Kinds of Literature: An Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes

Alastair Fowler

ISBN 10: 0198128576 / ISBN 13: 9780198128571

Published by Oxford University Press, 2002

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Kinds of Literature: An Introduction to the Theory of Genres and Modes
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198128576
• ISBN 13: 9780198128571
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 554 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In this important book, the first general study of genre theory, Alastair Fowler investigates the meaning of genres and how modern literature relates to the traditional categories. For some time now it has been taken for granted that the old order of historical kinds has irrevocably gone; in the main critics have preferred to talk about genres - or "modes" - in a broad, unhistorical way. This seldom makes for better reading of literature; and, dealing with a very small repertoire of modes, it has tended to narrow the literary canon. Kinds of Literature springs from the conviction that it is time to recover a sense of the variety of literary forms. To this end, and groundging his study in a welath of examples, Professor Fowler reconstructs genre theory and opens it to historical considerations. He takes into account variation over the years and across the national borders, and traces the actual mechanisms of literary change.

About the Author

Alastair Fowler is Regius Professor Emeritus of Edinburgh University, and was previously Professor of English at the University of Virginia. For many years he divided his time between the United States and Britain, where he now lives. His publications include an annotated edition of Paradise Lost (1968); Kinds of Literature (1982); Renaissance Realism (2003); and Literary Names (2012).