Literary Genres

1. Literary Genres Recognizing Different Types of Literature Source of information: Cullinan and Galda’s Literature and the Child

2. What is a genre? • A category of literature defined by their shared characteristics. Within each genre, there are many sub-genres.

3. What are the genres? • 1. Picture book • 2. Traditional literature • Folk tales • Fairy tales • Mother Goose • Legends, myths, epics and fables • 3. Modern fantasy • Science fiction • Fractured fairy tales • 4. Poetry

4. Genres continued • 5. Realistic fiction • 6. Historical fiction • 7. Biography • 8. Non-fiction or informational

5. #1 Picture Books • A book in which the picture is as important as the text. • Usually 32 pages but can be as many as 48 • Annual award: Caldecott Award is given to the best illustrator. • It includes picture books, illustrated storybooks, wordless storybooks, concept books, and informational books

6. Examples of picture books • Recommended reading: • http://kids.nypl.org/reading/recommended2.cfm?ListID=61

7. Picture Book Authors • Eric Carle • Barbara Cooney • Donald Crews • Ezra Jack Keats • Stephen Kellogg • Brian Pinkney • Maurice Sendak • Chris van Allsburg • David Wiesner

8. Are all picture books for young children?

9. Karen Hesse & Wendy Watson, Illustrator

10. Baseball Saved Us – Ken Mochizuki, Dom Lee, Illustrator

11. Jumanji – Chris Van Allsburg

12. David Wiesner

13. Zelinsky

14. #2 Traditional Literature • This literature is born of oral tradition, and is passed orally from generation to generation. • It often has "retold by" or "adapted by" in front of the author, on the title page of the book. • It often starts with the phrase: • "Once upon a time..." and often has a happy ending.

15. Folktales • Often explain something that happens in nature or give/explain a certain truth about life in a creative way. • Often stories of animals that act like humans and live in a world of wonder and magic. • Often numbers like three and seven are in many of the stories.

16. Why folktales? • Forerunners of television, radio, books, newspapers. • Parents used them to teach lessons to their children • Taught customs of villages and about the people who lived in them • Taught about people in their communities

17. Types of Folktales • Fairy tales • Best known • Most popular • Includes magic • Setting does not have a definite time or location

18. Cinderella

19. Snow White

20. Jack and the Beanstalk

21. Rapunzel SCETV-Streamline

22. Old favorites • Rumplestiltskin • Frog Prince • Red Riding Hood • Sleeping Beauty • Beauty and the Beast • Hansel and Gretel

23. Types of Folktales • Noodlehead story • Story about a silly or stupid person who nevertheless often wins out in the end • Often nonsensical; meant for fun

24. Noodlehead Stories Foolish Men of Gotham Seven Foolish Fishermen Foolish Jack

25. Types of Folktales • Pourquoi Story • Story that explains why something happens • Usually explains something in the natural world • Example: how a particular plant or animal came to be

26. Why Mosquitos Buzz in People’s Ears – SCETV Streamline

27. Types of Folktales • Animal Tales • Sometimes called “Beast Tales” • Tales of animals which talk and act like human beings • Popular with young children

28. Little Red Hen – SCETV Streamline

29. Types of Folktales • Trickster Tale • A variety of the beast tale • Features a character who outsmarts everyone else in the story

30. Anansi, the Spider ManSCETV-Streamline

31. Types of Folktales • Realistic tales • All the elements of the story could happen, though they may be exaggerated or humorous • These tales are relatively few in number • They have their basis in an actual figure from history

32. Johnny Appleseed –SCETV Streamline

33. Types of Folktales • Cumulative Tale • These stories are “added upon” • The story is told up to a certain point and then begun again from near the beginning and told until a new segment is added. • Minimum plot, maximum repetition & rhythm

34. Examples • The Gingerbread Man • I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly • Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain • Old Woman an Her Pig • Johnny Cake • Teeny Tiny

35. Characteristics Elements of Folktales • Characters – Main and minor • Characters are usually flat, representing one human characteristic such as wickedness, goodness or stupidity • Contrasting characters: Good child/bad child or good child/mean stepmother • Animals are often main characters and can act like humans • Setting - When/Where story happens • Time is quickly set in the introduction, usually with a phrase such as: “Once upon a time.” • Place is generalized: A palace, a hut, a forest

36. Elements continued… • Plot • Exciting, swift-moving with lots of conflict and suspense • The introduction is very short giving the setting and introducing the characters in a few words and then starts right into the action • Must be logical within its setting even though it may have magic or magical characters • Swift and satisfying conclusion • Cycle of three recurrences (Goldilocks, Three Little Pigs, etc.)

37. Elements continued… • Style • Often include rhyme and repetition • Lot of dialogue • Plenty of imagery • Theme or what the story is about • Satisfy our sense of justice and morality because good is usually rewarded and evil is punished • Help us laugh at ourselves

38. Elements continued… • Motif • Smallest part of a story which persists in the oral tradition • Types of motifs: • Characters: A wicked stepmother, an evil witch, a stupid boy, a handsome prince, a woodcutter, a donkey, a giant • Places: Forest, ballroom in a palace, a hut in a forest, a river • Objects: Glass slipper, a magical tablecloth, golden ball, a rose • Actions or events: Journey, palace ball, tricking an opponent, answering a riddle

39. Modern Authors • Paul Goble • Steven Kellogg • Gail Carson Levine • James Marshall,  • Martin Rafe, • Jon Scieszka,  • Jane Yolen, • Paul Zelinsky

40. Fairy Tales • Simple narratives dealing with supernatural being such as fairies, magicians, ogres and dragons. • What sets them apart from other folktales is the “magic.” (wee people, fairy godmothers, and other magical characters make things happen)

41. Example • The Talking Egg

42. Who is Mother Goose? • The term has been traced to Loret's 1650 La Muse Historique in which appeared the line, Comme un conte de la Mere Oye ("Like a Mother Goose story"). • In 1697 Charles Perrault used the phrase in a published collection of eight fairy tales which included "The Sleeping Beauty," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Cinderella," "Bluebeard," and others. Although the book was titled, (translated from French) Histories and Tales of Long Ago, with Morals, the frontispiece showed an old woman spinning and telling stories, with a placard on the page which bore the words Contes de la Mere l'Oye (Tales of My Mother the Goose).

43. Mother Goose

44. Legends, Myths, Epics and Fables • A fable is a brief tale that presents a clear and unambiguous moral. The moral of the story is explicitly stated. “Slow and steady wins the race.” • Morals are taught by allegory. Animals or inanimate objects take on human traits. • Origin from Greece and India (Panchatantra – Stories of the Buddha’s previous lives)

45. Fables continued • Mythology – Myths express the belief of ancient cultures and portray visions of destiny. • Tales of love, carnage, revenge, and deep emotions. • Transmit ancient values, symbols, customs, art, law, and language.

46. Legends/Epics • Epics or hero tales focus on courageous deeds of mortals against each other or against gods and monsters. • Contest of good versus evil

47. Examples of Epics • King Arthur • Robin Hood • Iliad and the Odyssey • Le Morte d’Arthur

48. Examples

50. #3 Modern Fantasy & Science Fiction • Definition: Imaginative narratives that explore alternate realities. • Science fiction: Explores scientific possibilities asking “if this, then what?” • Difference: Science fiction extrapolates from scientific principles • Common themes from folktales: morality, traditions, exploration of things we do not fully understand.