Search results
Fiction
slidetodoc.com
- The novel is a genre of fiction, and fiction may be defined as the art or craft of contriving, through the written word, representations of human life that instruct or divert or both.
People also ask
Is a novel a literary genre?
What is a literary genre?
What is the difference between a graphic novel and a book genre?
What is a novel in literature?
What is considered literary fiction?
How many literary genres are there?
- Literary Fiction. Literary fiction novels are considered works with artistic value and literary merit. They often include political criticism, social commentary, and reflections on humanity.
- Mystery. Mystery novels, also called detective fiction, follow a detective solving a case from start to finish. They drop clues and slowly reveal information, turning the reader into a detective trying to solve the case, too.
- Thriller. Thriller novels are dark, mysterious, and suspenseful plot-driven stories. They very seldom include comedic elements, but what they lack in humor, they make up for in suspense.
- Horror. Horror novels are meant to scare, startle, shock, and even repulse readers. Generally focusing on themes of death, demons, evil spirits, and the afterlife, they prey on fears with scary beings like ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, and monsters.
- Overview
- Plot
A novel is an invented prose narrative of significant length and complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience. Its roots can be traced back thousands of years, though its origins in English are traditionally placed in the 18th century.
What are the elements of a novel?
A novel can accommodate an almost infinite number of elements. Some of the novel's typical elements, though, are the story or plot, the characters, the setting, the narrative method and point of view, and the scope or dimension.
What are the different types of novels?
The novel has an extensive range of types, among them being: historical, picaresque, sentimental, Gothic, psychological, novel of manners, epistolary, pastoral, roman à clef, antinovel, cult, detective, mystery, thriller, western, fantasy, and proletarian. There is no limit to the number of genres available to the novel.
novel, an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting. Within its broad framework, the genre of the novel has encompassed an extensive range of types and styles: picaresque, epistolary, Gothic, romantic, realist, historical—to name only some of the more important ones.
The novel is propelled through its hundred or thousand pages by a device known as the story or plot. This is frequently conceived by the novelist in very simple terms, a mere nucleus, a jotting on an old envelope: for example, Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol (1843) might have been conceived as “a misanthrope is reformed through certain magical visitations on Christmas Eve,” or Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) as “a young couple destined to be married have first to overcome the barriers of pride and prejudice,” or Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866) as “a young man commits a crime and is slowly pursued in the direction of his punishment.” The detailed working out of the nuclear idea requires much ingenuity, since the plot of one novel is expected to be somewhat different from that of another, and there are very few basic human situations for the novelist to draw upon. The dramatist may take his plot ready-made from fiction or biography—a form of theft sanctioned by Shakespeare—but the novelist has to produce what look like novelties.
The example of Shakespeare is a reminder that the ability to create an interesting plot, or even any plot at all, is not a prerequisite of the imaginative writer’s craft. At the lowest level of fiction, plot need be no more than a string of stock devices for arousing stock responses of concern and excitement in the reader. The reader’s interest may be captured at the outset by the promise of conflicts or mysteries or frustrations that will eventually be resolved, and he will gladly—so strong is his desire to be moved or entertained—suspend criticism of even the most trite modes of resolution. In the least sophisticated fiction, the knots to be untied are stringently physical, and the denouement often comes in a sort of triumphant violence. Serious fiction prefers its plots to be based on psychological situations, and its climaxes come in new states of awareness—chiefly self-knowledge—on the parts of the major characters.
Melodramatic plots, plots dependent on coincidence or improbability, are sometimes found in even the most elevated fiction; E.M. Forster’s Howards End (1910) is an example of a classic British novel with such a plot. But the novelist is always faced with the problem of whether it is more important to represent the formlessness of real life (in which there are no beginnings and no ends and very few simple motives for action) or to construct an artifact as well balanced and economical as a table or chair; since he is an artist, the claims of art, or artifice, frequently prevail.
There are, however, ways of constructing novels in which plot may play a desultory part or no part at all. The traditional picaresque novel—a novel with a rogue as its central character—like Alain Lesage’s Gil Blas (1715) or Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones (1749), depends for movement on a succession of chance incidents. In the works of Virginia Woolf, the consciousness of the characters, bounded by some poetic or symbolic device, sometimes provides all the fictional material. Marcel Proust’s great roman-fleuve, À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27; Remembrance of Things Past), has a metaphysical framework derived from the time theories of the philosopher Henri Bergson, and it moves toward a moment of truth that is intended to be literally a revelation of the nature of reality. Strictly, any scheme will do to hold a novel together—raw action, the hidden syllogism of the mystery story, prolonged solipsist contemplation—so long as the actualities or potentialities of human life are credibly expressed, with a consequent sense of illumination, or some lesser mode of artistic satisfaction, on the part of the reader.
- Anthony Burgess
- Fantasy. This book genre is characterized by elements of magic or the supernatural and is often inspired by mythology or folklore. In high fantasy — one that’s set in an entirely fictional world — these magical elements are at the forefront of the plot, as in Trudi Canavan’s Black Magician trilogy.
- Science Fiction. Though science fiction and fantasy are often considered two sides of the same (speculative fiction) coin, sci-fi is distinguished by its preoccupation with real or real-feeling science.
- Dystopian. A popular genre of science fiction, dystopian novels offer a bleak and frightening vision of the future. Authors writing dystopias imagine a grim society, often in the aftermath of a disaster, facing things like oppressive governments, Black Mirror-esque technology, and environmental ruin.
- Action & Adventure. If you’re writing adventure, then chances are your book follows the structure of the Hero’s Journey. Your protagonist has a very important goal to achieve, but they’re really going to have to go through the wringer first!
- Fiction Genres. Sorted alphabetically. Action/Adventure. An action/adventure story has adventure elements in its plot line. This type of story often involves some kind of conflict between good and evil, and features characters who must overcome obstacles to achieve their goals.
- Nonfiction Genres. From the BISAC categories, a globally accepted system for coding and categorizing books by the Book Industry Standards And Communications group.
- Drama Genres. These include genres for theater, film, television serials, or audio plays. As a writer, I find some of these genres particularly eye-roll worthy.
- Poetry Genres. This list is from Harvard's Glossary of Poetic Genres who also has definitions for each genre. Allegory. Aubade. Ballad. Blason. Cento. Dirge. Dramatic monologue.
Jun 7, 2024 · A novel is a work of prose fiction that tells a narrative over an extended length. Novels date as far back as 1010's Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu; European novels first appeared in the early seventeenth century.
- Amanda Prahl
Nov 27, 2023 · A novel, as a literary genre, is an extended work of fiction written in prose that typically explores complex characters and intricate plots within a broader narrative framework.
Dec 1, 2023 · December 1, 2023 by Barrie Davenport. What’s so important about knowing the genres of books? Well, if you’re an author with a work in progress, you’ll want to know its genre to ensure your ideal readers find and read it. List a science fiction novel as a paranormal romance, for example, and you’ll likely end up with a flurry of negative reviews.
