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LITERARY GENRES AND SUBGENRESAbsurdist (Existentialism)
Adventure
- Robinsonade
Autobiographical Fiction
Children's Literature
- Written by Children
- Chapter's
Chivalric Romance
- Arthurian Legends
- Non-Arthurian
Comedy/Humour
- Comedy of Manners
- Humorous
- Parody
- Satire
Coming of Age
Epic
Experimental
Fairy Tale
- Fairy tale
- Fable
- Fairy tale retelling
(False Autobiography)
Fantasy
- Arthurian Fantasy
- Celtic
- Comic
- Court Intrigue
- High/Epic Fantasy
- Historical Fantasy
- Mythic
- Quest
- Science Fantasy
- (Sword and Sorcery)
Folklore
Historical Fiction
- Alternate History
- Historical Adventure Novels
- Historical Thrillers
- Multi-Period Epics
- Romantic Historical Novels
- Sagas
- Time-Slip Novels
- Western Historical Novels
Legends and Myths
Metafiction
Modernism
Mystery/Crime
- Amateur Detective
- Classic Whodunit
- Comic (Bumbling Detective)
- Cozy
- Courtroom Drama
- Espionage
- Heists and Capers
- Financial
- White Collar
- Historical
- Inverted
- Locked Room
- Private Detective
Non-Fiction
- Art – Music/Painting/Architecture/Dance etc
- Autobiography
- Back to Nature
- Biography
- Diaries and Journals
- Ethics
- Ethnic Rights
- History
- Journalistic Reporting
- Letters
- Literature, Writing and Libraries
- Memoir
- Narrative Nonfiction
- Politics
- Science (and Math)
- Sociology
- Speeches
- Travelogue
- Women's Rights
Nonsense/Surrealism
(Paranoid?)
Picaresque
Plays
- Comedy: Greek, Roman
- Tragedy: Greek, Roman, Reinassance, Neo-Classical, Bourgeois, Modern
- Tragecomedy
- Satire / Political/Social Comment
- Absurdist
Poetry
- Elegy
- Haiku
- Light
- Lyric
- Satirical
- Sonnets
Political
Postcolonial
Pulp Fiction
Realism
- Family Saga
- Lab Lit
- Political
- Social Realism
Road Trip
Romance
- Chick-lit
- Contemporary
- Romantic Comedy
Science Fiction
- Comic
- Cyberpunk
- Dystopian
- Hard Science Fiction
- Mundane Sci-Fi
- Mystery Sci-Fi
- Social Sci-Fi
- Soft Sci-Fi
- Space Opera
- Spy-Fi
- Steampunk
- Time Travel
Speculative Fiction (other than Sci-Fi and Fantasy)
- Ecotopian
- Magical Realism
- Superheroes
- Utopian
Short Stories
Saga
Thriller/Suspense
- Comic
- Conspiracy
- Crime
- Eco-Thriller
- Espionage
- Forensic
- Legal
- Military
- Poltical Intrigue
- Psychological
- Technological
- Treasure Hunter
War
Western
- Historical Western
- Non-Fiction Western
YA
- Amateur Sleuth
- Coming of Age
- Comedy
- Fantasy
- Romantic
It's been put together from various internetsides, so... yeah... probably not 100% complete or correct - which means that any help pointing out missing genres or genres that aren't really genres is greatly appreciated ;)
As the 'Rules and Info' post states, the following genres will NOT be read here so that as many people as possible will feel comfortable: Paranormal/Horror, Erotica, Urban Fantasy and vampire/zombie/werewolf fiction. Religious/Spiritual will not be read either as discussions on that quickly turn away from the piece of literature and to the religion/belief instead.