Warning: Use of undefined constant referer - assumed 'referer' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 102

Warning: Use of undefined constant host - assumed 'host' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 105

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 106

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays:102) in /usr/home/essaywo/public_html/essays on line 109
Discussing Literary Genre - College Paper

Discussing Literary Genre


To define genre is to embark on a conjectural journey within a theoretical minefield. Genre theory has drawn immense debate and contemplation throughout literary history, however, several conclusions have emerged. Genre types are unfixed categories whose characteristics differ considerably among the specific genres; furthermore, the role of literary history plays a significant role in discussions of genre, for genre types evolve and shift with each new literary text. An approach to the discussion of genre, family resemblances, illustrates similar conventions among texts within a genre, but there are significant problems in this approach. There are several ways to discuss genre, and ...

Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers

leads to several problems inherent in the defining of genres. Certain genres are looser and more open ended in their conventions than other genres and some genres have many conventions while others have very few. Furthermore, literary texts that overlap and mix genres blur the distinction between them. Genres are not discrete systems consisting of a fixed number of list able items. Consequently, the same text can belong to different genres in different countries or times. For example, Latin poets categorized the elegy mainly in terms of its meter, while poets during the English Renaissance regarded the subject matter and tone to be determinate of form. History and culture play a role in the ever changing status of genres, which are difficult to define because the concept encompasses so many different literary qualities and conventions that can be broken or accepted, overlapped or mixed.
Rather than define genre, some theorists approach the discussion of genre using Ludwig ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.


Already a member? Login


CITE THIS PAGE:

Discussing Literary Genre. (2005, October 13). Retrieved December 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Discussing-Literary-Genre/34803
"Discussing Literary Genre." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 13 Oct. 2005. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Discussing-Literary-Genre/34803>
"Discussing Literary Genre." Essayworld.com. October 13, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Discussing-Literary-Genre/34803.
"Discussing Literary Genre." Essayworld.com. October 13, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Discussing-Literary-Genre/34803.
JOIN NOW
Join today and get instant access to this and 50,000+ other essays


PAPER DETAILS
Added: 10/13/2005 05:31:29 PM
Category: English
Type: Free Paper
Words: 946
Pages: 4

Save | Report

SHARE THIS PAPER

SAVED ESSAYS
Save and find your favorite essays easier

SIMILAR ESSAYS
» Discussing Literary Genre
» Significance of Studies of Styl...
» The Killer Angels APUSH Book Re...
» Criticism Of Keats' Melancholy
Copyright | Cancel | Contact Us

Copyright © 2024 Essayworld. All rights reserved