'Literary Genres" by Tzvetan Todorov - Chapter Summary

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Todorov, Tzvetan. "Chapter 1: Literary Genres." The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre. 24-57. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1975. Print.

Tzvetan Todorov


“The Fantastic” is a name given to a kind of literature, to a literary genre.”
Genre is about examining a text in the context of many others belonging to the same genre, as opposed to analyzing a text in its own right. The definition of a genre is done by examining a limited number of texts belonging to this genre, formulating a theory of the genre, and modifying or rejecting it, as necessary, upon examination of new texts that belong to the same genre {biology analogy: the discovery of a mutant tiger doesn’t make us change the definition of the tiger as a species, whereas the discovery of an aberrant text may make us redefine the genre to which the text belongs}. A text which does not modify our idea of the genre or bring anything new to the literary table is categorized as pop literature, whereas it is a revolutionary text which will make literary history.
Just because a work of literature can be studied independently from a genre doesn’t mean we cannot study it within the context of a genre.
Every text takes something from texts which have preceded it, and at the same time adds something new. A new literary text may be viewed as both taking and giving to the genre to which it belongs. Poetics characterizes works according to deviations from the standard, and in order for it to do that, a standard (genre) must be defined.
Northrop Frye, a literary theorist, stated that the study of a work must be taken seriously, and without judging the work’s value. The assumption must be made that the work is a complete, coherent system and contains no “mistakes”. The work needs to be examined in the context of the time (possibly a long period of time) in which it was written. A work needs to be analyzed in reference to itself and the theoretical premises the author created.
Frye proposed different ways (1-) to categorize works of literature into genres (i,ii…):

In yellow- comments on categorization by Todorov

1.      Modes of fiction
Defined by the relationship between the hero and the reader or the hero and the laws of nature
i.                    Myth: hero>nature, hero>reader. Superiority “by nature”
ii.                  Fairy tale: hero>nature, hero>reader. Superiority “by degree (slightly superior)”
iii.                High mimetic genre: hero>reader “by degree” (no reference to nature)
iv.                 Low mimetic genre: hero=reader, hero=nature
v.                   Irony: hero<reader

Not comprehensive- other possible relationships. These should be called “theoretical genres”

2.      Verisimilitude (definition: appearance of truth)
i.                   Plausible
ii.                  Characters can do anything
3.      Tendencies of literature
i.                   Comedy
ii.                  Tragedy
4.      Archetypes
i.                   Romance
ii.                  Irony
iii.                 Comedy
iv.                 Tragedy
5.      Literary audience (genre)
i.                   Drama (to be performed)
ii.                  Lyric poetry (to be sung)
iii.                 Epic poetry (to be recited)
iv.                 Prose (to be read)
6.      .


2-4,6: These classifications seems arbitrary. Why these categories and not others?



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