Genre Fiction - Evolution of Fiction Genres

Evolution of Fiction Genres

See also: History of fantasy and History of science fiction

Since the beginning of literature it has been acknowledged that there are different types or categories of created work. Poetry, a form of literature older than prose, was in ancient times divided into narrative, dramatic, and lyric forms. Narrative poetry, at least as it was first written (as opposed to recited or sung), was primarily epic. Dramatic poetry came to be divided into tragedy and comedy. The Greek philosopher Aristotle in his Poetics for the first time named story genres by categorizing dramas according to the value-charge of their endings and the design of their stories.

Many fiction genres can be traced to a small number of important or extremely popular literary works written before that genre came into existence. "Genre" fiction is portrayed as those works that seek, in some degree, just to emulate these paradigms. Science fiction began with Jules Verne and then H. G. Wells, as a recognizable genre, although Mary Shelley is generally credited with having written the first science fiction novels (Frankenstein and The Last Man) forty-five years before Jules Verne and H.G. Wells' first literary works. Horror stories and mystery stories can both be traced in large measure to Edgar Allan Poe and a few others. It is possible also that Poe helped originate science fiction with such stories as 'The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfall.'

The period 1900–1910 was fertile for the development, by writers such as M. P. Shiel, of fiction genres and character types. Often these appeared in periodicals, which eventually became the pulp magazines of the early 20th century.