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)

Fariha Khalil

3 April 2015

What is Genre?

            Genre is what defines a work of art; whether it be a novel, a book, a poem, or simply music, it gives the audience an overview of what they are about to encounter.  Before taking this class, I thought of genre as just labeling the different forms of art as:  romance, science fiction, comedy, tragedy, horror, fantasy, fairytale, and so on.  But, I came to learn that genre is not just about giving names to books, movies, songs, etc.  Genre can actually be “classified in three broad, non-exclusive” categories: subject/ audience, form, and narrative (Introduction to Genre Handout).  In my essay, I chose to explore the tragicomedy genre and through it, demonstrate the three sub-categories of Genre. Although, the term “tragicomedy” is not widely popular and many times is referred to as “dark comedy” or “flawed comedy” it is still the same. The genre of tragicomedy consists of both, a sense of comedy and a sense of tragedy having either a happy ending or a tragic ending.

            The first sub-category of Genre is Subject/Audience.  This sub-genre describes the “content, subject, and special interest ‘or’ audience appeal of a text, such as ‘a crime story’ or a ‘teenage movie’” (Introduction to Genre).  In my first year of college, I took the course the Survey of British Literature and in that class we read the play “Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe.  The play was about a well-educated German Scholar named Doctor Faustus who becomes dissatisfied after studying medicine, law, and religion that he decides to learn magic.  In order to do that, he makes a pact with the devil to keep his soul after 24 years.  Throughout the play, Doctor Faustus plays tricks on people making the audience laugh that the audience actually forgets that he has made a pact with Lucifer to take his soul in the end.  Although, the play was pretty funny, it did not have a happy ending for Doctor Faustus ends up dying.  At the time I was taking the course, I did not know about the tragicomedy genre until reading that play.  Another example of tragicomedy, but with a slightly different ending I liked was the play “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare.  In the play Beatrice and Benedict threw insults at each other which making the play funny, while Hero and Claudio fall in love and are to be married until a misunderstanding occurs between the two lovers.  Claudio thinks that Hero is an unfaithful maiden and decides not to marry her.  In order to prove her virtuous soul, Hero is forced to fake her death, to which Claudio realizes that he had made a mistake about doubting Hero’s character of a virtuous maiden. This all seems very tragic until the end when Claudio and Hero do end up getting married after all.  Both of the plays were both comic and tragic with one having a tragic ending, while the other had a happy ending.

            The second sub-category of Genre is the Form.  This sub-category of genre “refers to the number and types of voices in the genre, or the ‘form’ in which the text appears” (Introduction Handout).  There are three forms of voice, narrator, drama or dialogue, and lastly, narrator and dialogue.  Since these were both plays, their authors used the form of narrator and dialogue.  While the characters talk amongst each other in the play, there is also a narrator who describes or introduces certain situations that are about to take place.

            Lastly, the third sub-category of Genre is the Narrative genre, which “refers to the type of story or plot that a work of literature tells or enacts” (Introduction to Handout). While Subject/Audience “is the simplest, most obvious way to classify literature and art”, the Narrative or story-telling is a “type of mimesis—like all art, a story imitates or re-presents a sequence or series of symbols or events that happened (or could have happened) in reality, nature, the world, but it is also a type of invention” (Narrative Handout). According to “Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (1957)”, the Narrative genre consists of four basic story lines, Tragedy, Comedy, Romance, and Satire.  Even though these are the four basic types of story lines, they also overlap each other making some works of literature a Comedy Romance, or a Tragedy and Romance, or what I chose to write over, Tragedy and Comedy (Narrative Genres). This is an example of what Dr. White had said in class “there are no pure genres.”  Although, these plays have comedy and tragedy, Shakespeare’s play “Much Ado About Nothing”, also has some Romantic aspects.  Don Pedro, Claudio, and Benedict have returned from a war and also, the play has some imagery about taming animals. Also, the love romance is visible throughout the play with Benedict and Beatrice, how they portray their love for one another with insults, and the love between Hero and Claudio.

            Both of the plays, “Doctor Faustus” by Christopher Marlowe and “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare demonstrate the genre of tragedy and comedy with different endings, one with a happy ending, and the other with a tragic ending. These plays also demonstrate that there are really “no pure genres” as one can easily overlap the other.  I personally enjoy reading genres that overlap, because it gives the work a little twist to it.  Instead of just watching a plain comedy or a plain tragedy, this keeps the audience on the edge of their seat, to keep ready for a little twist.  Yes, sometimes it is disappointing to read or watch something very fun and exciting that has a tragic ending or vice versa.