Genre and the Institution of Research: Three American Instances

Extract

No concept is more fundamental to literary study than genre. It is virtually impossible to think seriously about literature without considering the codes or conventions that structure literary texts. Aristotle's distinction between the “poetic kinds” of epic and drama and Horace's insistence on poetic decorum are early attempts to distinguish among types of creative expression in order to understand and appreciate the specific excellences of each. The most enduring typology of genres divides literature into three classes, depending on who speaks in and therefore controls the work. As M. H. Abrams represents these distinctions, they consist of “lyric (uttered throughout in the first person), epic or narrative (in which the narrator speaks in the first person, then lets his characters speak for themselves); and drama (in which the characters do all the talking).” Other divisions have been proposed (e.g., Northrop Frye's division of comedy, tragedy, irony, and satire), as have more nuanced accounts of genre itself that focus on how genres can cross, mix, and stretch to include deviations from type. But as a means of imposing a preliminary principle of order on an immense and various field, genre is an indispensable concept.