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Literary Genres and Subgenres (Fiction, Nonfiction, Drama, and Poetry) - Video and Worksheet — Transcript

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0:01Today, we're going to talk about
0:02literary genres and subgenres.
0:06While you watch the video,
0:07you can print out the worksheet
0:09to takes notes and practice while you listen.
0:13To understand literary genres, the first thing we need
0:17is a definition of the word literature.
0:20So what is literature?
0:25Literature means books and other writing,
0:29usually by expert authors.
0:33Now let's talk about the definition of literary genre.
0:37So what is a literary genre?
0:41Well, a genre is a type or category,
0:46and literary means of literature,
0:49so a literary genre is a type or category of literature.
0:57There are four main literary genres,
1:00drama, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
1:07Let's talk about the definition and an example of each one.
1:10Drama is a play for theater
1:13told by character dialogue or talking.
1:17Here's an example of a drama or play
1:20being performed in a theater.
1:23We can read drama and we can also watch it.
1:27Fiction is a story
1:29that did not actually happen in real life.
1:34An example of a very famous story that's fiction
1:37is Twilight.
1:39We know Twilight is fiction
1:40because it's about vampires, which aren't real.
1:46Nonfiction is writing that is real and factual
1:49or that actually happened.
1:51An example of nonfiction is any textbook you read in school,
1:58such as a science textbook or history textbook.
2:01This example is information
2:03that would be shown in a science textbook.
2:08Poetry is writing using language and sounds
2:12in special ways to express ideas.
2:16Here's a very simple and maybe even silly example of poetry.
2:22"The rose is red.
2:24"The violet's blue.
2:25"Sugar is sweet,
2:27"and so are you."
2:30These words are told in a way
2:32that rhyme and have rhythm.
2:36We'll learn more about those two words later,
2:39but you can see when you hear these verses
2:42that poetry is read differently
2:45than fiction, nonfiction, or drama.
2:49Now that we've learned what literary genres are,
2:53let's be more specific.
2:56These genres have subgenres.
3:00A subgenre is a smaller group or category.
3:08Literary genres and subgenres.
3:10Now we'll name subgenres
3:13of each of the four genres along with examples.
3:19So drama has two subgenres.
3:22One is comedy and the other is tragedy.
3:29A comedy is a funny or humorous drama
3:32with a happy ending.
3:34One example of a very famous comedy
3:37is The Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare.
3:40Now we are talking about comedy as a subgenre of drama,
3:46but we can also see comedies
3:49on television and in the movies.
3:54A tragedy is a sad drama with a sad ending.
3:58An example of a very famous tragedy
4:01is Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.
4:05Like comedy, tragedy also began
4:08and still is performed as a drama or play.
4:13But also like comedy, we can now watch tragedies
4:17on television and in the movies.
4:22Now let's talk about subgenres of fiction.
4:26The genre of fiction has several subgenres.
4:30Today we'll talk about eight of them,
4:33fantasy, folklore,
4:36historical fiction, mystery,
4:39realistic fiction, romance,
4:43science fiction, and thriller.
4:48Fantasy is a story in a fantasy world
4:52or a world that isn't real.
4:55An example of fantasy are the Harry Potter books.
5:01Harry Potter's world is full of magic and wizards.
5:05That's why it's fantasy.
5:08A second subgenre of fiction is folklore.
5:13Folklore is old cultural stories.
5:16These include fairytales, fables,
5:19myths, legends, and tall tales.
5:23We'll discuss each type of folklore in a separate video.
5:27For now just know that each of these
5:29is an example of types of folklore.
5:33Every country and culture has its own folklore.
5:37Here's an example of Russian folklore.
5:40This book is a collection of stories
5:43about the famous character, Baba Yaga.
5:49And here is an example of Mexican folklore.
5:53This is a story about La Llorona or the crying woman.
6:01Another subgenre of fiction is historical fiction.
6:06This is a fiction story based on real history.
6:11One famous example of historical fiction
6:14is the novel Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
6:20This story takes place during the Civil War in US history.
6:26So the Civil War actually happened,
6:30but the characters in Gone with the Wind,
6:33one of them is the famous character Scarlett O'Hara.
6:37The characters were not real,
6:41and what happened in the lives of the characters
6:43also was not real,
6:45although it was based on real history.
6:52Mystery is another subgenre of fiction.
6:56A mystery is a story about a crime.
6:59Here's an example.
7:01The novel And Then She Was Gone
7:04is a story about a girl who disappears.
7:08During this story,
7:10detectives and people living in the town she was in
7:14try to find where the girl is and what happened to her.
7:20The fifth subgenre of fiction we'll talk about today
7:23is realistic fiction.
7:26This is a story that seems real but isn't real.
7:30Realistic fiction is set in modern times,
7:34and it's about characters who seem like real people.
7:39A well-known example of realistic fiction
7:42is the story Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
7:46The main character, Jane Eyre,
7:49has a difficult childhood as a young girl.
7:53She grows up to work
7:54in the home of a man named Mr. Rochester.
7:58The picture on this book cover shows this home.
8:02It looks real,
8:05and Jane Eyre seems like a real person.
8:07So does Mr. Rochester.
8:10But they're not real.
8:12That story is fiction.
8:13It's realistic fiction because it seems true.
8:21Another subgenre of fiction is romance or a love story.
8:27The novel A Perfect Gentleman is an example of a romance.
8:34Science fiction is a story in the future
8:37with advanced technology.
8:40One well-known example of science fiction
8:42is The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
8:45This story takes place about a 100 years into the future
8:50and involves a character named Katniss who's 16 years old.
8:54The government forces her and many other young people
8:58to battle each other in an event called The Hunger Games,
9:03which leaves only one survivor.
9:07Sometimes science fiction can get confused with fantasy.
9:13The main difference between science fiction and fantasy
9:17is that science fiction is in a future world
9:21that has some similarities with our current world.
9:25It involves new inventions and technology.
9:28Whereas fantasy happens in a world that is impossible,
9:35a world where, for example, animals talk
9:38or other impossible things happen.
9:43And finally a thriller or suspense
9:46is a story that makes readers nervous,
9:49excited, or even scared as they read.
9:53An example of a thriller
9:55is The Girl With No Past by Kathryn Croft.
9:59In this story, readers learn
10:03secrets about a girl who appears in a town.
10:08The secrets they learn make readers feel nervous,
10:11excited, and sometimes scared as they read.
10:15Sometimes a thriller or suspense
10:18can be confused with a mystery,
10:21but actually mysteries are different from thrillers.
10:25The goal of a mystery
10:27is to solve a crime and figure out who did the crime.
10:33In a thriller, sometimes there was no crime,
10:37or readers already know at the beginning who did the crime.
10:43The goal of the thriller is to thrill the audience
10:46by revealing secrets as the audience reads the book.
10:52Now we'll learn about subgenres of the genre nonfiction.
10:57Today, we'll learn about five subgenres of nonfiction,
11:00including biography, autobiography,
11:04narrative, periodicals, and reference materials.
11:13One subgenre of nonfiction is biography
11:16or a story of a person's life.
11:19Here's an example of a well-known biography.
11:23This book is about the life
11:25of Albert Einstein, the famous scientist.
11:28It's written by the biographer or author Walter Isaacson.
11:36Another subgenre of nonfiction is autobiography
11:39or a story the author writes about himself or herself.
11:47An example of a famous autobiography
11:50is the The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.
11:54It's a book that Benjamin Franklin wrote about his own life.
12:02Another subgenre of nonfiction is narrative nonfiction
12:07or a story or narrative that happened in real life.
12:12An example of narrative nonfiction
12:17is the book called Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams.
12:23This book tells stories about explorers
12:28who rediscovered the place called Machu Picchu.
12:33The stories in this book are real.
12:36They actually happened.
12:38The characters are real, the places are real,
12:41and the events are real.
12:43That's what makes them narrative nonfiction
12:46instead of fiction.
12:49And finally periodicals
12:52are magazines, newspapers,
12:54and journals that are written regularly.
12:58Regularly might mean once a week.
13:01It might mean once a month
13:02or sometimes even just once a year.
13:06All of those things are called periodicals.
13:10The most common type of periodical we see
13:13is a daily newspaper.
13:18The last subgenre of nonfiction we'll discuss today
13:22is reference materials.
13:25These are books with facts in alphabetical order.
13:28Examples include a dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedia.
13:34Here's an example of a dictionary.
13:38Dictionaries list words in alphabetical order
13:41along with their meanings.
13:47And finally the last subgenres we're going to discuss
13:51are subgenres of the genre poetry.
13:55Remember that poetry is writing using language and sounds
13:58in special ways to express ideas.
14:01The subgenres of poetry that we'll learn about today are
14:04lyric, narrative, and dramatic poetry.
14:10Now let's define the subgenres of poetry.
14:14The most popular and common subgenre of poetry
14:16is the lyric or a poem about the speaker's thoughts.
14:22Most poems you see and hear are lyrics.
14:27Examples of lyrics include elegy, ode, sonnet, and haiku.
14:33Today, we won't talk specifically
14:35about elegy, ode, sonnet, and haiku,
14:38except to say each of them is a type of lyric.
14:43And here is an example of a lyric.
14:46This is a haiku written by a famous haiku writer.
14:50"Fallen flower I see
14:53"returning to its branch.
14:55"Ah, a butterfly."
14:58This lyric is a haiku written
15:01about the speaker's thoughts of a flower.
15:05Like all poetry, you see how
15:08the lyric uses syllables and sounds
15:12to express thoughts in a special way
15:15that's different from how fiction,
15:18nonfiction, and drama express thoughts.
15:24Another subgenre of poetry is narrative
15:27or a poem that tells a story.
15:31There are a few types of narratives,
15:33but one of them is an epic or a long poem about a hero.
15:39One famous example of an epic is Beowulf.
15:44Beowulf is an old poem
15:46that is about 3,000 lines long.
15:49That's a very long poem.
15:51It tells the story about a hero named Beowulf.
15:56Beowulf was a warrior
15:59who saves the king from a monster named Grendel.
16:04Usually epics include lots of battles and fights
16:10that the hero wins in the end.
16:15The last poetry subgenre we'll discuss today
16:18is dramatic poetry or words spoken by a character.
16:23We see dramatic poetry in another genre.
16:27Can you guess which one?
16:30We see dramatic poetry in the genre drama or plays.
16:35Three examples of dramatic poetry
16:38are soliloquy, dialogue, and monologue.
16:43We won't discuss the specifics and differences
16:46of soliloquy, dialogue, and monologue today,
16:49except to say that each of them
16:51is an example of dramatic poetry.
16:55Now because William Shakespeare
16:58was a very famous drama writer,
17:00he's also responsible for many of the soliloquies,
17:04dialogues, and monologues we study today.
17:08Here's an example of a soliloquy by William Shakespeare
17:12that we see in the play Romeo and Juliet.
17:17In act two, scene two,
17:19Juliet says the following words to herself.
17:23Romeo is standing nearby but she doesn't realize it.
17:28She says, "'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
17:32"What's in a name?
17:34"That which we call a rose by any other name
17:37"would smell as sweet."
17:41In these words, Juliet is talking about Romeo,
17:45and what she's saying is
17:48the name we call a person or an object doesn't matter.
17:51What matters is how we feel about that person or object.
17:58Because this quote is meaningful,
18:01it's a very famous soliloquy
18:03that we study when we study dramatic poetry.
18:09Now let's practice what we've learned.
18:13For each number, write the genre and subgenre described.
18:18Number one, what is the genre and subgenre
18:22of a story about plants that come to life?
18:27Number two, a book about the life of a famous soccer star.
18:34Number three, an encyclopedia entry
18:37that describes vitamin E.
18:40Number four, the humorous play The Taming of the Shrew.
18:47Number five, a long poem about a hero named Achilles.
18:54Number six, a weekly newspaper called Main Street Times.
19:00Number seven, a sad play about the character Oedipus Rex.
19:07Number eight, a poem about a girl's ideas about friendship.
19:13Number nine, a story about life in the year 3023.
19:20And number 10, a story about characters
19:24who lived during World War I.
19:27The characters are not real, but they seem real.
19:31Pause the video while you work,
19:33and we'll check the answers in a moment.
19:46Are you ready to check the answers?
19:49Let's check.
19:51Number one, the genre is fiction
19:54and the subgenre is fantasy.
19:57We know it's fantasy
19:58because in the real world plants can't come to life.
20:02So the subgenre is fantasy,
20:04and we know that fantasy is not real or factual.
20:09It's fiction.
20:11Number two, the genre is nonfiction
20:14and the subgenre is biography.
20:18We know this is a biography
20:20because it's the story of a person's life,
20:23and we know that biographies are real and factual.
20:26That makes them nonfiction.
20:30Number three, the genre is nonfiction,
20:33and the subgenre is reference material.
20:38We know that encyclopedias are a type of reference material,
20:41and we also know that reference material
20:44contains real and factual information.
20:47Therefore the genre has to be nonfiction.
20:51Number four, the genre is drama and the subgenre is comedy.
20:58We know this is drama because it's a play,
21:01and we know that the subgenre is comedy
21:04because the play is humorous or funny.
21:08Number five, the genre is poetry and the subgenre is epic.
21:14We know this is poetry because it's a poem.
21:17We know that it's an epic
21:19because epics are long poems about heroes.
21:24Number six, the genre is nonfiction
21:28and the subgenre is periodical.
21:32We know this is a periodical
21:33because newspapers are a type of periodical,
21:37and we know that this is nonfiction
21:38because periodicals contain real and factual information,
21:43so the genre has to be nonfiction.
21:47Number seven, the genre is drama
21:50and the subgenre is tragedy.
21:53We know this is drama because it's a play,
21:56and we know that the subgenre is tragedy
21:58because this play is sad.
22:02Number eight, the genre is poetry and the subgenre is lyric.
22:08We know this is poetry because it's a poem,
22:12and we know it's lyric poetry
22:14because it's about a person's ideas about a topic.
22:18That's what lyric poetry is.
22:21Number nine, the genre is fiction
22:25and the subgenre is science fiction.
22:28We know this is science fiction
22:30because it's set far into the future in the year 3023.
22:35We know it's fiction because it can't be real.
22:38It hasn't happened yet,
22:40so the genre has to be fiction.
22:43And number 10, the genre is fiction
22:47and the subgenre is historical fiction.
22:51We know this is historical fiction
22:53because it took place in World War I,
22:56which was a real period in history,
22:59but the characters are not real even though they seem real.
23:04Because the characters aren't real,
23:06the story and the genre is fiction.
23:13Literary genres, the end.
23:16Our literary genre
23:17and subgenre practice for today is complete.
23:20I hope this video helped you understand
23:21what a literary genre and subgenre are
23:24and how to identify examples of each one.
23:27Thank you for watching.

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