Lesson 3: 21st Century Literary Generes

21st Century Literature:

21st Century Literature refers to new literary work created within the last decade. It is written by contemporary authors which may deal with current themes/ issues and reflects a technological culture. It often breaks traditional writing rules.

21st Century Reader:

A 21st Century Reader grew up using technology as a primary learning tool. He is capable of navigating and interpreting digital formats and media messages. He also possesses literacy skills, which include technological abilities such as keyboarding, internet navigation, interpretation of technological speak, ability to communicate and interpret coded language and decipher graphics.

4 Major Literary Generes

• Poetry:

  is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound and rhythmic language choices to evoke an emotional response. It has been known to employ meter and rhyme. The very nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly impossible to define.

  Elements of poetry:

  1. Line

  2. Stanza: group of lines.

  3. Meter: measurement of the poem.

  4. Rhyme: Likeness of sounds. A poem without rhyme is called a blank verse.

  5. Rhythm: succession and alternation of rhymes.

  6. Rhyme Scheme: also called the rhythmic pattern.

  7. Tone: Overall impression the poem makes. The emotions conveyed by the poem and affected by writers choice of words.

  8. Theme: he main idea or the general topic of the poem.

  9. Lesson: the moral or values the poem wanted to render.

• Drama: is a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict more contrast of character, especially on intended to be acted on a stage: a play. It may be any situation or series of events having vivid, emotional, conflicting or striking interest.

  Types of Drama in Literature

  1. Comedy: usually humorous plays.

  2. Farce: type of broad comedy. It depends less on a narrative storyline and more on physical humor, sight gags, silly jokes.

  3. Opera: dramas in which the characters sing each line rather than speaking.

  4. Melodrama: tells a serious story in serious ways.

  5. Tragedy: you can assume that the ending will be sad. But there is more to a tragedy than a play with no happy ending.

  6. Tragicomedy: combine the elements of a comedy and a tragedy.

• Fiction: is literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of literature in the fiction include the novel, short story and novella. eg. Mystery, thriller, horror, historical, romance, science fiction, fantasy.

• Non-fiction: is based on facts and the author’s opinion about a subject. The purpose of non-fiction writing is to inform and sometimes to persuade. Its examples are biographies, articles from textbooks and magazines and newspapers.

21st Century Literature Genres

1. Illustrated Novel:

   • Story through text and illustrated images

   • 50% 0f the narrative is presented without words

   • The reader must interpret the images to comprehend the story completely.

   • Textual portions are presented in traditional form.

   • Some illustrated novels may contain no text at all.

   • Span all genres.

   • Examples include The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick and The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

2. Digi-Fiction:

   • Triple Media Literature Combines three media: book, movie/video and internet website.

   • To get the full story, students must engage in navigation, reading, viewing in all three forms.

   • Patrick Carman’s Skeleton Creek and Anthony Zuiker’s Level 26 are examples.

3. Graphic Novel:

   • Narrative in comic book formats Narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using a comic form.

   • The term is employed broadly manner, encompassing non-fiction works and thematically linked short stories as well as fictional stories across a number of genres.

   • Archie Comics by John Goldwater and illustrator, Bob Montana, is a good example.

4. Manga:

   • It is used in the English-speaking world as a generic term for all comic books and graphic novels originally published in Japan.

   • Considered as an artistic and storytelling style. Ameri-manga: sometimes used to refer to comics created by American artists in manga style.

   • Shonen: Boy’s Manga (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece)

   • Shojo: Girl’s Manga (Sailormoon)

   • Seinen: Men’s Manga (Akira)

   • Josei: Women’s Manga (Loveless, Paradise Kiss)

   • Kodomo: Children’s Manga (Doraemon, Hello Kitty)

5. Doodle Fiction:

   • Literary presentation where the author incorporates doodle writing and drawings and handwritten graphics in place of the traditional font.

   • Drawing enhances the story, often adding humorous elements.

   • Examples include The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney and Timmy Failure by Stephan Pastis.

6. Text-talk Novels:

   • Blogs, email and IM format narratives.

   • Stories told almost entirely in dialogue simulating social network exchanges.

7. Chick Literature or Chick Lit:

   • Is genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly.

   • Chick Lit typically features a female protagonist whose femininity is heavily thermalizing in the plot.

   • Scarlet Bailey’s The night before Christmas and Miranda Dickinson’s It started with a Kiss are examples of this

8. Flash Fiction:

   • Is a style of fictional literature of extreme brevity.

   • There is no widely accepted definition of the length and category. It could range from word to a thousand.

9. Six-word Flash Fiction:

   Ernest Hemingway: For sale: baby socks, never worn. Margaret Atwood: Longed for him. Got him, Shit.

10. Creative Non-Fiction:

    • Also known as literary non-fiction or narrative non-fiction.

    • A genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives.

    • Contrasts with other non-fiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service to its craft.

    • As a genre, creative non-fiction is still relatively young and is only beginning to be scrutinized with the same critical analysis given to fiction and poetry.

    • 1000 Gifts by Ann Voscamp and Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery are examples.

11. Science Fiction:

    • Is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, a parallel universe and extra terrestrial life.

    • Often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations and has been called a “literature of ideas”.

    • Examples include Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay and Sarah Maas’ Kingdom of Ash.

12. Blog:

    • A weblog, a website containing short articles called posts that are changed regularly.

    • Some blogs are written by one person containing their own opinions, interests and experiences, while others are written by different people.

13. Hyper Poetry:

    • Digital poetry that uses links using hypertext mark-up.

    • It can either involved set words, phrases, lines, etc. that are presented in variable order but sit on the page much as traditional poetry does, or it can contain parts of the poem that move and mutate.

    • It is usually found online, through CD-ROM and diskette versions exist. The earliest examples date to no later than the mid-1980’s.