Genre vs. Theme

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• Genre vs. Theme

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Genre vs. Theme

• Whats the difference?
• Lets first look at genre

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Genre vs. Theme

• Genre is a category of artistic composition
  marked by a distinctive style, form, or content.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Think of genre as a category in literature.
• Can you think of any?

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Genre vs. Theme

• tragedy, comedy, farce, mystery, poetry,
  fiction, non-fiction, etc
• These are all genres.

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Genre vs. Theme

• In film there are similar genres such as
  tragedy, comedy, farce, westerns, science
  fiction, fantasy, documentary, etcthese are all
  genres.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Now lets look at theme.
• When asked to look at theme think of message.

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Genre vs. Theme

• What life lessons can be learned by watching the
  character handle the conflict?

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Genre vs. Theme

• Theme is defined as a topic of discussion
  subject of artistic representation an implicit
  or recurrent idea a motif

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Genre vs. Theme

• Theme can be issues of loyalty, vengeance,
  unrequited love, redemption,

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Genre vs. Theme

• There are universal themes. Youll find these
  themes reoccurring over and over again.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Universal themes
• come from emotions
• and transcend (cut-through)
• culture, gender, age, geography,
• historical period, and genres.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Universal themes come from such topics or as

-Acceptance -Beauty -Betrayal -Death -Deception
-Despair -Education -Envy
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Genre vs. Theme

• More topics from which we get universal themes

-Fear -Family -Faith -Freedom -Friendship -G
reed -Hatred -Hope
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Genre vs. Theme

• Even more topics from which we get universal
  themes

-Honesty -Identity -Innocence -Justice -Law
-Love -Money -Nature
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Genre vs. Theme

• and more topics from which we get universal
  themes

-Peace -Poverty -Pride -Revenge -Sacrifice
-Time -Truth -War
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Genre vs. Theme

• Remember genre?
• Lets think about genre again.
• Think about a story you know.
• Got one?

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Genre vs. Theme

• What genre
• would you place your story in?
• What was the theme?
• These are separate things and we need to know the
  difference.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Lets look at genre again.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Star Wars belongs to a
• genre. Can you guess which one?

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Genre vs. Theme

• Thats right!
• Science Fiction.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Harry Potter belongs to a
• genre. Can you guess which one?

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Genre vs. Theme

• Thats right!
• Fantasy.

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Genre vs. Theme

• The Simpons belongs to a
• genre. Can you guess which one?

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Genre vs. Theme

• We call it satire, which is usually loaded with
  social commentary.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Now lets look at theme using the context of our
  last examples.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Star Wars has many theme topics. Can you guess
  some?

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Genre vs. Theme

• Thats right!
• love, loyalty, persecution, freedom, and
  redemption,
• just to name a few.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Harry Potter has several theme topics. Can you
  guess a few?

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Genre vs. Theme

• Thats right!
• family, loss, love, community, and friendship,
  just to name a few.

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Genre vs. Theme

• Even the Simpsons has theme topics. Can you
  guess some?

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Genre vs. Theme

• You guessed it love, loyalty, persecution,
  freedom, redemption, family, loss, community,
  friendship and even corruption.
• .

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Figuring out THEMES

• Brainstorm theme topics by using the strategy,
  Most Important Word.

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Figuring Out Themes

• After reading a story, think about concepts.
  These are words that cannot be experienced with
  your senses, but are ideas.
• Ask yourself What is a most important word of
  this story?
• Then, create a brainstorming tree and jot down
  the concept words.

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Developing a Theme Statement

• Themes are not one word topics.
• Themes are messages about the one word topics.
• For example Acceptance
• In Freak the Mighty, the characters, Kevin
  and Max, learn that acceptance of each others
  strengths and weaknesses deepens their friendship
  and helps develop stronger self-confidence and
  abilities.

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Developing a Theme Statement

• Themes are not one word topics.
• Themes are messages about the one word topics.
• Example Perseverance
• Cinderella perseveres even though her life is
  filled with unfortunate difficulties. She
  remains hard-working and kind. As a result of
  her perseverance, she is visited by a fairy
  god-mother who rewards her. As a result of
  perseverance, the prince finds his lost love.

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How to develop your theme topic

• Ask yourself what was the result (of your most
  important word) for the main character.
• How does the character develop and grow?
• What is the universal message that a reader can
  apply to his or her own life? What was the
  authors purpose?