Literary Genres/Forms

There are a number of major literary genres marked by their distinctive characteristics. First, Poetry is a major genre of literature marked by connotative, suggestive or ornamental use of language, rhyme, and rhythm. This makes poetry different from other genres of literature. Poetry again has sub-genres like lyric, sonnet, elegy, epic etc. Another major genre of literature is drama or play which is written both in prose and verse. Drama is primarily a performing art, not a narrative art, and is meant to be staged in a theatre. It is composed in dialogue, and is marked by action of the actors  and  actresses.  Drama  has  subgenres  like  tragedy,  comedy, tragi-comedy and history plays. The third major genre of literature is fiction which is a narrative art, written usually in prose, has one or more narrators telling the story/stories. Fiction has sub-genres like novel and short story. The fourth genre of literature is non-fiction prose. Creative writers in all ages and all countries have tried their hands in all these genres and entertained readers of all ages with their writings.