We classify texts into similar categories using three different methods: genre, structure, and fictive character.
  • Genre is a classification of texts with similar tropes, plot patterns, and character conflicts.
  • Structure is a classification based on formal strictures or textual syntax and text delivery.
  • Fictive character is classified on how true to real life a text is.

CONFUSED? Let's talk ice cream 

Just like love is like a red, red rose and ogres are like onions, texts are like ice cream. They are carefully prepared and served up in all sorts of different ways. Everyone has their favorite flavors and mix-ins, and when prepared without care, it's just a big ol' mess. 
In the scenario, GENRE would be the flavor of ice cream. Strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla all taste different, and when we're about to eat rocky road ice cream, we prepare our mouths for a different experience than if we were about to eat mint ice cream. Just as different people prefer different flavors, different readers prefer different genres based on the idea of catharsis it provides.

Catharsis is the nice, Zen-like feeling we get by releasing our built-up emotions. According to Aristotle, a person who never vented their emotions would become psychologically unhealthy, leading to either a breakdown or a blow-up. This is why humans make and enjoy art, as being emotionally moved by a novel, song, play, movie, poem, or painting can release emotions in a healthy, controlled way. 

So what do genres have to do with catharsis? Everything. Texts are sorted into genres based on what emotions they are meant to release. For example, someone who wants to experience joy will go for comedy while someone who wants to deal with their fear will dive into horror. Note that genre is defined by what emotions are supposed to be engaged--genre is not a perfect process. Some people have different reactions to genre based on their own background, like the guy who laughs at the same slasher movie that gives his sister nightmares. Often, a text can be blend of different genres (like a double flavor swirl of ice cream) or narrow into specific subgenres (like how vanilla bean is a more specific type of vanilla). This makes it seem like there are a ton of genres, but there are actually only twelve.
Before diving into the twelve genres, we need to touch on ways texts are classified that are not genre. The way the ice cream is served (in a bowl, on a cone, straight out of the carton, etc) has nothing to do with the flavor. Similarly, a text's structure has nothing to do with the genre. Structures that are commonly confused with genres are drama, essay, informational texts, poetry, and mythology. Find out more about structure here.

Flavor also has nothing to do with how "true" the ice cream is-- I can have strawberry ice cream with real chunks of fruit, artificially flavored strawberry ice cream, strawberry soft serve, or even strawberry ice-cream wannabes like frozen yogurt, gelato, or sherbert. Similarly, genre is not the same as fictive character. Fiction and nonfiction are not genres, though they may tie to some subgenres like historical fiction and true crime.

With that out of the way, let's focus on the twelve genres.

COMEDY: make the audience laugh
TRAGEDY: make the audience cry
ROMANCE: make the audience feel love
HORROR: make the audience feel fear
FANTASY: make the audience amazed
SCIENCE FICTION: make the audience concerned
MYSTERY: make the audience curious
CRIME: make the audience anxious
WESTERN: make the audience feel empowered
WAR: make the audience feel obligated
QUESTS FOR ADVENTURE:
​make the audience feel special and important
SLICE OF LIFE:
make the audience feel introspective and relaxed
Take a good look at the chart. The genres and cathartic goals on the left side are considered more uplifting emotions and those on the right are more somber emotions. Both types of emotions are needed to help people deal with the positive and negative experiences of life. The genres are also listed on the chart based on their opposite genre. For example, there are plenty of seriocomedies with both comedic moments and tragic moments, but since they are opposites, the reader can't feel both at the same time. The same goes for mystery and crime: while a novel like In Cold Blood follows the detectives (the focus of mystery) and the culprits (the focus of crime), it bounces between these two genres instead of blending them. Texts do this to make the catharsis hit harder by going from one extreme to another. This is why slasher movies have the teens making out in the woods (romance) before being stabbed to death (horror).

While it may seem to some readers that a lot of genres are missing, most other "genres" are actually subgenres. Where's the spy genre? It's a subgenre of mystery. What about sports? It's actually a subgenre of war (think about it--two sides, a battle, a band of brothers). Biography? This is typically a type of slice of life unless it specifically covers something like someone's marriage (romance) or their experiences in leadership or politics (quest). Nonfiction? Looks like you skipped the paragraphs under the picture of the ice cream cone because that's not a genre (though most reference texts about the real world are slice of life).

Yet the chart does seem to be missing four major genres: escapism, suspense (sometimes called thrillers), action, and drama. These aren't genres or even subgenres: they're supergenres. These four supergenre categories include three genres that all accomplish the same goal by engaging different emotions or relying on different tropes. A trope is a literary device that defines a genre or subgenre through its consistent use. For example, a romance employs the trope of true love's kiss (enduring love) while horror sees everyone split up (isolation). A trope can be a character type, a motif, a setting, a plot event, or even a cliché, just as long as it has near universal use in the genre.

So let's get into these genres. Below are the twelve genres organized by their supergenre with a brief description of what defines a genre. Each genre also has a link to its own article with a full list of tropes that define the genre and a list of common subgenres.

GENRES OF ESCAPE

Picture
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

Comedy
escape through joy

Comedies are examinations of how a good life is lived and why life is worth living. They do this by escaping the real world and diving into absurdity. Comedies try to make their audiences laugh with foolish characters who have selfish desires. Conflicts in a comedy are typically unrealistic and start with a death or other tragic event that propels characters to leave regular life and enter "the green world," a place where rules and roles are reversed. This reversal creates a space where the characters (and audience) can escape reality and reverse their fortune from bad to good. classic comedy ends with a marriage and happy endings. 
Picture
Spirited Away (2001)

Fantasy
escape through wonder

Fantasies are explorations of worlds better or more authentic than ours that could only exist outside our reality. Fantasy always is built off a "What if?" scenario and dabbles in creatures and settings that do not exist. To create this world, Fantasy creates its own mythology, history, and physics based on magic (which is related to the audience in detail). Often, Fantasy conflicts revolve around the struggles of a kingdom or other old-world society, such as a war or uprising. These conflicts are drawn between clear sides of good and evil--though these sides may be muddied later in the story--with good triumphing at the end.
Picture
Forbidden Planet (1956)

Science Fiction
escape through shock

Science Fiction offers a possible world different than our own. Instead of asking "What if?", Science Fiction warns the audience how the world will be "If this continues..." This makes all science fiction a critique or reflection of contemporary society that, because of its distance from the real world, allows an audience to understand their world better. Science Fiction always takes place in the future or an alternative past or present where history turned out differently thanks to the development of new technologies. and scientific discoveries, such as space travel, alien life, robots, time travel, reanimation of the dead, and mind switching. 

GENRES OF DRAMA

Picture
Schindler's List (1994)

Tragedy
misfortune creates drama

Tragedies are examinations of how a life ends (literally or figuratively) and how survivors deal with the repercussions of a loss. Tragedies  try to make their audiences cry by showing good, intelligent, selfless characters brought down by their hubris, a trait that the character takes great pride in having but leads to their downfall. Most tragic conflicts are realistic and could happen to the audience; however, there is no way to solve the conflict without unhappiness--in fact, every attempt to solve the conflict creates more drama and conflict. Classic tragedies ultimately result in death, devastation, and loss.
Picture
The Notebook (2004)

Romance
love creates drama

Romances are all about love (duh), a secondary emotion blending joy and trust. Thus, romances create their drama by manipulating the joy and trust between characters. By forcing characters with opposite personalities in situations where they must be around each other, dislike turns to like and mistrust turns to trust--that is, until the relationship is tested. An affair, a secret, a forced separation--the drama of getting together turns into the drama of falling apart. It doesn't matter whether the couple makes up or splits up by the end-it's still a romance. Most texts use romance as a subplot, as most audiences can relate.
Picture
Clerks (1994)

Slice of Life 
everyday life creates drama

A slice of life is a story about everyday conflicts and experiences. Stories start with a protagonist stuck in a regular routine. The character starts satisfied with their dull lot in life until something makes them realize that they're really unhappy deep down. The drama comes as the character debates making the life change and struggles with personal growth. At the end of the story, the character has changed and is now satisfied again. The most popular type of slice of life is bildungsroman, which follows a child or teen as they become an adult. Documentary and memoir also fall into slice of life.

GENRES OF ACTION

Picture
Jurassic Park (1993)

Quest for Adventure
action based on facing destiny

Quests for Adventure center on a protagonist forced into action by fate to save their home. Sometimes this is their literal land and family, while other times it is their entire society.  Quests require the protagonist (or hero) leave home to find a macguffin, which is some object or piece of knowledge that will save the home. 
The hero is often pitted against Competitors trying to also get the macguffin and Defenders who have the macguffin and want to keep it. The Hero enlists Companions to help them get the macguffin. Occasionally, the macguffin is one's home (this is called an odyssey).
Picture
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)

Western
action based on individual courage

While Westerns are mostly set in the American West between 1840 and 1920, they can occur whenever a small isolated town struggling to survive is saved by a lone stranger. Like all the characters that inhabit this world, the stranger is morally gray and does whatever they can to survive (which often means violence), yet the stranger has skills that give them the advantage: intelligence, patience, and deadly aim. They must act in the name of justice by taking the law into their own hands, no matter if they are an archer dressed in green in Sherwood Forest or a somber samurai in feudal Japan.
Picture
Saving Private Ryan (1998)

War
action based on collective courage

War stories see characters moved to action by a sense of duty toward family, nation, or race. Whether fighting in a foreign land or holding a protest rally in the city streets, the protagonist is moved to join a fraternity of like-minded fighters who must master weaponry, strategy, and discipline while trusting one another with their lives. Sadly, the loss of comrades is common occurrence, leading the protagonist to question their humanity and their resolve. While some War stories end in victory and others in disillusionment and sorrow, all involve a struggle with the ideas of honor and sacrifice.

GENRES OF SUSPENSE

Picture
Scream (1996)

Horror
fear creates suspense

Horror stories are meditations on our fears as both individuals and societies and how we can confront them. The idea of the unnatural or supernatural monster is the heart of horror, as it creates a threat of death that the protagonists don't know how to solve right away. The suspense comes from trying to determine how the monster can be beat and who will die or get injured before that happens. Typically, those who do not head the warning signs or engage in immoral acts die while the pure of heart survive. A good horror leaves a lingering anxiety about hidden monsters in our own world.
Picture
The Maltese Falcon (1941)

Mystery
curiosity creates suspense

Mystery stories always start the same way: a crime has been committed, usually a murder or burglary. We follow a sleuth and their assistants as they try  by figuring out whodunit. The sleuths must follow a trail of clues to the solution without falling for any misdirection from the rogues gallery of suspects, all with hidden motives and desires. Mysteries create suspense by inviting the audience to solve the crime themselves, as well as threatening the safety of the sleuth through potential calamity. Ultimately, all is revealed, with the audience rewarded with a logical and surprising answer.
Picture
Inside Man (2006)

Crime
panic creates suspense

Crime stories follow a culprit as they plan, execute, and try to get away with a criminal act. Whether it be a heist, a spree, an escape, or a conspiracy, crime stories build suspense by asking howcouldthey. Since audiences don't like following an absolute villain, the culprit is shown to be morally gray with some goodness. As the culprit finds themselves working with a crew, the suspense ramps up with the constant threat of danger from both the law and the other crooks. Since there's no honor among thieves, crime stories deal with fracturing trust that leads to  betrayal and violence.
CITATION: Coon, Brandon. "Genre." CoonWriting: Basics. CoonWriting, 20 June 2022, coonwriting.com/genre
© COPYRIGHT BRANDON COON, 2013-2024. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.