Literary genres are groups that help sort literature, such as stories, poems, plays, and other types of writing, based on certain rules or standards. These genres share common features, such as similar themes, writing styles, recurring ideas, storytelling methods, typical settings, character types, and repeating patterns of how characters interact or events happen. They also have a predictable structure overall.

A literary genre can be either fiction or nonfiction. Fiction includes made-up stories, such as short stories, novellas, and novels, which are the longest type of written fiction. Nonfiction includes works that describe real events or facts. Every fictional work belongs to a specific subgenre, each with its own unique style, tone, and storytelling methods.

These genres are shaped by shared writing traditions that change over time. New genres can appear, while older ones may become less common. Often, genres are influenced by the cultural needs and expectations of a specific time or place in history.

According to Alastair Fowler, genres can be defined by several factors: how the work is organized (such as chapters, acts, scenes, or stanzas); the length of the work; the mood or tone it creates; the writing style used; the role the reader is expected to play (for example, in mystery stories, readers are meant to solve clues); and the author’s purpose for writing (such as writing a poem called an epithalamion to celebrate a marriage).

History

Genres are created by shared writing styles that change over time. As new genres appear, others may become less common. This means genres are not always the same; instead, their content changes based on society and culture, as well as questions about what is right or wrong.

The most lasting genres were first developed by the Ancient Greeks. These genres were later explained in more detail by early literary critics and scholars, such as Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Aeschylus, Aspasia, and Euripides. In Ancient Greece, the main types of writing were designed to explore cultural, moral, or ethical issues. These genres were called epic, tragedy, and comedy. For example, Aristotle studied tragedy carefully in his works Rhetoric and Poetics. He identified six parts of tragedy: music, word choice, story, characters, thoughts, and visual elements. These parts work together in specific ways. Aristotle’s analysis helped define some of the earliest elements that make up a genre.

Fiction genres

• Children's Literature: Stories, books, magazines, and poems created for children. Fratire: Fiction written for young men in the 21st century, often focusing on masculine themes and avoiding politically correct language. Lad Lit: Popular novels written by men about young men's feelings and personal lives (used from the 1990s to the early 2010s). Chick Lit and New Adult Fiction: Genres featuring characters aged 18–29, with stories about their lives and experiences. Young Adult: Fiction for teenagers.
• Battle Royal
• Classic (or Literary Fiction): Stories with high artistic value that focus on characters' inner lives rather than just events. They often include social commentary and are taught in schools.
• Coming-of-Age (Bildungsroman): Stories showing a character's growth from childhood to adulthood.
• Electronic Literature: Stories using digital tools like interactivity or multimedia.
• Encyclopedic
• Epic: Long stories about heroic or legendary adventures. Epic Poetry: Poetry about extraordinary feats from ancient times, often involving gods.
• Fabulation: A group of 20th-century novels similar to magical realism but not fitting traditional realism categories.
• Folklore (Folktale): Stories passed down through generations.
• Animal Tale: Stories with animals as characters.
• Fable: Short stories with animals teaching a moral lesson.
• Fairy Tale: Stories with magical elements and happy endings.
• Ghost Story: Stories about ghosts or supernatural events.
• Legend: Stories about real or imaginary heroes with some truth and imagination.
• Myth: Stories explaining natural phenomena or human behavior, often involving gods.
• Parable: A short story with a moral lesson.
• Personal Narrative: A story about a person's experiences.
• Urban Legend: A story about strange or frightening events.
• Generative Literature: Stories created by computers or machines.
• Historical: Stories set in the past, real or imagined. Alternate History: Stories where historical events happened differently. Example: The Man in the High Castle (1962). Historical Fantasy, Mystery, Romance, Regency Romance, Nautical Fiction, Pirate Novel.
• Metafiction: Stories that make readers aware they are reading a book.
• Nonsense: Stories with absurd or illogical content.
• Nonsense Verse: Poetry with nonsensical words or ideas.
• Paranoid: Stories focused on fear or suspicion.
• Pastoral: Stories about rural life or nature.
• Philosophical: Stories exploring deep ideas or questions.
• Pop Culture: Stories filled with references to other media or works.
• Postmodern: Stories that challenge traditional storytelling.
• Realist: Stories set in real life, following real-world rules and events.
• Religious or Inspirational: Stories exploring religious beliefs or ideas.
• Satire: Stories using humor to criticize people or society.
• Social and Political Fiction: Stories about social issues or politics.
• Theatre-Fiction: Stories inspired by plays or theater.
• Thriller (or Suspense): Stories with suspenseful plots and danger, often with twists and no humor.
• Urban: Stories set in cities.
• Western: Stories about cowboys, settlers, and the American frontier (late 19th to early 20th century).

Action and Adventure Fiction: Stories where a hero faces challenges and grows. The Hero’s Journey: A common structure where a hero goes on a journey and overcomes obstacles.

• Adventure Fantasy, Heroic Fantasy, Lost World, Sword-and-Sandal, Sword-and-Sorcery, Wuxia
• Nautical, Pirate
• Robinsonade
• Spy: Stories about espionage or secret agents. Spy-Fi: Spy stories with science fiction elements.
• Subterranean
• Superhero
• Swashbuckler: Stories about swordsmen, pirates, and action-filled adventures.

Comedy: Stories meant to entertain and make people laugh, found in many genres.

• Burlesque
• Fantasy
• Comedy Horror
• Conte
• Parody, Metaparody
• Sci-Fi
• Surreal Comedy
• Tall Tale: Funny stories with exaggerated events or characters.
• Tragicomedy: Stories mixing comedy and tragedy.

Crime Fiction: Stories about crimes, how they are solved, and their consequences.

• Caper: Stories told from the criminals’ perspective.
• Giallo
• Legal Thriller
• Lesbian Crime Fiction
• Mystery: Stories about crimes being solved, often with clues. Cozy Mystery: Mystery stories without violence or profanity.
• City Mysteries, Detective: Stories about detectives solving crimes.
• Gong’an, Girl Detective, Inverted Detective Story, Occult Detective, Hardboiled, Historical Mystery, Locked-Room Mystery, Police Procedural: Stories where police solve crimes.
• Whodunit: Stories focusing on solving a mystery.
• Noir, Nordic Noir, Tart Noir

Fantasy: Stories with magical elements, mythical creatures, or supernatural events. Examples: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1885), Harry Potter.

• Action-Adventure, Heroic, Lost World, Subterranean, Sword-and-Sandal,

Nonfiction genres

• Academic Literature Review: A summary and detailed comparison of previous studies on a specific topic. Monograph: A book that focuses on one specific subject. Research Article or Research Paper: A scholarly publication that shares new findings from experiments or theories in science or social studies. Technical Report: A document that explains research results or technical information. Textbook: A book that gives accurate and detailed information about a subject. Thesis (or Dissertation): A document that shows a student's research and findings to earn a degree or qualification.

• Bibliography: A list of books or writings in a specific order. Annotated Bibliography: A list of books with short summaries for each entry.

• Biography: A written story about a person's life. An autobiography is a story written by the person themselves. Diary: A record of daily thoughts and events. Memoir: A story about a specific time in someone's life, based on their own experiences. Misery Literature: Literature that describes difficult experiences. Slave Narrative: A story written by someone who was enslaved, sharing their experiences. Contemporary: Modern. Neo: New or recent.

• Catalogue Raisonné: A complete list of an artist's work.
• Consilia: A medical book from the medieval times that gives practical advice.
• Cookbook: A book with recipes for cooking.
• Compendium / Body of Knowledge: A collection of information on a subject.
• Creative Nonfiction: A true story written in a way that's interesting to read. Personal Narrative: A story that shares personal experiences and opinions along with facts.
• Essay: A short piece of writing that shows the author's thoughts. Position Paper: A document that explains a position or opinion on an issue.
• Journalistic Writing: Writing about news and events that are happening now. Arts, Business, Data-Driven, Entertainment, Environmental, Fashion, Global, Medical, Political Science, Sports, Technical, Trade, Video Games, World: Categories of news topics.
• Non-Fiction Novel: A book that tells a true story in a novel format.
• Reference Work: A book that provides accurate information, like a dictionary or encyclopedia.
• Self-Help: A book that gives advice on how to solve personal problems.
• Obituary: A story about someone who has died.
• Travel: Books about traveling, nature, and adventures. Guide Book: A book that gives information about a place for visitors. Travel Blog: A website that shares personal travel experiences.
• True Crime: Stories about real crimes and investigations.

Literary fiction vs. genre fiction

Literary fiction is a type of story that focuses on big ideas, emotions, or human experiences, making it different from genre fiction, which is written to fit specific categories that fans enjoy. Literary fiction aims to explore truths or questions that are important to many people. Genre fiction is written to appeal to readers who like certain types of stories, such as mysteries, adventures, or romances. Many sources help readers understand and identify the differences between literary fiction and genre fiction.

• Academic novel (also called campus novel or varsity novel)
• Adventure fiction
• Bestiary (especially medieval bestiaries)
• Echtra – Old Irish stories about a hero’s journey to the Otherworld or with otherworldly beings. Lost world fiction, nautical fiction, picaresque novel (a story about a clever, lower-class hero who survives in a corrupt society), Robinsonade (a story about a castaway), subterranean fiction
• Apocalyptic literature – stories about the end of the world, as described by angels or other heavenly messengers.
• Bildungsroman – a "coming of age" story. The German word "Bildung" means both "education" and "self-development."
• Crime fiction, campus murder mystery
• Historical fiction, biographical novel, historical romance, historical mystery, neo-slave narrative, plantation tradition, Regency novel
• Literary nonsense, nonsense verse
• Mathematical fiction
• Nonfiction novel
• Novel of manners, Regency romance
• Occupational fiction, legal thriller, musical fiction, sports fiction
• Romance novel, medical romance
• Political fiction
• Speculative fiction, science fiction, quantum fiction, prehistoric fiction
• Travel literature, Immram – Old Irish tales about a hero’s sea journey to the Otherworld. Milesian tale – a story told by a narrator who shares stories he heard from others.
• Religious fiction, Christian fiction, Christian science fiction, contemporary Christian fiction, Islamic fiction, Jewish fiction
• Saga, family saga
• Speculative fiction, fantasy (by setting: epic/high fantasy, hard fantasy, historical fantasy, prehistoric fantasy, medieval fantasy, Wuxia, low fantasy, urban fantasy; by theme: comic fantasy, contemporary fantasy, dark fantasy, fantasy of manners, heroic fantasy, magic realism, mythic, paranormal fantasy, Shenmo fantasy, superhero fantasy, sword and sorcery; horror: body horror, splatterpunk, erotic, Gothic fiction, Southern Gothic, psychological, supernatural/paranormal, cosmic (Lovecraftian), ghost story, monster literature, Jiangshi fiction, vampire fiction, werewolf fiction, occult detective; science fiction: alien invasion, post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk derivatives (cyberpunk, biopunk, nanopunk, postcyberpunk, steampunk, atompunk, clockpunk, dieselpunk, solarpunk, also called hopepunk), dystopian, hard science fiction, military science fiction, parallel universe (also called alternative universe), alternative history, LitRPG, scientific romance, social science fiction, soft science fiction, space opera, portal fantasy (also called isekai and accidental travel), speculative cross-genre fiction, bizarro fiction, climate fiction (cli-fi), dying Earth, science fantasy, planetary romance, sword and planet, slipstream, weird fiction, New Weird)
• Suspense fiction, crime fiction, detective fiction, Gong’an fiction, mystery fiction
• Thriller, mystery fiction, legal thriller, medical thriller, political thriller, spy fiction, psychological thriller, techno-thriller
• Tragedy, melodrama
• Urban fiction
• Westerns
• Women’s fiction, chick lit, class S, femslash, matron literature, romance novel, Yaoi, Yuri
• Workplace tell-all
• General cross-genre: historical romance, juvenile fantasy, LGBT pulp fiction, gay male pulp fiction, lesbian pulp fiction, lesbian erotica fiction, paranormal romance, romantic fantasy, tragicomedy
• Other: dime novel

Other nonfiction genres

These are types of nonfiction writing. Some types may appear more than once, showing they belong to more than one category.

• Biography, Memoir, Autobiography, Slave narrative, Spiritual autobiography, Bildungsroman, Contemporary slave narrative, Neo-slave narrative
• Commentary
• Creative nonfiction
• Critique, Canonical criticism, Form criticism, Higher criticism, Historical criticism, Lower criticism, Narrative criticism, Postmodern criticism, Psychological criticism, Redaction criticism, Rhetorical criticism, Social criticism, Source criticism, Textual criticism
• Cult literature
• Diaries and journals
• Didactic, Dialectic, Rabbinic, Aporetic, Elenctic
• Dream vision
• Erotic literature
• Essay, treatise
• History, Genealogy, Narrative, People's history, Popular history, Official history, Narrative history, Whig history
• Lament
• Law, Ceremonial, Family, Levitical, Moral, Natural, Royal decree, Social
• Letter
• Manuscript
• Philosophy, Metaphysics, Socratic dialogue
• Poetry, Occasional poetry
• Polemic
• Religious text, Apocalyptic, Apologetics, Chant, Confession, Covenant, Creed, Daily devotional, Epistle, Pauline epistle, General epistle, Encyclical, Gospel, Homily, Koan, Lectionary, Liturgy, Mysticism, Occult literature, Prayer, Philosophy, Philosophical theology, Philosophy of religion, Religious epistemology, Prophecy, Blessing / Curse, Messianic prophecy, Divination, Oracle, Woe oracle, Prediction, Vision, Revelation, Natural revelation, Special revelation, Scripture, Buddhist texts, Lotus Sutra, Tripitaka, Christian literature, Apocrypha, Christian devotional literature, Christian tragedy, Encyclical, New Testament, Old Testament, Patristic, Ante-Nicene, Post-Nicene, Psalms, Imprecatory psalm, Pseudepigrapha, Hindu literature, Bhagavad Gita, Vedas, Islamic literature, Haddith, Quran, Jewish literature, Hebrew poetry, Song, Dirge, Hymn, Sutra, Theology, Apologetics, Biblical theology, Cosmology, Christology, Ecclesiology, Eschatology, Hamartiology, Pneumatology, Mariology, Natural theology, Soteriology, Theology proper, Wisdom literature
• Scientific writing
• Testament
• True crime