UNDERSTANDING GENRE

1
UNDERSTANDING GENRE
2
Genre is a term taken from French - but
originating from Latin - which means type or
kind. When asking the question To which genre
does this film / book belong? what we are asking
is What type of film / book is this?
3
You should be familiar with different ways of
categorising books from your experience of a
library.
The most obvious difference is between
FICTION
NON-FICTION
and
4
FICTION
Relates to novels and stories that have been
imagined or invented.
5
NON-FICTION
Relates to factual writing. Writing that is NOT
imaginary or made up.
6
Within these two broad categories there are
important sub-divisions.
In NON-FICTION one sub-division identifies the
differences between BIOGRAPHY and AUTO-BIOGRAPHY.
7
AUTO-BIOGRAPHY
The prefix AUTO means SELF.
A BIOGRAPHY is the life story of a person.
An AUTO-BIOGRAPHY is therefore when someone
writes their own life story. A BIOGRAPHY is when
someone else writes it.
8
Why are these definitions helpful?
It is helpful to know who is relating the story
so we can identify possible bias. If you were
writing your own story there might be more detail
and greater insight as no-one knows your life
better than you do. However you would probably
want to portray yourself in a good light and
would therefore leave out the embarrassing or
unflattering bits. If someone else was writing
your story they might be more truthful. Then
again, if they were a friend who you had fallen
out with they might try to portray you in a bad
light while your Mum might do the opposite.
9
In FICTION the different GENRES help us
understand what to expect.
ROMANCE
WESTERN
SCIENCE FICTION
HORROR
FANTASY
10
For each fictional GENRE we can look at our
expectations of the following

• PLOT
• CHARACTERS
• SETTING
• SYMBOLS and IMAGES

11
HORROR