14. GENRES, SUB-GENRES AND REGISTER“It is, in particular, the obligatory feature that allow us to identify a genre […]” (Taylor p. 145)

Genre and Sub-genre

Categories of Writing

Genre = Category

All writing falls into a category or genre.

We will use 5 main genresand 15 subgenres.

DramaFiction PoetryFolkloreNonfiction

Tragedy

ComedyRealistic Fiction

Fable

Historical Fiction

Fantasy

Myth

Science Fiction

Tall Tale

Legend

Fairy Tale

Biography

Autobiography

PersuasiveWriting

InformationalWriting

5 Main Genres

1. Nonfiction: writing that is true2. Fiction: imaginative or made up writing3. Folklore: stories once passed down orally4. Drama: a play or script5. Poetry: writing concerned with the beauty

of language

Nonfiction Subgenres

• Persuasive Writing: tries to influence the reader• Informational Writing: explains something• Autobiography: life story written by oneself• Biography: Writing about someone else’s life

Latin RootsAuto = Self Bio = Life Graphy = Writing

Fiction Subgenres

• Historical Fiction: set in the past and based on real people and/or events

• Science Fiction: has aliens, robots, futuristic technology and/or space ships

• Realistic Fiction: has no elements of fantasy; could be true but isn’t

• Fantasy: has monsters, magic, or characters with superpowers

Folklore SubgenresFolklore/Folktales usually has an “unknown” author or will be “retold” or “adapted” by the author.

• Fable: short story with personified animals and a moralPersonified: given the traits of peopleMoral: lesson or message of a fable

• Myth: has gods/goddesses and usually accounts for the creation of something

Folklore Subgenres (continued)

Tall Tale• Set in the Wild West, the American frontier • Main characters skills/size/strength is greatly

exaggerated• Exaggeration is humorous

Legend• Based on a real person or place• Facts are stretched beyond nonfiction• Exaggerated in a serious way

Folklore Subgenres (continued)

Fairytale: has magic and/or talking animals.

• Often starts with “Once upon a time…”• Like fantasy but much older• Often has a human main character• Fables also have talking animals, but fables are

VERY short

What are Dramas?Stories written in script form.

ExampleTeacher: Everyone take notes.Student A: I don’t have a pen.

Drama SubgenresComedy: has a happy ending.Tragedy: ends in death and sadness.

Review

Nonfiction: persuasive writing, informational writing, autobiography, and biography

Fiction: historical fiction, science fiction, realistic fiction, and fantasy

Folklore: myth, legend, tall tale, fairy tale, and fable

Drama: comedy and tragedy

Poetry: many subgenres we will not study…

Practice

Try to identify the genre and sub-genre of each of the following texts.

1

Science Textbook

This science textbook contains much of the human knowledge of Earth and the universe.

2

As I Was Saying by Augustus Gluten

Mr. Gluten writes the story of his humble origins as a child in Germany to his meteoric rise to power in the candy industry.

3

They Came from the Sun by Tom Mitchell

The story of a race of aliens that come to enslave the residents of Earth with their advanced weaponry. Only one teacher can stop them, but is it too late?

4

“The Ant & The Grasshopper” Adapted by Chad Peplum

The really short story of an Ant who works hard all summer to prepare for winter and a Grasshopper who just plays. Winter comes and the Grasshopper freezes to death. The moral is “prepare today for tomorrow’s needs.”

5Bag Lunch by Dillard Perkins

It is the fictional story of two young African American girls living in Greensboro, N.C. in 1960. One day while waiting to buy food at a Woolworth's lunch counter, the girls find themselves at a significant crossroads in American history.

6

“Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind” retold by Mitch Colwell

Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind was the toughest girl in the Wild West. She plays with rattlesnakes and dries her clothes in a tornado. She’s tougher than a ten-year-old steak. Read about her extraordinary adventures in this humorous text.

7 “Reduce, Re-use, Re-imagine!” By Sasha Marsh

In this essay, Marsh tries to convince people to do small things to help the environment. She gives readers many suggestions on how to live more eco-friendly and challenges readers to make the world a better place for future generations through small contributions.

8Eric Vaser and the Educator’s Rock by J.P. Tumblin

This is the first book in the Eric Vaser series. Eric goes to Mage school and becomes a star student. He learns to play pencetrench, a football-like game played on flying platforms, and he fights to stop a growing evil within the school that will test his newfound magic powers.

9

Journal of a Lumpy Kid by Ken Jiffy

In his first year of middle school, Hank Griffin, the main character of this story deals with “cooties,” older bullies, running for a class election, and other problems that many middle school students face.

Answers1. Nonfiction ; Informational Writing2. Nonfiction ; Autobiography3. Fiction ; Science Fiction4. Folktale ; Fable5. Fiction ; Historical Fiction6. Folktale ; Tall Tale7. Nonfiction ; Persuasive Essay8. Fiction ; Fantasy9. Fiction ; Realistic Fiction

REGISTER

The term register is sometimes used to refer to the degree of formality of a written or spoken text. A fuller definition would be to say that register is a variety of language defined according to its use in specific social situations: scientific conference register, medical examination register etc.

A genre may require that a specific register be used. That register must meet the expectations of the discourse community, i.e. those people who habitually use that genre. We know immediately if the register is not appropriate:

THE HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAROnce upon a time, in a land where men wore short trousers and yodelled in the mountains, there was a little chap with a teeny weeny black moustache who looked a bit like Charlie Chaplin.

Register and Halliday’s Context of Situation:

FIELD: what is happeningTENOR: who is participatingMODE: what role the language is playing

“[…] register refers to what a person is doing with language at any given moment (making a speech, telling someone how to cook eggs, encouraging a football team, writing a business memo, etc.) and it can be deduced that, at least theoretically, there are as many registers as there are distinct activities.” (Taylor p. 147)

GENRE, REGISTER AND TRANSLATION

The translator has to:

categorize the source text (i.e. identify the genre);

understand the register that the genre and discourse community require;

make the translation conform to the equivalent genre and register of the target language.

Genre: OBITUARIES (NECROLOGIE)

Anne WhiteOur deepest sympathy and condolences to Martha on the passing of her dear mother. She is in our thoughts and prayers. Helen Greene and all the Greene family.

Elena Verdi, Riccardo e Giovanni addolorati sono vicini a Marta dopo la scomparsa della carissima mamma

Anna Bianchi

Elena Verdi, Riccardo e Giovanni si uniscono al dolore di Marta per la scomparsa della carissima mamma

Anna Bianchi

Elena Verdi, Riccardo e Giovanni partecipano al profondo dolore di Marta per la scomparsa della carissima mamma

Anna Bianchi

But some people flout the genre conventions even of an obituary. When the British actor John Le Mesurier knew that he was dying, he left instructions that the following should be published in the Times after his death:

“JOHN LE MESURIER wishes it to be known that he conked out on November 15th. He sadly misses family and friends.”

And the Anglo-Irish comedian Spike Milligan had the following inscribed on his tombstone:

“I told you I was ill.”

FALSE FRIENDS 14

What do you remember about conductor and confidence/confident?

Conjure: to produce something apparently by magic, fare giochi di prestigio. The conjuror pulled a rabbit out of the hat. Conjure up: ricavare qualcosa quasi da niente. Although there wasn’t much food in the fridge, she managed to conjure up a meal.Congiurare: to plot, to conspire

Consistency: sometimes the same as consistenza or densità but also means coerenza. Serious politicians display consistency; mere opportunists change their views for their own advantage. Similarly, the adjective consistent often means coerente. That footballer is so inconsistent: brilliant in one match, hopeless in the next.

THE DIARY OF A BRAVE TRANSLATOR VERILY IN LEG – PART 14

Why do we have such useless politicians in Italy? There are a few exceptions but it seems to me that most of our national and local politicians are just a bunch of half socks. A lot of them have a hen’s brain and talk only because they have a tongue in the mouth. Those that do have a bit of intelligence don’t necessarily use it because they just agree with whatever their party leader tells them to do and think. Hardly any of them have the liver to say, “Hold on, I don’t think that’s in the interests of the people who voted for us.”

Nonentities/Mediocrities. Idiomatically, men of straw.

Fathead, lunkhead (USA), numskull, plonker (UK), empty suit.

Prattle, talk gibberish/nonsense. It’s just hot air.

To have the guts to do/say something.