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(2016
final exam assignment) Sample Student Final Exam Essays 2016 Essay 1. Define "genre" + examples |
LITR 4370 Tragedy
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James
Cooper
12
June 2016
Genre: What People Who Really Do Not Read Use to Find Books or Movies
(Post-Apocalyptic Fiction)
The true definition of genre would be a category of art; yet the fluid
definition changes with each generation. The genre selection on Netflix is the
best example. There have become so many genres that they are now sub-genres.
Horror is no longer horror, it is now chainsaw thrillers, clown massacres, and
so many more. Cassandra Rea in her essay “Pre-Essay:
Genre: What’s in a Name?”, gives a
great explanation of how this works and what to expect:
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 [movies] 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 the four genres tend to appear
in any novel [movie] or story that you have read [watched] in the past. (par3)
The genre that I will be focused on is a sub-genre of tragedy called
post-apocalyptic. Dr. White informs us that “there are no pure genres”. Because
of this a formula is used to help keep certain stories within the walls of a set
parameter. The first of the three key parts of genre, which make up any story,
no matter the genre, is subject/audience. Dr. White paraphrases subject/audience
from his genres page as “The content, subject, "special interest" or "audience
appeal" of a text, such as "a crime story" or a "teenage movie”. With just the
first key to genres, a search can be done for post-apocalyptic and find plenty
of results. Rebecca Bridgmohan gives a perfect explanation of the
subject/audience part of genre: “When you think about what attracts people to
certain books, the only thing that comes to mind is that they must read what
they like or have interest in” (par 1). My personal favorite is two series, one
by Angela White called Life After War
Series and Jacqueline Druga’s
Beginnings. Both of these stories take place at the start of the end of the
modern world. Life After War is after
total nuclear war, while Beginnings
is due to a virus. This sub-genre of writing is very specific to people who
enjoy end of world stories.
In the Life After War Series,
the main character Angela White (some relation), sets out with her teenage son
to try and survive post nuclear fallout America. Along this journey, it would
seem that fate has been watching her every move and decided to bring everything
together along the way. She meets up with her lost love, who is also traveling
with her ex-husband, as they are both part of the same platoon; however, they do
not know of the others’ link to Angela, all culminating in the revelation that
most of the leadership of the group they form called Safe Haven are direct
descendants of Jesus. With this lineage comes a great power and choices that
could save or doom not only their souls but all of humanity.
The Beginnings series is
different in the sense that there is no link to a higher power, yet it is still
about surviving after the world ends and rebuilding. In this series, a man made
virus is released that less than one percent of the world is immune to. As luck
would have it, all of the Slagel family has the immunity gene. What they do not
have is the whereabouts of each other at the time of the release. So with the
exception of the father and brother Frank, they each believe the others to be
dead. Fate brings them all together
again though at the compound of Beginnings. To date there are twenty-six books
in this series with six side stories so far. With so much going on, it is almost
impossible to give a true detailed narrative. This passage is taken straight
from the authors webpage for this series and gives a great view into how she
feels about this series; “What is Beginnings? The Beginnings Series takes you
from Apocalypse to Dystopia. From plague to survival and so forth. It is my baby
and is filled with characters I believe are no less than real to me and I hope,
become real to you as well” (Druga). With an author that feels that way about a
story this in depth, she is always working on it. This story has a life of its
own.
The second key to genres if form. Dr. White calls form: “the form in
which the text appears; specifically, the types and numbers of “voices” that
present the genre”. The three types of form are narrator, dialogue, and narrator
+ dialogue. Both of these stories are dialogue stories with the characters
acting as narrators. It is also very rare to find a true, simple form of
writing. This is arguably what I consider the most important part of the genre
formula. There have been books that I have walked away from, even though I
really wanted to read them, simply because of the way they were narrated. Either
a play that did not give enough detail or a novel that left holes in the plot;
without a “voice” to lead the story, it wanders off and the reader gets lost.
It is the form of the before mentioned stories that drew me to them.
While not particularly well written, as they are self-published, they draw you
in and make you want to continue. Both stories are completely different, yet
they make you feel for the characters in a way that has you hanging on every
word. Both authors use a mixture of narrator and dialogue to progress the story;
but instead of one main narrator, they use each character as a narrator. They do
this by either giving a different character a chapter devoted to them, or by
switching perspectives from one character to another throughout the chapter.
With that being said, Life After War
is almost exclusively from the main character of Angela. It does change some,
but not much; just enough to progress the story in a way that staying completely
with her would not or could not. Here is an example of that switch: “Angela
allowed the darkness to reclaim her, comforted that Marc had been here at all.
She needed him so much! Adrian caught that thought, but didn’t have the energy
to send to the wolfman. He drifted off still slumped on the rocky floor with his
head on the mattress. 2 ‘I need a complete update,’ Marc stated, regarding the
cold tent” (loc 9457). This is from book eight of the series titled
Carved in Stone. With self-published
Kindle books, they do not have pages, they have locations.
The third and last key is narrative. This has been touched on previously
but both of these stories are a mixture of all four narratives. It is mainly
romance/tragedy mix with comedy and satire thrown in for plot movement. While
there are consistently writers coming up with new ideas or even rewriting old
ideas (such as Phaedra), they all follow the formula of genre and the three
keys, or they simply would not work. A person would not write a horror about
clowns (Stephen King’s IT) and have
it directed at young children; it simply would not work. So must a writer tailor
their writing to the target audience. What I have learned since writing this,
though, is that target audiences can change over time. What may be written for
common people in 400 B.C. can become a story for royalty in 1600 A.D. Another
way to see it that a book may be written for a younger crowd or Young Adult
readers, and become popular with adults such as
The Hunger Games or
Divergent.
As dialect changes from generation to generation, so does the meaning of
words. Without the context of why and when a story was written, it could become
something completely opposite of what it was intended to be. Not to be vulgar
but take the word faggot for example. Hundreds of years ago, to have a person go
into the woods and get a faggot, would be to have them collect wood. Now it is
something so far removed that if taken out of context would not make any sense
to the story. This would result in a stoppage of narrative and the story would
lose all meaning. The voice that guides these changes is very important. If the
author is writing a new play based on older writings or ideas, they must specify
this and any word changes either directly or through explanation, or the story
loses something.
Having experienced all of these things in this class, I now know that no
matter what genre a story starts out in, it will always have parts of another
included in it. Romance is so prevalent that I cannot think of a single story
that would work without it included. It is the major factor that guides
characters; even in horror genres, the main character sets out to either survive
or beat the villain/monster. So without romance genre there would be no stories,
only words.
