How has the academic reception of popular genres changed over time?

As technology developed cheap printing became more affordable which made sci-fi and fantasy fiction so popular because publications were producing them in masses that’s when Popular genres such as comics, fantasy novels and science fiction novels were on the rise. Although they were popular they still weren’t categorized under literature in the beginning when they first were created because it didn’t meet the standards of traditional literature such as fables, myths and folklore. The reason why they weren’t accepted to be part of literature because the structure of the plot was seen to be too “predictable” along with its portrayal of characters. Over time popular genre started to project the realness of our society today which is the struggles of marginalized groups such has African- Americans, homosexuals, women, and many others. This gave recognition to popular genre as people realized that classical literature teaches us about the problems of the past and not about about the struggles of today which people find much more appealing to read. Therefore, nowadays this perception of popular genre has changed and is widely available in tertiary education institutions. The reason for this is because popular genre is the outcome of social change in our society.

What might the value be of studying them?

Popular genre has become valuable over the years because it has more inclusive and relevant stories which suits the modern audience today. It also makes the audience of the popular genres capable of critically analyzing aspects of the story and also critically view the functionality of our society. Therefore many universities around the world provide a popular genre course alongside classical study courses because in today’s society all sorts of genres are worth learning and worth exploring because of the different techniques that are being used and are considered to be just as equal in knowledge with conventional English.