Exploring Major Literary Genres

1. Think About It… • What type of music do you like? • What makes that type of music unique?

2. Genre • A category in which a work of literature is classified.

3. Major Literary Genres • Fiction • Non-Fiction • Drama • Poetry

4. Fiction • Literature that is usually invented and not a record of things as they actually happened • Often based on personal experiences • Involves invented characters, settings, or other details

5. Fiction • Historical fiction • Realistic fiction • Science fiction • Mystery • Fantasy

6. Historical Fiction • Stories that give a historically accurate showing of the way life was during a certain time in history • The story did not happen, but it easily could have happened

7. Realistic Fiction • Stories that can actually happen and are true to real life

8. Science Fiction • A story based on actual or imagined science in the future or on other planets

9. Mystery • Fiction dealing with the solution of a crime • The reader uses clues from the story and gradually discovers who has committed the crime to solve the mystery by the end of the story

10. Fantasy • The genre is often characterized by its use of time travel, imaginary people or creatures from other planets, or animals that talk • These stories cannot possibly take place

11. Non-Fiction • Any literature that tells about things as they actually happened or that presents factual information about something

12. Non-Fiction • Informational • Autobiography • Biography

13. Informational • Informational books are nonfiction books that give factual information on a variety of topics

14. Autobiography • When a person writes his or her own life story

15. Biography • When someone else writes a person’s true life story

16. Drama • A story acted out, usually on stage, by actors and actresses who take the parts of specific characters

17. Poetry • A short piece of imaginative writing of a personal nature written in lines