Animal fable is often discussed as a genre in its own right, associated with moralising, criticism, and popular ideology. 1 Yet any instantiation of a fable in a literary text intersects with the conventions of the host-genre. While fable is found in various ancient genres, it has a particular association with Greek iambus, and Hellenistic and Roman imitators of archaic iambus turn regularly to...

22 English Journal 99.4 (2010): 22–29 by a variety of new terms such as literary nonfiction, creative nonfiction, and documentary narrative. What distinguished these writings from conventional factual and informational texts was that they were not only well-researched accounts of real events or experiences but also artful narratives. They employed literary techniques borrowed from modern and po...

Most definitions of literature have been criterial definitions, definitions based on a list of criteria which all literary works must meet. However, more current theories of meaning take the view that definitions are based on prototypes: there is broad agreement about good examples that meet all of the prototypical characteristics, and other examples are related to the prototypes by family rese...

In his article "A Theory of Genre Formation in the Twentieth Century" Michael Rodgers explores the relationship between Vladimir Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading and magical realism in order to theorize about genre formation in the twentieth century. Rodgers argues not only that specific twentieth-century narrative forms are bound intrinsically with literary realism and socio-political condi...

the short story as a literary genre has always been of prime concern. studies carried out in this field as far as its literary development is concerned, directly reflects the significance of this genre, and conspicuously distinguishes it from others. french literature normally abandons literary boundaries thereby blurring the identity of genres. this style is most peculiar of jean marie gustave...