Literature can be divided into many different groups, but initially there is poetry and prose, which is everything that prose is not (although to confuse matters it is possible to have prose poems, where they scan like prose).
After that, prose can be sub-divided into other groups, such as essays, fiction, plays, and non-fiction, though this last grouping can include essays.
Fiction can then be divided into genres, which means that it falls within a particular category and readers will have an idea of what to expect. For example, if a reader is a lover of gothic horror novels they are not going to be tempted by a book that falls into the genre of romance.
Even genres can be sub-divided. Taking the example of romance novels again, it is possible to put these into very distinct groupings. For example, the publishers, Mills & Boon are extremely well known for producing books that conform to a very particular structure and so attract a very particular audience.
On the other hand, recent years have seen younger, trendier romances aimed at contemporary young women. An example of this, and very possibly the beginning of what is popularly known as chick-lit is Helen Fielding's 'Bridget Jones's Diary'.
It is also possible for a novel to have a foot in more than one genre camp, so to speak. An historical novel may also be a romance, or a thriller: Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', for example. Books like Austen's 'Sense and Sensibility' are historical novels now, but at the time they were written they were romantic stories on the surface but were also contemporary pictures of life and had very serious political overtures.
More confusingly are books that refuse to fall into any genre and for want of having any label at all tend to be called literary fiction. These cross-genres are always very well written so that the reader gets pleasure, not just from the narrative, but also from the skill of the writer.
After that, prose can be sub-divided into other groups, such as essays, fiction, plays, and non-fiction, though this last grouping can include essays.
Fiction can then be divided into genres, which means that it falls within a particular category and readers will have an idea of what to expect. For example, if a reader is a lover of gothic horror novels they are not going to be tempted by a book that falls into the genre of romance.
Even genres can be sub-divided. Taking the example of romance novels again, it is possible to put these into very distinct groupings. For example, the publishers, Mills & Boon are extremely well known for producing books that conform to a very particular structure and so attract a very particular audience.
On the other hand, recent years have seen younger, trendier romances aimed at contemporary young women. An example of this, and very possibly the beginning of what is popularly known as chick-lit is Helen Fielding's 'Bridget Jones's Diary'.
It is also possible for a novel to have a foot in more than one genre camp, so to speak. An historical novel may also be a romance, or a thriller: Bram Stoker's 'Dracula', for example. Books like Austen's 'Sense and Sensibility' are historical novels now, but at the time they were written they were romantic stories on the surface but were also contemporary pictures of life and had very serious political overtures.
More confusingly are books that refuse to fall into any genre and for want of having any label at all tend to be called literary fiction. These cross-genres are always very well written so that the reader gets pleasure, not just from the narrative, but also from the skill of the writer.
