Literary Genres: Types, Subgenres, and Examples
Literary Genres: An Overview
Literary genres are the different categories an author can use to present their work, depending on their desired approach and subject matter.
Types of Genres
Lyric Genre
Lyric poets express their inner selves, conveying their feelings and presenting the reader with intimate personal experiences and their perception of the world. Verse is often used, but poetic prose is also an option.
Dramatic or Theatrical Genre
The author sets the scene with characters who interact to develop the action. Stage directions are displayed within parentheses. Can be written in prose or verse.
Narrative or Epic Genre
Writers tell stories, often on a grand scale, about characters in various locations. Description is used to characterize the characters. Prose is commonly used, but epic stories in verse exist.
Teaching Genre
The author aims to impart a lesson to the reader. Through characters or animals and specific actions, a moral lesson is presented at the end.
Subgenres
Lyric Subgenres
- Elegy: Expresses grief over a death or misfortune (e.g., Jorge Manrique’s verses on his father’s death).
- Ode: Expresses feelings of melancholy, sadness, anger, or despair related to internal or external events (e.g., Fernando de Herrera’s works).
- Eclogue: Expresses feelings of love through shepherds in a bucolic setting (e.g., Garcilaso de la Vega’s works).
- Satire: Censors defects in a burlesque manner, sometimes with a moralizing purpose (e.g., Quevedo’s satires).
- Nuptial: Expresses joy and good wishes at a wedding celebration (e.g., Leandro Fernández de Moratín’s works).
Dramatic Subgenres
- Tragedy: Features characters with great passions who cannot overcome their circumstances, often ending with the protagonist’s death (e.g., Sophocles’ tragedies).
- Drama: Presents conflicts between characters, less intense than tragedy, and may include comic elements (e.g., José Zorrilla’s dramas).
- Comedy: Presents situations where serious conflicts are mixed with fun and silly situations (e.g., Miguel Mihura’s comedies).
In the Golden Age, tragicomedy and domestic comedy were also popular.
Minor Dramatic Subgenres
- Auto Sacramental: Works with allegorical characters, focusing on the Holy Eucharist.
- Appetizer (Entremés): Short, comedic pieces with popular characters, performed during intermissions of longer plays in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- Farce: Short, comedic pieces that can be performed separately, often containing social critique.
Narrative Subgenres (Verse)
- Epic: Narrates a significant event in a people’s history (e.g., Homer’s epics).
- Epic Poems (Cantar de Gesta): Recount deeds of famous medieval heroes (e.g., Song of Mio Cid).
- Romance: Tells folk stories, sung in Spain after the Middle Ages (e.g., Lope de Vega’s romances).
Narrative Subgenres (Prose)
- Short Story: A narrative with an invented and often witty plot, always short and in prose (e.g., Clarín’s stories).
- Novel: A longer and more complex story than the short story, presenting characters who live and face different situations (e.g., chivalry, picaresque, historical novels).
Teaching Subgenres
- Fable: A short story, poem, or prose piece that transmits a useful or moral teaching, reflected in the moral at the end (e.g., Félix María de Samaniego’s fables).
- Epistle: A letter written to teach or discuss a case; the recipient is a mere pretext.
- Essay: A piece presenting or arguing on political, philosophical, or religious topics. It lies on the border between teaching and philosophy and is cultivated by curator authors (e.g., Ortega y Gasset’s essays).