The Characteristics of Genre

As a student in any English course, you will repeatedly come across the word "literature." What exactly is "literature"? Most dictionaries, and literature instructors, will tell you that literature is any written work of a language, culture, country, or time period that can be written in prose or in verse. Essentially, literature includes all poems, plays, short stories, novels, articles, journals, manuals, and, well… everything written. That makes for a very long list of written works to consider. To better understand the concept of "literature," it is helpful to group similar pieces of writing into categories called genres. In this topic, you will examine the major literary genres and learn their characteristics.

Essential Questions

• What are the three major literary genres?
• What are the most notable sub-genres?
• What are the characteristics of each genre?