Genre

This page attemptsdescribeconceptgenre asappliesartistic creations: literary, musical, cinematicso forth.

"Genre"originallyFrench word meaning "kind", "sort" or "type";grammatical terminology,refers toartificial conceptmasculine or feminine grammatical gender (the noun "genre" itself belongs tomasculine genderFrench,example).

Inarts,refers totraditional divisionsart forms fromsingle fieldactivity (e.g. literature, film, music, painting, sculpture, performance) into various kinds accordingcriteria particularthat form.

Infieldliterary endeavour, we often refer to"poetic genres" and"prose genress"; poetry might thus be subdivided into epic, lyricdramatic, while prose might be divided into fictionnon-fiction. Obviously these can be further subdivided ad libitum: thus, dramatic poetry can be divided into comedy, tragedy, melodramaso forth. This division can continue more or less as far as one likes: "comedy" has its own genres (farce, comedymanners, burlesque, satire, etc.).

The divisions called "genres" may be made onbasisformal, thematic or other criteria. The distinction between fictionnon-fiction thus depends onuseinvention; that between prosepoetry onuseverse; that between comedytragedy on selectiontreatment ofprotagonistsituation thatnoble or vulgarofpointview thatsympathetic or not toprotagonist's plight. For this reason, "genre"suchflexiblemutable term thathas been appliedalmost every possible subdivisionartistic endeavour.

Quite clearly, sub-genre might well be more appropriate than "genre"many, perhaps most cases.