Genre vs. Theme

1. Genre vs. Theme I know what you’re thinking… “I’ve been studying theme since the seventh grade.” True, but let’s review just the same.

2. Genre vs. Theme What’s the difference? Let’s first look at genre…

3. Genre vs. Theme Genre is defined as a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, marked by a distinctive style, form, or content:

4. Genre vs. Theme Think of genre as a category in literature – …can you think of any?

5. Genre vs. Theme YES! Tragedy, comedy, farce, fiction, non-fiction, etc… these are all genres.

6. Genre vs. Theme In film there are similar genres: tragedy, comedy, farce, westerns, science fiction, fantasy, documentary, etc…these are all genres.

7. Genre vs. Theme Now let’s look at theme. When asked to look at theme think of “topic” -what is this about?

8. Genre vs. Theme “What’s it about? “ Isn’t plot ‘what it’s about?’” This is true in terms of the story, but theme is what it’s really about like between the characters.

9. Genre vs. Theme Theme is defined as a topic of discussion or discourse; subject of artistic representation; an implicit or recurrent idea; a motif

10. Genre vs. Theme Theme is something like loyalty, vengeance, unrequited love, redemption, etc…

11. Genre vs. Theme There are universal themes. You’ll find these themes reoccurring over and over again.

12. Genre vs. Theme Universal themes come from emotions and transcend (cut-through) culture, gender, age, geography, historical period and genres.

13. ????????????? So what does this mean?

14. Genre vs. Theme -Acceptance -Beauty -Betrayal -Death -Deception -Despair -Education -Envy Universal themes come from such topics or as:

15. Genre vs. Theme -Fear -Family -Faith -Freedom -Friendship -Greed -Hatred -Hope More topics from which we get universal themes:

16. Genre vs. Theme -Honesty -Identity -Innocence -Justice -Law -Love -Money -Nature Even more topics from which we get universal themes:

17. Genre vs. Theme -Peace -Poverty -Pride -Revenge -Sacrifice -Time -Truth -War …and more topics from which we get universal themes:

18. Genre vs. Theme Remember genre? Let’s think about genre again. Think about a story you know. Got one?

19. Genre vs. Theme What genre would you place your story in? What was the theme? These are separate things and we need to know the difference.

20. Genre vs. Theme Why you ask? So we can have a decent conversation with after the movie, book or play.

21. Genre vs. Theme Let’s look at genre again.

22. Genre vs. Theme Star Wars belongs to a genre. Can you guess which one?

23. Genre vs. Theme That’s right!: Science Fiction.

24. Genre vs. Theme Harry Potter belongs to a genre. Can you guess which one?

25. Genre vs. Theme That’s right!: Fantasy.

26. Genre vs. Theme The Simpons belongs to a genre. Can you guess which one?

27. Genre vs. Theme We call it satire, which is usually loaded with social commentary.

28. Genre vs. Theme Now let’s look at theme again. This time in the context of the genres we were playing with.

29. Genre vs. Theme Star Wars has many themes. Can you guess some?

30. Genre vs. Theme That’s right!: love, loyalty, persecution, freedom, and redemption, just to name a few.

31. Genre vs. Theme Harry Potter has a theme or two. Can you guess some?

32. Genre vs. Theme That’s right!: family, loss, love, community, and friendship, just to name a few.

33. Genre vs. Theme Even the Simpons has a theme or two. Can you guess some?

34. Genre vs. Theme You guessed it: love, loyalty, persecution, freedom, redemption, family, loss, community, friendship and even corruption. .

35. Genre vs. Theme That’s it for this review. Hope you are clearer on the concepts of genre vs. theme; and when asked to identify either one in a literary analysis won’t be too confused. Keep reading!