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LITR 4533
TRAGEDY
Midterm Samples 2014 (midterm assignment) Model Answers to Pre-Essay on Genre |
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1. Develop a "working definition" of genre & apply to any genre of your choice besides tragedy.
Authors & titles (scroll down for essays):
Scott Agruso
Rebecca Bridgmohan, "Genres: Yardsticks, Not Boxes!
Jorge Lozoya,
Genre: Comme ci Comme ça
(like this and like that)
Cassandra Rea
Melissa South
Chelsea
Stansell
Mickey Thames
Katherine Vellella,
Fantasy: Not Just for Children and Teenagers
Scott Agruso
15 June 2014
The Impossible Task of Defining Genre
The ability to sort seemingly dissimilar experiences and forms of
entertainment into defined categories allows even the most intelligent
individuals to make sense of the world around them in an efficient manner.
Genres act as the categories in the taxonomy of the art world, giving potential
consumers of literature, films, and physical art to make effective choices in a
society where the supply of goods is at its highest historical peak and the
amount of time for enjoying them is at its lowest. A teenager that decides they
want to buy the latest young adult paranormal romance novel can accomplish their
task simply through the click of a mouse or by walking to that genre’s
designated aisle at a bookstore.
Genres, however, do not adhere to the rigid standards of categorization
that some forms of organization do, such as the scientific taxonomy of species.
Art forms and especially literature, is categorized in a much more fluid manner,
with works often straddling between two or more genres at different points. The
Oresteia trilogy, arguably the most
definite example of the tragedy genre due to its portrayal of “”noble”
characters of a higher type and some beauty that is threatened by danger”
(Poetics V), begins with an arguably comedic monologue delivered by a “lower
type” watchman that is recognizing and signaling the completion of the Trojan
War to his countrymen. In the same manner, the interactions between the clowns
in the graveyard in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
offer a comedic reprieve from the intense tragic themes of the play.
Genres, as Dr. White described on the course webpage, primarily act as a
“contract with the audience,” letting consumers know what to expect when they
purchase or set time aside to watch or read a work. It was expressed in our
class lectures that women would be disappointed if they bought a romantic comedy
that differed from the formula they have come to expect when watching one. When
one watches a romantic comedy, they expect a love story as the subject matter,
and more often than not, the genre delivers on its end of the exchange.
The form, or the “number and types of voices” featured in a work, is
always a drama or dialogue; in this type of form, multiple characters interact
with one another to move the story. The most obvious attribute of a romantic
comedy is its narrative style being defined as a romance. In a romantic comedy
style of romance, two individuals suffer a struggle of being separated from one
another, often due to flaws in character, and work to overcome them and better
themselves to be with the other person. The subject matter, form, and narrative
style work together to create and define expectations for an individual wishing
to consume a particular genre.
Satire serves as my favorite genre of literature, both as literary and
non-literary fiction. According to the course webpage, satire “tends to be
extremely episodic and opportunistic,” and jumps from multiple subjects of
mockery, often without a fluid transition. During my teaching internship this
past semester, my class spent an entire survey of literature unit learning and
deciding whether history influences literature, or if literature influences
history more. For this unit, our class read many articles, short stories and
books that were satirical in nature. Satire was a huge focus of the unit due to
how much it relies on mocking and offering commentary on problems of the
specific time period it is written in. The episodic nature of satire made for an
ideal focus of a survey of literature unit.
Jonathan Swift’s, a prominent author of satire during the Restoration,
Gulliver’s Travels and A
Modest Proposal have provided two of the most enjoyable readings I have been
assigned during my collegiate career. In
one episode of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver voyages to Laputa, a society created to
directly mock and make fun of the Royal Society ridiculous expenditures to find
scientific solutions to impractical world problems. What makes this particular
section’s satire so effective is the use of actual real world experiments mixed
in with the experiments that Swift imagined; Often the experiments that Swift
made up to sound ridiculous were actually less ludicrous than the ones that
actually occurred in reality (e.g., harnessing sun energy through the use of the
cucumber). The most effective satire manages to closely resemble the truth
through its mockery.
Satire, like all other genres, often struggles to feature an all-encompassing
definition that distinctly separates it from other genres. Despite not featuring
a clear subject or narrative style, satire still manages to be a genre that
individuals are able to separate from others. Many times, much like in the way
the course webpage is designed, providing examples of genres is the best way for
people to understand what distinguishes them. When I teach students in the
future about the different genres, I will ask them to follow my advice of,
“You’ll know it when you see it.”
Rebecca Bridgmohan
Pre-Essay – Genres: Yardsticks, Not
Boxes!
When you think about what
attracts people to certain books, the only thing that comes to mind is that they
must read about what they like or have an interest in. Books, music, and other
art forms are usually classified by “comfortable and reliable contracts an
audience makes with a work of art”, (Introduction to Genres Handout).
Simply
put, these contracts fit certain criteria in which books, art, music, and other
items are categorized by commonalities. However, as Jennifer Hamilton expressed
in her essay “The Wonder of Imagination,” “these categories are not set in
stone.” For example, you can have a book fit into various genres because it
fulfills each expectation for the genres that it can be categorized in. This is
why it is important to keep an open mind about genres, as well as to think of
them as yardsticks and not as boxes, because they are non-exclusive and should
not be subjected to merely one category (Introduction to Genres Handout).
Now, while we know the basis
of genre categories, as in the names that we call them, it is also important to
understand why certain items fulfill their respected genres. In order to fully
grasp a definition and understanding of genre, Dr. White’s “Introduction to
Genres Handout” provides us with insight about how “every work of literature
involves at least one subject genre, one formal genre, and one narrative genre,”
whereby we determine these elements and form categorizations for genres. The
subject genre consists of subject matter or “special interest,” which is usually
what draws an avid romance reader to the romance section at Barnes and Noble.
And while the subject genre is pretty self explanatory, the formal genre takes
some explanation. Formal genre directs attention to the number and types of
voices within the genre (Introduction to Genres Handout). For example, genres
can have a narrator or “single voice,” a drama or dialogue between two or more
characters and or the audience, and lastly they can have a narrator plus
dialogue, where two or more characters speak with one another while the narrator
speaks directly to the audience. Genres also can be categorized by story or
plot, which is called the narrative genre. With the narrative genre, Northrop
Fry’s Anatomy
of Criticism (1957) places genres into four
basic story lines: tragedy, comedy, romance, and satire (Introduction to Genres
Handout). Although Northrop Fry provides us with four, there are many other
genres and more in the making.
One of the genre categories that speak most to me,
so to say, is the romance genre. When it comes to romance my expectations for a
“happily ever after” are almost always fulfilled. Allison Evans’ essay “It’s Not
Just Romance” in correlation with Dr. White’s handout over the narrative genre
discusses how romance genres usually start with some sort of separation of a
character with an “object of their desire.” The desired object could be another
character or a physical object, and during the search for the object some sort
of action occurs where a journey or adventure takes place. During the journey,
the character achieves some type of transcendence where they are then able to
rise above their adversities or complications. Once the object is acquired and
transcendence has occurred, the character is able free to live “happily ever
after.”
Romance is the type of genre
that can intermingle with another genre like comedy and continue to remain true
to its form. For instance, 1984’s cinematic 80’s classic
Sixteen Candles
is considered a romantic comedy not only because it embodies one girl’s struggle
to come to terms with her life as she turns sixteen, but also because there are
elements of humor embedded within the movie that make her struggle comedic. The
main character, Samantha Baker, looks forward to becoming sixteen, but her
special day does not start off so well and everyone forgets her birthday since
it falls on the eve of her sister’s wedding. Comedy in this movie comes to play
with its timing and clever actions as opposed to crude jokes, bad language, and
sexual situations that are displayed throughout today’s current romantic
comedies. This movie fits into the romantic comedy genre, but it can also be
placed in the coming of age genre and teenage categories.
Intertwined romantic comedies
are not subject to just the silver screen, in fact, Shakespeare’s
Twelfth Night, or
What You Will also falls into the romantic
comedy genre. Because this is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays I felt it
absolutely necessary to include this as an example of a romantic comedy. In the
beginning of the play, Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are shipwrecked, and
Viola is left to figure out how to make it in the new land in which she was
shipwrecked on. Viola meets up with Duke Orsino, who employs Viola, who at this
point has transformed herself into a page, Cesario, in order to “make it” in
Illyria, to become his wooer to the wealthy and noble Olivia. Throughout the
play there are numerous schemes between other characters, particularly involving
Sir Andrew Aguecheeck, Sir Toby, Maria the gentlewoman, and Malvolio the
steward, which make the play that much more comical. Amidst the vying for
Olivia’s love through Cesario for the Duke and through Sir Toby for Sir Andrew a
love triangle ensues. But before things get too terribly complicated, Sebastian
is reintroduced and Cesario is revealed as Viola, and matches are made between
Viola and the Duke and Sebastian and Olivia, who accidently committed themselves
to each other during all of the scheming. The play ends on a “happily ever
after” note, minus Malvolio’s storming off, with the main characters restoring
unity with matrimony. The “happily ever after” and the coming together with
marriages are both aspects of a romantic comedy, so Shakespeare’s play truly
matches up and exceeds these expectations.
Thus, whether genres pertain to a movie, a play, or
another form of literature or art, they become less confusing when you begin to
understand them as categories that can be interchangeable, rather than “set in
stone.” The romance genre is flexible enough to coexist with comedy and other
genres without much confusion when considering the characteristics and basic
guidelines. When we look at the classifications of the genres, we know exactly
what to expect from them because we know what each type entails. Understanding
is part of the knowledge required for us to truly enjoy a work of literature, a
piece of art, or a song playing on the radio.
Jorge Lozoya
Pre-Essay:
Genre:
Comme ci Comme ça
(like this and like that)
The ‘definition’ of a genre appears to still be evolving to this day.
Although there is no formulaic equation that gives us the end product of
what genre is or has become, the term itself is used vaguely when attempting to
identify what type of work something is; i.e. including, but not limited to
books, music, dance, movies, etc.
To
further understand this concept we should know that ‘genre’ is a derivative of
the French word
gendre, an Old French
word meaning ‘category’. Merriam Webster’s online dictionary defines the word as
“a category of artistic, musical or literary composition characterized by a
particular style, form or content.”
As Erin Byrd’s essay, “Genre- Not just a funny word” suggests in her
comical yet fairly accurate title (comical to non-literary virtuosos), the
terminology used to describe genre is not only a “confusing concept….[but also]
there [exists] no absolute truth…when…evaluating [a concept within itself].
Prior knowledge before taking this Tragedy course that most of the collegiate
students possess (or should possess) is that genre is important in particular to
literature. Knowing the type of genre a piece of work happens to be can often
offer a synopsis of what the audience can expect to happen. “Audience appeal” in
genre makes the connection between the subject of genre and the audience for
instance, a ‘guys movie’ has implications of potentially being an action packed
blood soaking film, offering an insight to the targeted audience as well as the
contents of the film.
Aristotle
(384-322 BCE), one of the quintessential Greek philosophers that influences us
still to this day, developed a working definition of tragedy “and the nature of
tragedy as a genre”
(Aristotle’s
Poetics - Excerpts) yet even his brilliant understanding of the genre is today
only seen as an important definition that offers a foundation and reasoning but
is not as a rule-book that limits the genre to becoming stifled to or
disregarded as such when lacking some of the qualities.
The Narrative genre refers to the type of story, narrative, or plot the
work of literature tells or enacts, (Terms & Themes – Excerpts). One of the
basic storylines of narrative genre is the
Romance. Romance, can be easily identified by involving a love story where
everything is pretty pleasant and uneventful at the beginning and the two love
protagonists are torn away from each other by an antagonistic force, yet they
overcome this adversity and provide a resolution with a Happy Ever After shot of
both the lovers riding into the sunset. Yet the typical Romance genre fails to
provide the audience with a look into their actual future because it distorts
the perception of reality vs. fantasy. As previously stated, a genre does not
stifle the story to be confined to a box; yet is often a blurred line in works
of arts such as the combination of Romance and Tragedy; a Romantic Tragedy.
Mourning Becomes Electra, offers the audience precisely this within
its text, a glimpse into the tragic love quarrel between Christine and Brant.
“Christine: Oh, …It’s as if love drove me to do everything I shouldn’t…Brant: If
ever I laid hands on him [Mannon] I’d kill him!” (O’Neil 293) The resolution to
their happy ever after is to kill Christine’s husband a morose yet romantical
proposition that overlooks repercussions for the purpose of love.
Agamemnon, offers the audience the
same story line yet the romantic tragedy does not need to be necessarily between
two individuals ‘in love’, Agamemnon in order for the well being of his citizens
and as father to the land is able to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia. There
is something deeply romantic about the blood bond between a father and a
daughter coming to an end because of a promise made by the Gods to Agamemnon.
“Agamemnon spoke, It’s harsh not to obey this fate…to kill my child, the glory
of my house…a fathers hands before an altar…virgin’s blood. Which of my options
is not evil?”.
Romance as a genre in film has in
contemporary terms been reduced to mostly romantic comedies, other wise known as
‘chick- flicks’.
Forrest Gump, is the
story of the mentally challenged hero, professional Ping-Pong player, and Bubba
Gump CEO who is infatuated with Jenny an unreciprocated love. In one scene
Forrest watches as Jenny (at this time a guitar performing singing stripper) is
harassed by men in the club. Forrest springs into action by beating the
gentlemen to a pulp and carrying Jenny in the nude with her guitar out of the
establishment, rescuing in a comical matter his damsel in distress. In
Maleficent,
we get a darker version of
Romance as a genre. Although we are used to the Disney version of this Sleeping
Beauty storyline, the director allows Maleficent to be seen as a happy fairy
with a love interest that later becomes engulfed with greed and abandons her,
only returning in order to rape Maleficent of her innocence (her wings).
Cassandra Rea
13th June 2014
Pre-essay: Genre: What’s in a Name?
Genre was not a word that was used in my vocabulary as a child growing
up. Despite being absolutely in love with Literature and always having a book in
my face, the term genre was nonexistent. In the place of genre I used words such
as Science Fiction, Romance, Fantasy, Mystery, etc. It has become evident that
these words used to describe the type of book that I would read was just a clear
explanation to genre. Genre is ultimately a word that is used to describe the
type of classification of Literature that is being presented to the reader. It
helps guide the prospective reader into what type of Literature he or she will
be reading. Personally, I look at it as a beacon into discovering the
alternative universe that the book at hand will lead you. Andrew Feith explains
it perfectly when approaching genre by stating, “The simplest way to identify
something’s genre is to ask, “What is it about?” Who are the main characters,
what is the setting, what kind of conflict drives the action? These questions
specifically concern subject genre”. All these questions offer the insight as to the type of genre each
reader looks for when searching for the next great read.
Even though genre can seem simplistic in itself by describing a type of
book, it does seem to have a few guidelines to help guide each different type.
Dr. White states that ‘genre may be classified in three broad, non-exclusive
categories: subject, form, and narrative”. The subject itself refers to what is
appealing to the reader or the content such as a comedy. The form deals with the
voices that are involved within the text such as dialogue. Lastly the narrative
is the kind or type of story that is being presented to the reader, in this case
for this course it is Tragedy. The beauty of these categories is that they are
guidelines and like most genres, they tend to overlap one another because there
is no one pure genre. It is with these guideline that help establish different
types of genre as well as it serves as guide in the explanation as to how genres
tend to overlap one another.
Since genre can be classified as different types of subjects that help
the reader understand the type of Literature, the list seems endless, right?
Yes, but the twist is that narrative genre which is referred by Dr. White as
“the kind of narrative, story, or plot that a work of literature tells or
enacts” can offer four basic story lines that can appear in novels of different
types of genre. These four basic narratives of genre include tragedy, comedy,
romance, and satire. If you stop to think about it, one of these four genres
tend to appear in any novel or story that you have read in the past. But it is
wise to remember that these genres tend to overlap and work together in some
cases. It seems quite fascinating that if one stops to think about this
statement of how you can find the simplicity of one of these narrative genres in
any novel.
The genre that I chose is a combination of two different types, Fantasy
and Science Fiction (remember that genres tend to overlap one another). These
two seem to overlap in the sense that they contain elements that do not seem
realistic as well as being in a different world. The first example to this idea
is Ayn Rand’s Anthem which is about a world in the future where each
individual is assigned a career, the men and women are separated from one
another, and they do not have minds of their own. But the protagonist rebels
against this society and finds a world outside of the one he knows as well as
falls in love. The basic narrative genre that is presented within this text is
romance because the protagonist is separated from an object of desire, in this
case it is the need for information beyond what is known as well as falling in
love with a woman that he is not allowed to interact with. The action within the
novel leads the protagonist on a journey of discovery. Another major role is
that the nature in the novel relates to the inner workings of the protagonist.
He escapes within the forest and finds knowledge that he never knew; it is like
he is being set free. Anthem is classified as Science Fiction/Fantasy but
by allowing to see the basic narrative, the reader is able to see the simplicity
within this complex world.
Another, more contemporary novel that is similar to this is The
Hunger Games Trilogy. Just like Anthem, The Hunger Games Trilogy
surrounds the idea of an alternative world that strives for perfection by
keeping its civilization limited to what they are supposed to know. In The
Hunger Games, Katniss makes the heroic decision to volunteer herself into
the games to save her sister’s life which leads Katniss on a journey that she
never expected. This trilogy also carries the basic narrative genre of romance
especially the connection to nature and the protagonist. By being in the
wilderness it is Katniss’s escape from the world she despises, it’s her a little
light of hope. The action within the series allows Katniss’s character to
transform and evolve over time. The series carries the basic narrative genre but
it also carries the genre of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Adventure (I’m sure
there are others as well).
What is fascinating about these novels is that despite these two having
different stories, their subject and narratives seem to align with one another.
They both carry the idea of the society striving for a utopia but end up with a
dystopia, the protagonist strives to learn the truth or something more within
that society, and an ending with the hope of a new beginning. In a sense a
reader could see these examples in defining genre. It can be as simple as a
classification or as complex as analyzing two different stories from different
eras. It is through these novels that a reader can get the full idea of genre
and understand that there cannot just be one pure genre but rather a mixture of
genres that lead to the classification of a genre. Think about it, if you do a
web search for both of these novels you will see under genre a variety of
classifications including Science Fiction, Utopian and dystopian fiction,
Speculative Fiction, Alternative History, and Adventure Fiction. Honestly, the
list can continue to go on if one permits. It ultimately shows that genre may be
a classification in determining what the novel is about but genres are meant to
intertwine and overlap together because that is what makes a story great.
Melissa South
Pre-essay on Genre: In Search of the True Romance
According to Dr.
White, genre can be defined as a “reliable [contract] an audience makes with a
work of art,” that “guarantees standard features or fulfills norms [and]
expectations” that are identifiable within similar works (White, 2014). It is
human nature to create categories and schemas to file information into, and it
better helps mankind to organize and make sense of the world around them. Each
category or schema has their own unique traits and features that are mostly, but
not always, consistent with other elements that also fit in that classification.
Society has categories for everything from books to dogs, and within those
categories we further sort into subcategories, such as novel, fiction, or
romance for books and Poodle, Beagle, or Chihuahua for dogs. Genre can be
thought of as a “subcategory” for elements of classifications in movies, music,
and books.
Jennifer Hamilton states that “these categories are not set in stone,”
and they have a tendency to overlap due to the evolution of them (Hamilton,
2012). I also believe they also overlap due to an individual’s personal
interpretation of the work; for example, if a friend asks what kind of book you
are reading, you might classify it as a fiction since it is not based on true or
real events. Well if your friend read it, they might consider it a romance since
the main story line follows the relationship of two lovers battling and
overcoming trials. Then they could pass the book on to a friend of theirs, and
that person might consider it a fantasy since it contained elements of outer
space and futuristic technology. One thing is clear, there are no pure genres,
and they must be regarded as “more of a yardstick than a box,” where we can
measure, describe, and identify similarities and differences, but also
understand that “nearly all works of art and literature contain elements of
other genres, i.e. romantic comedies” (White, 2014).
This essay will focus on narrative genre, specifically the romance genre.
According to Aristotle’s Poetics, the
genres such as tragedy, romance, comedy, etc. are all “modes of imitation,” or
mimesis, where the situations displayed are not necessarily true of our lives,
but very similar; situations where we learn, but are also given pleasure from
the experience (Aristotle handout, 1). When romance is thought of today, we
usually make the assumption that it is a love story, about a girl falling for
her knight in shining armor or a man longing for his girl best friend. In
reality, romance is usually a tale of quest or obtaining a person, object, or
goal that is desired by the protagonist. To better sum it up, Dr. White refers
to romance as a longing or fulfillment of something, not always limited to love
(White lecture). The protagonist is motivated by desire, where the story begins
with a revelation of that desire, whatever it may be, then there is usually a
physical or emotional journey the protagonist must embark on, and the tale
usually ends with their desires being fulfilled either through personal growth,
a reuniting, or a marriage.
While romance is a genre of literature and movies, there are a number of
subgenres that fall under the romance category. There are crime romances,
romantic comedies, tragic romances, paranormal romances, and historical romances
just to name a few. No matter the subcategory, most romances revolve around
desires and love with an emotionally satisfying, or optimistic, ending to follow
the quest. However, romance tales may have any tone or style, be set in any
place or time, and have varying degrees of sensuality. In contrast with
tragedy’s “mixed characters,” romance characters “tend to be starkly good or
bad,” and the “problem that starts the action is usually attributed…to a villain
or some outside force” (White, genre notes, 2014).
Chelsea
Stansell
A Genre’s a
Genre, No Matter How Small—Mimesis
Although tragedy is recognized as the greatest genre in western literary
history, there is much to be said for all of the wonderful categories that are
beautifully dancing in the ever-changing eye of
genre. When you read a book or go to
the movies, you are introduced to a smorgasbord of evolving genres, and as you
walk up and down the aisles of Barnes and Noble or excitedly wait outside to buy
your ticket at the local Cinemark theatre, it is hard to miss the appetizing
buffet that is genre.
Many times,
classification can be seen as a negative concoction, used to simplify something,
like when a bully in school refers to a smart child as a “nerd”, in reality,
this classification makes sense to the bully because he understands that “nerd”
means someone who is smart, and this phrase “nerd” summarizes that the other
child is in fact, intelligent, eventually this phrase evolves, and gradually
it’s meaning doesn’t have quite the same demarcation as before. When you read
the genre categories at Half Price Books, I guarantee you won’t find a genre
called “nerd” because books have other evolving classifications, ones that also,
change over time.
In class, we
discussed the Dionysiac, and Apolline state, and these terms blossomed in my
perception, to help me better understand genre and its entirety. If in fact
people change and grow with time, and genres evolve and develop with time, is it
safe to say that people and genres grow together? Nietzsche says “The ecstasy of
the Dionysiac state, abolishing the habitual barriers and boundaries of
existence, actually contains, for its duration, a lethargic element into which
all past personal experience is plunged”. A genre expands, because of the past
literacies previously written in past classified genres, and we are simply here,
because of our past experiences, ancestors, and stories. Would current
literature be what it is today without the past works of Ovid? Would our current
science fiction movies be what they are today, without the previous success of
Star Wars? Absolutely not! People and
genres develop over time, and eventually they no longer fit into simply one
category, because as time passes, we find more and more classifications for the
things we enjoy.
I would like
to focus my ideas around the genres of Science Fiction and fantasy, because I
find these genres exciting and very relevant. Looking at Aristotle’s Poetics, he
explains that tragedy is done through imitation, and in comparison, it can be
said that other genres evolve through imitation. As we discussed in class,
satires and parodies spring from original ideas, and original ideas were
inspired from something else! We also discussed in class that kids learn through
imitation, and can it be said that writers do the same? Imitation in fact
travels through entire civilizations, cultures, societies, and social media!
With blogs, movies, books, web quests, videos, vlogs and other sources of
sharing ,can it be said that all genres spring from imitation?
Jennifer Hamilton also discussed imitation in her paper, and I loved how
she described how “Plato was very concerned with the
nature of things. In
The Republic,
Plato questions the role art as well as literature plays and its relation to
morality. He was afraid that if poets and writers were able to imitate reality
so accurately that the audience was totally drawn in, then the poet had the
power to mislead his readers into believing something that is not the truth”.
I found this very fascinating, because through imitation, things do seem
more concrete, not because of their factual backgrounds, but simply because they
are familiar to us. Once we read Oedipus in class, it was much easier for me to
grasp other films which examined or encompassed the Oedipus complex, whereas
without studying Oedipus, I really would not have been able to understand it. I
feel I feel that genres and life experiences are quite similar in the way that,
once you experience them, you have a better understanding of what they really
are like, and you begin to grow a larger vocabulary to describe them with, and I
believe, that is how we develop genres. Genres and people both evolve and grow
with time, and after a awhile, “nerd” just doesn’t describe
Mickey Thames
Everybody Lies: The Broken
Contract of Genre
Among the very first of the ideas put forward in
his Poetics,
Aristotle stresses that every form of literature was, in a way, imitative. That
humanity’s nature to mimic the world around us, and indeed other people, leads
them to tell stories. These stories ranged all across the spectrum of human
experience, with some concerning the darkest parts of our mortal lives, and
others reminiscing of gladder times, of laughter and love. Tragedy, comedy,
romance; three basic tenets of the average human life.
To mirror these three tenets, so does the
literature written about them have three parts. The subject of the work, the
style of its narration, and also the voice. To know the subject of the works,
one need only look above to the sign over their areas in the store. The subjects
vary from the wonderfully fantastic, to grim and utterly too realistic, while
the narration varies nearly as much, with plays, poems, novels, movies and good
old fashioned fireside tales. What remains eerily similar throughout time is the
voice. There remain, according to the course site, three main voices used to
describe these endlessly variable subjects and narration styles. The classic
Narrator being the single voice telling the story, authoritative and complete in
its recitation. The Dialogue also emerges, telling the story through overheard
conversations and actions between characters. And finally, the classic
combination of an omniscient Narrator and Dialogue, with a single voice giving
us the action while also relating the dialogue of characters. The same three
styles, used endlessly, over and over to tell tales that grow in magnificence,
splendor and realism, while experimenting with form and function. What genre has
come to mean is simply a promise from the narrator or characters that they will
tell this story. Genre, as a contract to tell a certain type of story.
This bothered me for some time when
writing this. I searched amongst the sample essays to find someone who had
written about Voice, but came up only with people who used it to define
narratives. The closest someone got to questioning the Voice was Kayla Riggs,
who in her essay on Satire, questions whether or not Satire is disrespectful of
the authors it lambasts. By disrespecting the authors, an assumption is put
forward: that the author, and by extension, are either ignorant or wrong about
something.
This is a jarring assumption about
literature, as I was always taught growing up to trust my narrator, to trust the
characters, to tell the story as it happened. Why would a narrator or characters
lie about the events in the story being told to the audience?
That is where
the title of my essay comes into play. In the modern satirical medical drama,
House M.D, the titular Dr. House’s most famous catchphrase is “Everybody lies”.
If Aristotle’s original position of literature
being mimetic holds true, then wouldn’t the stories they tell also lie? Can a
truthful character or narrator come from a human that lies?
This question, as it turns out, has been answered,
in the genre of Subversive Fiction. And that answer is quite loudly answered
with a Yes. More than a few episodes in House M.D are told from House’s
perspective end up being entirely hallucinations. Fight Club is about a narrator
who does not realize that he is actually two personalities. And the ever popular
Game of Thrones, at least in the written form, plays with character perspectives
to the point where you should never believe someone is dead unless at least two
POV characters watch them die. These works shake up everything you are lead to
believe about trusting the person telling the story, from the subject to its
form, forcing the reader to consider the frightening possibility that they might
be investing themselves into a story that does not happen. The usual escapist
and insular worlds of literature spill over into the real world and threaten to
undermine every story humans tell. These books dare to take to heart MacBeth’s
view on life
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
MacBeth Act 5, Scene 5
Katherine Vellella
Fantasy: Not Just for Children and
Teenagers
Genre – what is that? The easiest and
least exhaustive way to explain genre is that it assigns a name to literary
items such as books. For example many people have a preferred book genre, which
could be comedy, romance, science fiction, biographies and many more. However,
genre is not just allocating a name to something. Genre also consists of
sub-categories, subject, form, and narrative. These categories do not limit or
confine the definition of genre, but allow room for interpretation and
overlapping (Introduction to Genre handout). To demonstrate the following
sub-categories I will explore the fantasy genre. Matt Sanchez, a student from
the University of Florida describes fantasy as having
a “habit of taking real-life situations and characters and introducing them into
a world where unexpected (and unexplainable) things…” (2005).
The first sub-category is subject. It
describes the content or special interest pertaining to the literary work
(Introduction to Genre). When I was in elementary school, I could not stop
reading the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. In the books, Jack and
Annie would climb into their tree house to travel to different worlds and time
periods, like the Dinosaur Age. Overall, the series embraced magic, history, and
myths (Magic Tree House). To give a more all-encompassing term, I would define
the subject as fantasy. Another example of fantasy, but for adults is Neil
Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane.
When Gaiman was deciding who would read his book, he took into account that “it
does have magical stuff in it, and it does have some of the glorious fantasy
elements that you find in kids' stories” (NPR). The subject of his book is
fantasy, but also adult because of the content.
Second is form or formal which refers
to the voice. There are three types of voice, narrator, drama/dialogue, and
narrator plus dialogue (Introduction to Genre). The form of voice Osborne and
Gaiman demonstrate is the third type, narrator plus dialogue. In Gaiman’s novel
the narrator is a man speaking as his seven year old self. As the narrator
recalls past experiences, dialogue occurs between the seven year old and his
friend, Lettie Hempstock. The reader also encounters dialogue between other
characters. The Magic Tree House series also has a narrator describing Jack and
Annie’s experiences, as well as dialogue between the two main characters and the
people they meet on their journeys.
The last sub-category is narrative.
Narrative pertains to the plot of the story, the plot can be tragedy, comedy,
romance, or satire; however, the plot can also contain a combination of plots
like a romance tragedy (Narrative Genres). Osborne’s series is a romance because
it involves Jack and Annie being separated from their family, and at times from
each other. They also have an adventure in the new world and help solve a
problem. At the end of each book in the series the children happily return home.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a bit more complicated. Gaiman’s
book includes both romance and tragedy. It begins as a romance because the man
has been separated from his long lost friend, Lettie. As the book continues the
narrator tries to recall what happened to Lettie after a series of turbulent
events. Meanwhile the challenges Lettie and the man faced as children adopt a
tragedy plot. The tragedy aspect has an evil woman, Ursula who disturbs the
lives of the people in Sussex, England. However, all the adults believe Ursula
is wonderful, while Lettie and the narrator see the true darkness in Ursula. It
is up to the two friends to “restore justice” and normalcy to their town
(Narrative Genres).
The
Magic Tree House series and
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
demonstrate that fantasy is not just for children. The magic and unreal
situations are appealing to all because as Brittany Fletcher wrote,
“Fantasy
opens doors to release the mind from logic in order for it to enjoy something
beyond the question of possible” (June 2010 Midterm). Also, fantasy can appeal
to various ages because it is a genre that can incorporate elements from other
genres. Gaiman included romance into his rather tragic novel. And Osborne used
the series to teach children about history and myths, in addition to the romance
of adventure. I feel that because genres are able to overlap this is what
captures the attention of various audiences.
References
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