science fiction slasher splatter satanic mumblecore mumblegore musical backstage jukebox musicarello operetta sceneggiata mystery giallo occult detective pornographic hardcore pornography softcore pornography propaganda reality romantic comedy bromantic fantasy gothic paranormal thriller science fiction comic cyberpunk fantastique fantasy gothic horror military mundane new wave parallel universe planetary romance space opera steampunk western thriller comedy conspiracy erotic financial giallo legal new french extremity political psychological romantic techno transgressive cinema of transgression new french extremity trick by theme animals beach party blaxploitation body swap bourekas buddy buddy cop female cannibal chicano colonial comingofage concert crime gentleman thief gongan heist hood gangster mafia mafia comedy poliziotteschi yakuza gokud dance disaster apocalyptic drug psychedelic stoner dystopian economic ethnographic extraterrestrial food and drink funny animal gendaigeki ghost goonagoona epic gothic romance southern space suburban urban ecchi girls with guns harem hentai tentacle erotica lolicon kait magical girl mecha shotacon yaoi yuri homeland jidaigeki lgbt luchador martial arts bruceploitation chopsocky gun fu kung fu wuxia mecha mexploitation monster giant monster jiangshi kaiju vampire werewolf zombie mountain mouth of garbage muslim social nature environmental issues opera outlaw biker ozploitation partisan film pirate prison women race rape and revenge road rubble rumberas samurai sexploitation bavarian porn commedia sexy allitaliana mexican sex comedy nazi exploitation pornochanchada nunsploitation sex report shomingeki slavery slice of life snuff crush south seas sports spy eurospy superhero surfing swashbuckler swordandsandal sword and sorcery travel trial vigilante war antiwar euro war submarine western acid florida meat pie northern ostern revisionist space spaghetti weird zombie zombie comedy by movement or period absolute new objectivity australian new wave auteur films berlin school bourekas brighton school british new wave kitchen sink realism budapest school cannibal boom cinma du look cinema novo cinema of transgression cinma pur commedia allitaliana documentary film movement dogme 95 erra cinema european art cinema film gris free cinema french new wave german expressionist german underground horror nigerian golden age grupo cine liberacin heimatfilm hollywood on the tiber hong kong new wave iranian new wave italian futurist italian neorealist japanese new wave kammerspielfilm la rebellion lettrist mumblecore neorealist new french extremity new german new generation new hollywood new nollywood new queer no wave nuevo cine mexicano parallel cinema persian film poetic realist polish film school poliziotteschi praka filmska kola prussian film pure film movement remodernist romanian new wave spaghetti western socialist realist social realist kitchen sink realism soviet parallel structural surrealist swordandsandal telefoni bianchi third cinema yugoslav black wave by audience adult chick flick childrens family guycry stag teen womans by format technique approach or production 3d actuality animation anime cartoon computer stopmotion traditional anthology art b movie blackandwhite blockbuster bollywood cinma vrit classical hollywood cinema collage color compilation composite cult midnight movie database cinema docufiction ethnofiction experimental abstract feature featurette film clef film noir filmpoem found footage grindhouse hyperlink cinema independent guerrilla filmmaking interstitial art live action animation lowbudget major studio makingof masala message picture metafilm mockbuster musical short mythopoeia neorealist no budget paracinema participatory poetry postmodernist reverse motion sceneggiata semidocumentary serial shinpa short silent socialist realist sound underground video nasty z movie vtelists of music genres and stylesmusic styles af gm nr sz cultural and regional genres andmovements classical and art music traditions classical music opera electronic ambient breakbeat electro edm hardstyle house industrial techno trance folk traditional jazz popular blues country hip hop pop reggae rb rock progressive psychedelic 