STUDY OF GENRES IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Definition of Genre

'Genre' is a French ('kind, sort’) term that denotes a recurring type of literature, which is often called 'literary form'. The genres into which works of literature have been classified at different times are very numerous and the criteria for the classification are also varied

C.T. Lemon defines 'genre' as a body of literary works identified by the presence of certain well-known conventions. The term 'geneology' is often used to refer to the study of genres

Genre is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time

Genre, Movement and Period

Genre, Movement and Period are interlinked concepts. The development of a particular genre may have links with certain movements and similarly a genre can develop in a particular period. For example, the ode and the lyric are linked mainly with the Romantic Movement. The novel and the short lyric flourished in the 18th century England

Development of Theory of Genres

 In the Western literatures, theory of genres begins with Plato and Aristotle Plato speaks of two main divisions of poetry --the dramatic and the narrative. These two divisions have risen from his view that an object or a person can be either described or imitated. Dramatic poetry is a direct imitation of persons and narrative poetry or the epic describes human emotions

Aristotle follows the classification made by his master, Plato. After Aristotle the Alexandrians made a thorough regrouping of poems and classified poetry into nine types — Tragedy, Comedy, Elegy, Lyric, Epos, Threnos, Idyll, Pastoral and Prose fiction. In course of time the three forms, Epic, Drama and Lyric lost their meanings and acquired new meanings

The Renaissance Period

During the Renaissance many changes took place. Great works like Spenser's The Faerie Queene cannot be brought under the Greek formulation of an epic. Lyric could not be dispensed with, because of the tremendous influence of Petrarch on the Elizabethan sonneteers. Shakespeare and his contemporaries shattered the rigid classical conventions of drama — especially the classical unities of time, place and action. Tragi-comedy and other mixed forms came into existence

The 18th Century

 A further break-down of the classification of genres took place during the 18th century. New genres like the novel and small lyrics made their appearance in the literary scene. The Romantic period was not keen on the division of the genre. In the 20th century, the New Critics have nullified the genre-distinction. There is a multiplicity of mixed genres as in the case of The Golden Gate by Vikram Seth, Many modern writers look for new forms of expression. The Russian comparatist, Roman Jakobson attempts to link literary works to linguistic structures. Northrop Frye in his famous work Anatomy of Criticism classifies the genre on the basis of myths and archetypes.

Methods of Genre Studies

Genre study is concerned with the following methods —Abstraction, Differentiation and Classification. Abstraction deals with a search for elements that bring together works divided by space or time. For example, we compare Oedipus, a Greek classical tragedy by Sophocles with Shakespeare's King Lear as tragedies. Differentiation involves an examination of the history of a genre in two different literatures in the same period in order to find out how the concept varies in both countries. One can compare the genre 'novella' as practised by Boccaccio in Italy with the form practised by Cervantes in Spain. Classification always poses problems as the genres are not static and their characteristics change with the addition of new works. For example, the novel form was originally treated as a sub-species of the epic and later, especially in the 18th century, it emerged as an independent genre

Prescriptive and Descriptive Study of Genres

In the past, the genre study was prescriptive. Creative writers did not want to mix genres. Weisstein mentions the names of Cicero, Quintilian and Horace who stressed on the segregation of literary genres and maintaining of generic purity. The Roman critic Quintilian said, "A particular genre should keep the place allotted to it. That is why the classical dramatists wanted to keep comedy and tragedy separate. But the modem approach to the genre studies is descriptive. It does not limit the number of possible types of genre. The modern comparatists allow the forms to mix with new ones and shape into new kinds. Hopkins experiments with a new kind of verse in his Wreck of the Deutschland by mixing the forms of ode and elegy

Problems Faced during Genre Studies

There are two kinds of problems that a comparatist has to face while making genre-study (1) Problems of history and (2) Problems of classification. Tracing the history of genre often gets into difficulty owing to lack of direct evidence. Scholars face the following difficulties while pursuing ancient genres. The first is the problem of origin. It is generally believed that the Renaissance witnessed the emergence of many new genres. We do not know whether they had pre-existing models. The only proof is found in reference to and quotations of such models in ancient literature. For example, we have no existing ancient drama texts in Tamil literature but there are references to that in Silappathikaram by Ilango Adigal. But in the opinion of Weisstein such a discussion is only hypothetical

(2) Another problem is that a genre known and cultivated in antiquity disappears, but reappears with the same name. The modern genre may or may not be its correlate. It is difficult for the comparatists to examine the changed conditions responsible for retaining the old name.

(3) Now a genre is borrowed by one national literature from another. The original name of the genre is lost and a new name is given to the form. Exact equivalence cannot be achieved, as a change of name implies a change of meaning. For example, Dryden, while translating the French Boileau's 'Poetic Art' into English, substituted the word 'ballad' for the French 'ballade'

Contamination

The next problem is known as 'contamination'. This happens when the difference between the two genres become almost distinguishable because the two terms are spelt similarly or pronounced. The word 'satire' is a good example for such a condition. There has been a confusion among the terms 'satire', 'satyr' and 'satura'. Weisstein is of the view that the English term 'satire' might have been derived from the Greek drama 'satyr'. Misled by this homonymy, Horace felt that 'satire' was not a new term but a derivative of the old comedy

Mixing up of Criteria

Sometimes there is another problem because of the mixing-up of criteria. A form-based genre is confused with content-based genre. During the Medieval period a drama was not necessarily intended for performance and so the discussion of comedy and tragedy was flexible. Dante's 'Divine Comedy is so called because of its happy ending (the content) though it is written in the narrative form.

Sometimes we notice a shift in conception. What was once conceived as a genre may refer to a mode or tone or technique in several genres. In the past, 'satire' was a separate literary form but now it refers to a tone or mode in several genres like novel, drama. poetry etc.

Not possible to classify genres

There have been several attempts to formulate a genre theory and to classify literary works, based on various criteria— literary, musical, formal, psychological etc. But, it has not been possible to arrive at a common frame of reference  

Traditional Classification of Genres :

Traditionally there are three main genres — the epic, the drama and the lyric. But in the modern period, lyric poetry is widely practised and the epic is almost extinct. Its place has been taken up by the novel. Later on the 'didactic' was added as a separate genre but now it is no mere a separate genre. Of the four genres the epic and the drama are based or explicit formal criteria. The lyric is undefinable and the 'didactic' has become a 'mode' rather than a genre. It is traceable more in the fable and parable and also in the epic and the drama

Aristotle's classification

Aristotle, following his master Plato, suggests 'mimesis' (imitation) as a criterion for classification. According to 'mimesis', at one end we have drama and at other end, there is lyric. But, now we feel that 'mimesis' cannot be the sole criterion for the classification of genres

Goethe's solution to the classification

 Goethe the German scholar who has given the term 'world literature, offered a solution to the classification of genre on the basis of his theory of natural forms. He classifies the literary works into the 'lucidly narrative', the 'enthusiastically excited' and the 'personally active'. They pertain to the epic, the lyric and the drama respectively. They may exist independently or in conjunction with each other. They may all be found in a single ballad. But it is said that Goethe's approach would be more useful for literary criticism than for the historical study of genres

Northrop Frye's classification

Northrop Frye in his book Anatomy of Criticism, classifies literature according to his own theory of the natural cycle of seasons. The four major genres according to him, comedy, romance, tragedy and satire, reflect the archetypal myths, associated with the four seasons of the year, namely, summer, autumn, winter and spring. In formulating a theory of genre, Frye is not interested in the psychology of literary creation. The genre is determined by the condition established between the writer and his audience. Based on this, Frye says that the Greek classification is governed by the rationale of presentation. Words are enacted in front of the spectators (drama) ; they are spoken in front of the listeners (epic): they may be sung to an audience (lyric). According to Frye, there is a fourth genre which addresses a reader through a book. This, he calls 'fiction', which stands for the genre of the printed page. He feels that the central ideas of literature are occupied by epic and fiction, flanked by the drama on the one side and the lyric on the other

Drama    Epic                       Lyric

                Fiction

 

Frye's classification is not always dependable as it is mostly subjective

Use of Statistical Criterion

Statistical criterion is used by some scholars to classify the genres. For example, plays can be grouped according to the number of acts, One-Act Plays or Five-Act drama. A novel is written in about 50,000 words. This kind of classification is also undependable.

The formula of Wellek and Warren

Wellek and Warren, in their Theory of Literature come out with another formula. They suggest that the genre should be conceived of as a grouping of literary works based on the 'outer form' (specific metre or structure) and the 'inner form' (attitude, tone, purpose). Pastoral and Satire are inner forms. while Pindaric Ode belongs to the outer form.

It is clear from the above discussion that there is no satisfactory classification available for genre studies. Weisstein asks scholars to carry on research to find out a proper classification