blog one

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

There are two main types of genres, ‘high’ (classical) and ‘low’ (popular) genres. According to the lecture content, poetry, prose literature and drama refer to ‘high’ taste genres and fantasy fiction, comics, manga and science fiction refer to ‘low’ taste genres. However, opinion changed as to exclude some genres based on ‘taste’ is a privilege for some certain groups of culture. Secondly, literature genres should not be marginalized if only due to they are new. Thirdly, scholar asserts that popular genres may bring more society knowledge to people than those ‘classical’ literature. Fourthly, contemporary genres have several qualities that conventional literature lacks. Fifthly, producers of contemporary literature usually expect more achievements for their works. Finally, contemporary genres bring pleasure feelings to their readers and thus readers consider they are ‘high’ literature as they are popular.   

What might the value be of studying them?

The first value to study the popular genres is that to know and explore this dynamic market due to it has a large number of audiences (Wegrodzka, 2018). Furthermore, the author states that some particular genres and their authors come from various perspectives and interpretations. Thus, people can learn and understand different values. More importantly, The Encyclopaedia Britannica (n.d., as cited in Wegrodzka, 2018) states that the boundaries between high literature and popular literature are murky. Therefore, scholars should not marginalize particular types of literature and cultures. Moreover, study popular genres is a vital way to assist scholars and people to inquire into new categories of various literature and to explore how genres evolve. For instance, the ‘New adult’ (NA) fiction was a new category that emerged in 2009 and the definition of NA has continuously evolved with people’s updated perception (McAlister, 2018).

References

McAlister, J. (2018). Defining and redefining popular genres: The evolution of ‘New adult’ fiction. Australian Literary Studies. https://doi.org/10.20314/als.0fd566d109

Wegrodzka, J. (2018). Popular Genres and Their Uses in Fiction (Transatlantic Studies in British and North American Culture) (New ed.). Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.