The Importance Of Genre In Literature

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Recommended: Approaches to understanding and defining genre

Anis Bawarshi states that genre can now be defines as “typified rhetorical ways communicants come to recognise and act in all kinds of situations, literary and non-literary” (2000:335), whereas Jule Selbo explains that it “refers to the division of work according to style, shape, subject matter and content” (2015:1). Despite the fact that these two definitions look at genre from different perspectives, they are both correct as one looks at the tangible elements of a story and the other at the psychological strain of a story. Genre is the foundation of all stories and knowing which genre a story belongs to, helps audiences understand the story better. Genre influences a number of aspects in a story; namely the expectations of the audience, plot …show more content…

In other words, it provides the writer with set conventions to use and manipulate. One of the most central convention that help identify a story to a certain genre, is themes or subject matters. Each genre focuses on a specific set of themes, which arise from the events that happen within a story. For example, a typical romance film would depict how true love prevails over all other obstacles, whereas an action film would show how good triumphs over evil. It should be noted that not all themes are genre-specific and can be interplayed in different genres with a different outcome. Along with common themes, genre also dictates the use of syntax within a story, according to the time period of the genre and the characters’ demographical background. The language used in a historical drama set in the 1800s, for example, would lean towards Old English than the modern English used today. Some genres, such as fantasy and science fiction, allow the writer creative freedom to create their own words and if need be, even languages to fulfil their goals. Good examples of this are Avatar (2009) and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003), make use of “Na’vi” and “Khuzdul” respectively to help make the diegesis more complete, without having to find a way to bring reality into the

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