Fiction¶
Prose narrative of any length (novel, short story, novella, fairy tale). The distinction between forms is ontological, not functional.
Genre hierarchies¶
| Classification | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Fiction/Adventure/Exploration |
Expeditions, discoveries, uncharted territories | The Lost World (Conan Doyle), Into the Wild (Jon Krakauer) |
Fiction/Adventure/History |
Adventure set in a historical period | The Three Musketeers (Dumas), Sharpe (Bernard Cornwell) |
Fiction/Adventure/Sea |
Naval adventure, piracy, storms | Treasure Island (R.L. Stevenson), Master and Commander (Patrick O'Brian) |
Fiction/Adventure/Survival |
Struggle against nature, isolation | Hatchet (Gary Paulsen), The Revenant (Michael Punke) |
Fiction/Adventure/Treasure |
Treasure hunts, artifacts, relics | Raiders of the Lost Ark (Campbell Black), The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) |
Fiction/Experimentation/Language |
Language-level experiments (Oulipo, constraint-based writing) | La Disparition (Georges Perec), Ulysses (James Joyce) |
Fiction/Experimentation/Satire |
Satirical experimentation, playful subversion of literary conventions | Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon), Snow White (Barthelme) |
Fiction/Experimentation/Structure |
Narrative structure experiments, meta-fiction | If on a winter's night a traveler (Calvino), House of Leaves (Danielewski) |
Fiction/Experimentation/Surrealism |
Dream logic, automatic writing, juxtaposition | The Trial (Kafka), The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov) |
Fiction/Fantasy/Adventure |
Sword & sorcery, low fantasy with quest-driven plot, focus on action | Glory Road (Robert Heinlein) |
Fiction/Fantasy/Children |
Fairy tales, fables and children's fiction | Aesop's Fables (Aesop), The Adventures of Pinocchio (C. Collodi) |
Fiction/Fantasy/Epic |
High fantasy, secondary world, complex world-building, chivalric sagas | The Black Sword Triumphant (M. Weis, T. Hickman), The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien) |
Fiction/Fantasy/Myth |
Narrative reworking of ancient myths | Circe (Madeline Miller), Antigone (Vittorio Alfieri) |
Fiction/Fantasy/Urban |
Contemporary/urban setting, low fantasy where magic intrudes into the real world | American Gods (Neil Gaiman) |
Fiction/Horror/Body |
Body horror, physical transformation | The Fly (Alan Dean Foster), Blood Music (Greg Bear) |
Fiction/Horror/Creature |
Zombies, vampires, demons, monsters, epidemics | World War Z (Max Brooks), The Thing (Alan Dean Foster), The Exorcist (William Peter Blatty) |
Fiction/Horror/Folk |
Rural and folkloric horror, communal dread, pagan rituals | Harvest Home (Thomas Tryon), The Ritual (Adam Nevill) |
Fiction/Horror/Gothic |
Castles, atmospheres, dark romanticism, cosmic dread | Dracula (Bram Stoker), The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allan Poe), At the Mountains of Madness (Lovecraft) |
Fiction/Horror/Psychology |
Psychological horror, mental unease | The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson), Rosemary's Baby (Ira Levin) |
Fiction/Horror/Slasher |
Serial killers, gore | Halloween (Curtis Richards), Friday the 13th (Simon Hawke) |
Fiction/Humor/Absurd |
Absurd humor, surreal comedy, nonsense | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams), At Swim-Two-Birds (Flann O'Brien) |
Fiction/Humor/Children |
Humor aimed at children | Captain Underpants (Dav Pilkey), Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Jeff Kinney) |
Fiction/Humor/Parody |
Parody of genres, authors, or styles | Bored of the Rings (Harvard Lampoon), Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (Seth Graham-Smith) |
Fiction/Humor/Satire |
Social, political, or institutional satire | Catch-22 (Joseph Heller), Animal Farm (George Orwell) |
Fiction/Magical Realism |
Pure genre, no subcategories. Magic placed in an otherwise real and everyday world without explanations | One Hundred Years of Solitude (Marquez), The House of the Spirits (Allende) |
Fiction/Mystery/History |
Mysteries set in past eras | Aristotle Detective (Margaret Doody) |
Fiction/Mystery/Humor |
Mysteries with a bright or satirical tone | Too Many Cooks (Rex Stout), A Cantare Fu Il Cane (Andrea Vitali) |
Fiction/Mystery/Investigation |
The classic "Whodunnit" | Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie), A is for Alibi (Sue Grafton) |
Fiction/Romance/Death |
Tragic love, loss, grief | Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), A Little Life (Hanya Yanagihara) |
Fiction/Romance/Destiny |
Love driven by fate, inevitable encounter | The Time Traveler's Wife (Audrey Niffenegger), One Day (David Nicholls) |
Fiction/Romance/History |
Historical romance, period context | Outlander (Diana Gabaldon), The Bronze Horseman (Paullina Simons) |
Fiction/Romance/Memory |
Love in memory, nostalgia, longing | Call Me by Your Name (Andre Aciman), Persuasion (Jane Austen) |
Fiction/Romance/Second Chance |
Reunion, reconciliation | One True Loves (Taylor Jenkins Reid), It Ends with Us (Colleen Hoover) |
Fiction/Science Fiction/Alien |
First contact, invasion | The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells) |
Fiction/Science Fiction/Cyberpunk |
High tech, low life, biotechnologies, networks | Neuromancer (William Gibson) |
Fiction/Science Fiction/Dystopia |
Oppressive or post-apocalyptic societies | A Scanner Darkly (P.K. Dick), 1984 (G. Orwell) |
Fiction/Science Fiction/Hard Sci-Fi |
Focus on scientific and technological rigor | The Martian (Andy Weir) |
Fiction/Science Fiction/Space |
Space opera, planetary exploration, galactic empires | 2001: A Space Odyssey (A.C. Clarke) |
Fiction/Science Fiction/Time |
Time travel, paradoxes, temporal anomalies | Counter-Clock World (P.K. Dick), The Time Machine (H.G. Wells) |
Fiction/Science Fiction/Uchronia |
Alternate history | The Man in the High Castle (P.K. Dick) |
Fiction/Thriller/Action |
Focus on chases, physical plots. The protagonist is threatened | The Great Train Robbery (Michael Crichton) |
Fiction/Thriller/Politics |
Focus on power intrigues and espionage | American Tabloid (James Ellroy) |
Fiction/Thriller/Psychology |
Focus on the mind of the killer or the victim | Almost Blue (Carlo Lucarelli), I Married a Dead Man (Cornell Woolrich) |