HENA03921U English - Free topic 1: Popular literature and genre: from sci-fi to young adult fiction (Exam form C)

Genre is what others do.

Genre fiction is not Literature.

Good novels transcend genre.

Why has ‘genre fiction’ become another name for ‘bad fiction’? Bookstores divide novels into categories such as Crime, Thrillers, Dark Fantasy and Literary Fiction; does that mean that Literary Fiction has no genre? In this course, we will read examples of different kinds of contemporary genre literature – from sci-fi over historical fiction to Young Adult Fiction – to ask what makes genres distinct from each other; what values are attached to different genres; and what happens when writers transcend their genres. Does a book need to fit into a genre to sell copies? Is The Hunger Games a sci-fi novel, or a romance which steals sci-fi tropes? And is Young Adult Fiction only for young adults, or has it become the new playground for writers and readers alike?

The course gives an introduction to modern genre theory and draw from current cultural debates about genre fiction. The planned set novels are The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.