Bibliographic genres

"A predilection for genre fiction is symptomatic of a kind of arrested development." -Thomas M. Disch

Introduction

A bibliographic ‘genre’ is a classificatory technique designed to describe a piece of literature that conforms to a set of agreed upon characteristics, for example Westerns are stories usually set in the American West during the latter half of the nineteenth century and Urban Fantasies are novels set in a contemporary environment that contain supernatural elements. In broad terms, bibliographic genres can be described as “vague categories with no fixed boundaries, they are formed by sets of conventions (1)” Alternatively, genres “may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even (as in the case of fiction) length.(2)”

Etimologically – the word genre comes from Old French for “kind, sort, style (3)” and the study of what constitutes a genre and how individual examples of writing reflect on or represent the established conventions of a genre is known as ‘Genre Studies'.

History

The classification of bibliographic materials can be observed as early as the Ancient Greeks. Typically the Ancient Greeks classified their writing into poetry, drama, or prose often with subdivisions (tragic or comedic drama etc.) that defined their genres.

The classification of bibliographic materials such as plays continued to evolve as more genres were described. During Elizabethan times, Shakespeare mocked the over categorization of bibliographic types in his play Hamlet when the character of Polonius, in discussing the range the actors in an upcoming performance enumerated a list of genres performed by “…the best actors in the world … tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited (Hamlet II, ii)”

During the Renaissance, neoclassic philosophers believed these classic genres should remain distinct entities. This belief was carried so far as to have had ‘rules’ defining each classical genre that regulated subject matter, structure, styles, and emotional effect (4).

Later, during the 18th century, new genres were being recognized such as the novel, the lyric poem, the biography, etc. These new genres, which, along with new types of non-genre and broadly applicable evaluatory criteria (such as ‘sincerity’, ‘intensity’, and ‘organic unity’) resulted in a “decreasing emphasis on the generic conception in literature” (Abrams 109). The devaluation of genre continued into the mid-twentieth century, where the adherents of New Criticism “with its ruling concept of the uniqueness of each literary work, [created a climate where] genre ceased to play more than a subordinate roles in critical analysis and evaluation (5)”.

Today, Genres behave more like family resemblances, in that they illuminate flavors of fiction. “Genres, once so easy to codify, are becoming increasingly difficult to pigeonhole (6)”. Bibliographic conventions evolved and shifted over time and “...many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions (7)”. Today, genre blending is very commonplace making genre definition more problamatic. Agreeing to what is or is not a genre is difficult although there is some agreement over what a modern genre is not. A modern genre is not a literary technique (parody, Frame story, constrained writing, stream of consciousness.), an age category (adult, young-adult, or childrens ) or a format, (graphic novel or picture book) rather that Genre reflects more the thematic character of a piece of literature (character, setting, etc).(8)

Application

The application of genre to the classification and cataloguing of books can best be extemporized in the physical arrangement of books in libraries and bookstores. Libraries mostly display their fiction books alphabetical by author, but often times have either sub-collections, genre specific spine labels or both to distinguish fiction genres while their non-fiction is shelved principally by Dewey Decimal Number. Bookstores frequently use the BISAC system.

Using the Library of Congress Subject Classification to standardize subject headings, libraries then shelve according to the Dewey number that that subject (if it is non-fiction) represents most well (and books end frequently end up being grouped by genre such as cookbooks, travel books, computer programming books). According to the Library of Congress: “Authority records enable librarians to provide uniform access to materials in library catalogs and to provide clear identification of authors and subject headings. For example, works about ‘movies’, ‘motion pictures’, ‘cinema’, and ‘films’ are all entered under the established subject heading "Motion pictures (9)". New subject terms become a way to recognize and legitimize new genres and are often the subject of debate (10)(no steampunk, but Chick Lit and Paranormal Romance are represented as subjects). Once a subject term has been established and becomes retrievable online via the OPAC it facilitates physical retrieval on the shelves through the use of genre specific labels (if the genre collection is not automatically pulled out and shelved separately). Demco, for example, is one of several companies supplying materials to libraries produces subject genre spine-labels that give libraries an enormous amount of flexibility in the type of genres they want to promote to their readers.

Bookstores, on the other hand, often use the BISAC system for bibliographic classification. “BISAC Subject Headings can determine where books are shelved in a brick and mortar store or the genre(s) under which they can be searched for in an internal database. BISAC Subject Headings describe the topical content of a book and do not cover non-content-oriented ways of grouping titles (such as 'gift books') … Merchandising Themes are closely related to Subject Headings,” Bookstore then lay out their wares in this classificatory method. Being a for-profit enterprise they are actively looking for new classificatory trends to encourage discovery (and purchase) of books by readers and in many ways can be more responsive to changing trends or reader demands than libraries for whom changing all the cataloguing records and book labels would be very expensive (in materials and staffing) and subsequently have resulted in the DDC being viewed as obsolete and unresponsive (200's dominated by Christian Religion, the dictionaries seperated from the books on writing and literature etc).

Current Trends

As the methods used by readers to discover literature evolves and the speed at which new genres are created and blended increases, both libraries and bookstores have to quickly adapt in order to aid in product discovery. Most bibliographically inclined websites (such as Amazon or Library Thing) offer user tagging of their books and usually offer tag clouds of a books most popular tags, or most popular tags. These tagging tools can be used to track changes in genre categorization by readers and book lovers. For example Good Reads has a Top Shelf which displays users most used tags including everybody's favorite To-Read.

Recommended Resources

Quotes about Genre (bibliographic, film, etc).

Duff, David. Modern Genre Theory. Longman Publishing Group, 1999.

A book of essays by some of the major theorists in modern Genre Theory, this collection, was published by the Longman Publishing Group (one of the oldest English commercial publishers) and contains writings by Mikhail Bakhtin, Gerard Genette and Jacques Derrida. This is an anthology collection that attempts to illuminate new theories in Genre studies and highlight some modern developments. Very illuminating.

Frow, John. Genre. New edition. Routledge, 2005.

This updated and comprehensive work on Genre explores topics such as the relation of simple to complex genres, the history of literary genre in theory, the structuring of interpretation by genre, and the uses of genre in teaching. Part of the New Critical Idiom Series from Routledge edited by John Drakakis it discusses the basics usch as what is Genre and how do we use it to categorize literature. This work on Genre sets out to understand “genre as a dynamic process rather than a set of stabel ruules (from product description).”

Herald, Diana Tixier. Genreflecting. 6th ed. Libraries Unlimited, 2005.

Genreflecting is an excellent beguinning reference resource for students (particular those with an english literature focus) or librarians who wish to explore varous iterations of bibliographic Genres. Along with lists of specific Genre Authors that they can peruse, there are very several clear discussions of the various genres and well as lists of recommended books arranged along themes, types, & topics within each category. The author also offers genre specific reading advice and cautions. A basic print resource but becoming outdated as readers and librarians relay increasingly on online book communities to keep their recommendations up to date.

Article Citations

 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre 
 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_genre 
 3. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=genre
 4. Abrams, M.H. Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Wadsworth Publishing, 1998. p 108.
 5. Abrams, M.H. Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Wadsworth Publishing, 1998. p 108.
 6. Herald, Diana Tixier. Genreflecting. 6th ed. Libraries Unlimited, 2005. p xiii.
 7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre 
 8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_genre 
 9. http://authorities.loc.gov/help/auth-faq.htm 
 10. http://www.radicalreference.info/lcsh/2008/blog-a-thon

Additional Bibliography

• Abrams, M.H. Glossary of Literary Terms. 7th ed. Wadsworth Publishing, 1998.

• Breure, Leen. “Development of the Genre Concept.” 24 Sep 2009 <http://people.cs.uu.nl/leen/GenreDev/GenreDevelopment.htm>.

• Brown, Richard Harvey. “Toward a Sociology of Aesthetic Forms: A Commentary.” New Literary History 17.2 (1986): 223-228.

• Chandler, Daniel. “Introduction to Genre Theory.” 24 Sep 2009 <http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre.html>.

• Dubrow, Heather. Genre. Methuen young books, 1982.

• Duff, David. Modern Genre Theory. Longman Publishing Group, 1999.

• Frow, John. Genre. New edition. Routledge, 2005.

• Herald, Diana Tixier. Genreflecting. 6th ed. Libraries Unlimited, 2005.

• “Here is a list of literary genres as defined by the California Department of Education.” 18 Sep 2009 <http://www2.bsfcs.org/forums/green/Literature/Genres.htm>.

• Hernadi, Paul. Beyond Genre: New Directions in Literary Classification. Cornell University Press, 1973.

• Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Penguin Classics, 2003.

• “Project MUSE - New Literary History - The Formation of Genres in the Renaissance and After.” 17 Sep 2009 <http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/new_literary_history/v034/34.2fowler.html>.

• Rosmarin, Adena. The Power of Genre. Minnesota Archive Editions. Univ Of Minnesota Press, 1986.