LITR 4370 TRAGEDY Midterm2 Samples 2015 (midterm2 assignment) Model Answers to Part 1. Genre Definition 2.

Part 1. Continue genre definition and example(s) from Midterm1: Using the Introduction to Genres page, redevelop / revise and extend your "working definition" of genre in all three categories (Subject / Audience, Formal, Narrative) and use them to analyze the genre of your choice you began in Midterm1. Cite, explain, and analyze two or more examples of your genre from your reading, viewing, or listening experience and  and 2 research sources from course website or beyond. (total length: 6-8 paragraphs, 3+ double-spaced page equivalent)

Stephanie Ali

Genres Come in All Shapes and Sizes

When heading to Barnes and Nobles looking for the novel “The Color Purple”, I told the young clerk who was unaware of the book that it was fiction. After a blank face I added, it’s an epistolary novel, and at once she was able to locate the book I was looking for. This is an example of how our society has ordered our information and entertainment sphere. Not only is it an epistolary novel, but also a romance. As emphasized in Dr. White’s class, “There is no pure genre”! Rather, it’s a mix and keeps changing.

As stated on Dr. White’s website concerning genre, “Every work of literature involves at least one subject genre, one formal genre, & one narrative genre.” The subject genre will inform the interest or subject. The form will involve the narrator and dialogue, and the narrative genre defines the type of story or plot.

Starting with the subject genre, this would ask “what interests you”, or “what type of books or movies you enjoy, chick flics or mystery novels”? Of course, the genre could have a mix of the two, such as a tragic comedy. In the case of “Areopagus”, the third story of Agamemnon, Orestes runs away to Athens to be acquitted of his mother’s murder. Athena reminds the angry furies that a kind act was done so the furies become kind and stay in Athens. According to the method of tragic drama, this would be a happy ending. In “Mourning Becomes Electra” by Eugene O’Neil, the subject genre would function as tragic romance. I include romance because Christine is in love with Adam, even though Adam’s love for Christine is for revenge of her husband. Christine longs for the future moment that she and Adam can be together. The obstacle is her husband, who is coming back from war. Although other components of social issues such as Oedipus/Electra complex are present, the romantic effect is love and the “here and now” as a restless state. Christina is looking for something that is not within her reach, which induces a romantic genre. These are two examples of mixed genre.

To simplify the term “form”, it can be organized in three categories. There is a narrator (single voice), a drama (dialogue), and both dialogue and narrator. A great example of a narrator would be the speech “Ain’t I a Woman” by Sojourner Truth speaking on behalf of women’s rights for blacks.  An example of a drama dialogue would be in the reading of “Bacchus”. Cadmus and Tiresias have a discussion back and forth about joining the Bacchae, and before long Pentheus joins the dialogue to reject the old men’s idea. Lastly, when talking about narrator and dialogue, I often immediately refer to the movie “A Christmas Story” which deputed in 1983. It is memorable to me because of the narrator talking throughout the movie.  

Defining the narrative genre as plot or story diminishes the real purpose. The narrative genre can act as a mimeses, which “reshape or even create what happened” as is what happens in “their function in human nature and culture, and—in this case—their essential contributions to human identity and the progress of civilization” (Dr. White’s webpage). Humans learn from past experiences and we reinvent narrations from that.  Aristotle explains further that “the instinct of imitation is implanted in people from childhood… and through imitation we learn our earliest lessons; and no less universal is the pleasure felt in things imitated ...”(IV).  Hamlet and Antigone teach us what not to do. Hamlet murders to avenge his father but also loves his mother to an unhealthy extent (Oedipus complex).  In Antigone, we learn about the tragic flaw, which is that what seems to be our downfall is the very thing we love about ourselves. Another way I see narrative genre is with the example of “The blind men and the elephant” as mentioned on Dr. White’s website. The elephant is huge and with the men blindfolded, the parts of the elephant are interpreted differently although the elephant is one. In the same way, we can read a novel or watch a movie and come out with a different lesson. A narrative can be tackling minority issues and father/son relationships at the same time. What is important or pertains to one’s life is the interpretation one will walk away with. A movie I saw recently with my friend touched us in different ways. I came out of the movie learning the importance of forgiveness for the sake of oneself while my friend found a lesson to take pride in her culture and ethnicity. As expressed, the narrative genre can have a vast function.

            In Cassandra Rea’s essay, “Genre, What’s In a Name”, she states that “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”. This certainly stands true when choosing a movie to take my four and five year old to at the cinema. Being that my sons have a fascination with Sponge Bob made the choice effortless. The new movie film “Sponge Bob out of Water debuted this February and without a doubt under the category genre of comedy. If the new Sponge Bob movie would have produced a “chic flic”, the audience would more than likely revolted with disappointment. This follows with the statement on Dr. White’s website that a "contract with the audience" guarantees standard features or fulfills norms or expectations in style and tone”. People watch Sponge Bob for one reason, to laugh!

            However, there are similarities with “Morning Becomes Electra, Oresteia’s Trilogy, and the movie “Sponge Bob out of Water” and that is the genre of Romance. Romance involves “protagonists [that] are motivated by desire for fulfillment or a vision of transcendent grace” (Dr. White’s webpage). The problem in Oresteia Trilogy and its mimesis “Morning Becomes Electra” is that the wife is in love with a significant other and in order to be happy the husband must be killed. Something stands in the way of happiness. For Sponge Bob, the villain has stolen the secret formula, and the whole town goes into uproar and peace is not established until the secret formula is returned to Bikini Bottom. It’s the “desire and loss” that’s working in these narratives that make it Romantic. In a Romantic genre, it’s about desiring what you don’t have, whether it be a lover or secret formula!