--- title: Genre Studies description: Genre studies examines the conventions, history, and social functions of specific literary categories, such as sci-fi or gothic. Learners will understand how texts conform to or subvert established genre expectations. category: literature-writing subcategory: literature-analysis difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/genre-studies --- # Genre Studies Genre studies examines the conventions, history, and social functions of specific literary categories, such as sci-fi or gothic. Learners will understand how texts conform to or subvert established genre expectations. ## Available Resources 3 Books • 1 Courses • 1 Websites ## Websites ### 1. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction The scholarly online edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John Clute and David Langford, with tens of thousands of entries on authors, works, themes, and terminology. Readers can trace how science fiction subgenres and recurring ideas developed over time. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://sf-encyclopedia.com **Tags:** science-fiction, genre-studies, literary-history, reference, speculative-fiction ## Courses ### 1. Introduction to Theory of Literature Explore literary theory with Yale's Paul Fry! This introductory course covers key concepts and critical approaches to literature. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-300 **Tags:** literary-theory, literary-criticism, structuralism, open-courseware ## Podcasts ### 1. Lit Century **Author:** Sandra Newman and Catherine Nichols Host Catherine Nichols and guests choose one book for each year of the twentieth century (Nella Larsen's Passing, 1936, Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, 1966; Mohandas Gandhi's Indian Home Rule, 1909) and talk about it in its historical and literary context. Tune in to find out what the 20th century was all about. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.lithub.com **Tags:** 20th-century-literature, book-discussion, literary-history, author-interviews ### 2. Poetry Off the Shelf **Author:** Poetry Foundation Producer Helena de Groot talks to poets about language, dreams, love and loss, identity, connection, anger, discomfort, the creative process, the state of the world and the world of the soul. Hard conversations are welcomed—laughter is, too. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en-us | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.poetryfoundation.org/ **Tags:** poetry, poet-interviews, creative-process, contemporary-poetry ## Books ### 1. Genre: An Introduction to History, Theory, Research, and Pedagogy **Author:** Anis S. Bawarshi and Mary Jo Reiff Free full-text scholarly survey covering genre across literary theory, systemic functional linguistics, English for Specific Purposes and rhetorical genre studies, from Bakhtin and Carolyn Miller onward. Includes a glossary and annotated bibliography for further reading. The only genuinely comprehensive, genuinely free map of the field — it covers the traditions Frow compresses and the ones purely literary treatments ignore (linguistics, workplace and public genres). **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://wacclearinghouse.org/books/referenceguides/bawarshi-reiff/ **Tags:** genre-theory, rhetorical-genre-studies, systemic-functional-linguistics, english-for-specific-purposes, writing-pedagogy ### 2. The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre **Author:** Tzvetan Todorov (trans. Richard Howard) Todorov defines the fantastic as the reader's sustained hesitation between natural and supernatural explanation, bordered by the uncanny and the marvellous. A worked demonstration of how one genre gets theorised and tested against Gothic and nineteenth-century tales. Pairs with Frow and Frye as method rather than survey: it shows the whole move from abstract genre definition to close reading and back. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801491460?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** genre-theory, the-fantastic, structuralism, gothic-fiction, literary-theory ### 3. Genre (The New Critical Idiom), 2nd Edition **Author:** John Frow Frow traces genre from Aristotle through structuralism, Bakhtin's speech genres and rhetorical genre studies, arguing that genres are frameworks generating meaning rather than fixed classes. Compact, heavily referenced, and the standard graduate entry point to contemporary genre theory. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1138020583?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** genre-theory, literary-theory, bakhtin, rhetorical-genre-studies, structuralism --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/genre-studies