L.W. Flouisa's picture
L.W. Flouisa from Tennessee is reading More Murakami October 17, 2015 - 1:56pm

www.newyorker.com/books/joshua-rothman/better-way-think-genre-debate

What would you consider your book to me?

For me mine is a romantic-confessional with genre elements. It seeks to explore larger societal issues through the subject experience of the confessionals within an entire cast. The romantic elements comes in through utilizing a fictionalized version of an autobiographical elements. It also includes elements of tragedy as well.

I'm uncertain what an anatomy would be in the context of the original four genres of fiction. I've never heard of this type of storytelling.

As an update referring to Encyclopedia Brittanica as my source: Anatomy, in literature, the separating or dividing of a topic into parts for detailed examination or analysis. Among the better-known examples are John Lyly’s Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit and Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. The literary critic Northrop Frye, in his book Anatomy of Criticism, narrowed the definition of the word to mean a work resembling a Menippean satire, or one in which a mass of information is brought to bear on the subject being satirized, usually a particular attitude or type of behaviour. The word is from the Greek anatomḗ, “dissection.”

That definitely clears up a lot of questions I have about what anatomy is. Infinite Jest would most definitely partially cover the anatomic genre.

Thuggish's picture
Thuggish from Vegas is reading Day of the Jackal October 17, 2015 - 5:19pm

I skimmed that article three times and couldn't find the four genres readily apparent, so I refuse to read it.

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like October 19, 2015 - 8:26am

According to Wikipedia entries, Frye's scheme is more complex than is laid out in the New Yorker piece. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_Criticism

Also of possible interest, Irving Babbitt's Rousseau and Romanticism, Chapter 1: The Terms Classic and Romantic. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50235  (Babbitt argues classically about earlier works whilst the Modernist movement was underway. It doesn't take long to see differences between him and Frye.)

L.W. Flouisa's picture
L.W. Flouisa from Tennessee is reading More Murakami October 19, 2015 - 3:05pm

That's amazing! I'll definitely be checking this out. I'm still confused what anatomy is, maybe the actual book referenced will clear it up.

I'll just assume they don't mean anatomy like Michaelangelo books (who by the way wrote excellent poetry.)

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like October 25, 2015 - 5:33pm

That means, like, the whole internet could be, like, a "conceptual" anatomy, a "found" Menippean satire.