Hybrid genre
A hybrid genre is a literary or film genre that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres. Hybrid genre works are also referred to as cross-genre, multi-genre, mixed genre, or fusion genre. Some hybrid genres have acquired their own specialised names, such as comedy drama ("dramedy"), romantic comedy ("rom-com"), horror Western, and docudrama.
A Dictionary of Media and Communication describes hybrid genre as "the combination of two or more genres", which may combine elements of more than one genre and/or which may "cut across categories such as fact and fiction".[1]
Hybrid genres are a longstanding element in the fictional process. An early literature example is William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell, with its blend of poetry, prose, and engravings.[2] In cinema, the merging of two or more separate genres attracts a broader range of audience type.[3][4]
Examples
[edit]Literature
[edit]In contemporary literature, Dimitris Lyacos's trilogy Poena Damni combines fictional prose with drama and poetry in a multilayered narrative developing through the different characters of the work.[5]
Many contemporary women of color have published cross-genre works, including Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Giannina Braschi, Guadalupe Nettel, and Bhanu Kapil.[6] Giannina Braschi creates linguistic and structural hybrids of comic fantasy and tragic comedy in Spanish, Spanglish, and English prose and poetry.[7][8] Carmen Maria Machado mixes psychological realism and science fiction with both humor and elements of gothic horror.[9]
Dean Koontz considers himself a cross-genre writer, not a horror writer: "I write cross-genre books-suspense mixed with love story, with humor, sometimes with two tablespoons of science fiction, sometimes with a pinch of horror, sometimes with a sprinkle of paprika..."[10]
Film
[edit]Examples of hybrid genre films include:
- Grease (1978; musical, comedy, romance, coming-of-age)[11]
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988; live action, animation, mystery)[11]
- Back to the Future 3 (1990; science fiction and western)[1]
- Punch-Drunk Love (2002; rom-com, psychological drama, musical, screwball comedy)
- Shaun of the Dead (2004; horror, survival, comedy)[11]
- Let the Right One In (2008; horror (vampire), romance, coming-of-age, Nordic noir)[12]
- Drive (2011; art-house drama, B-movie)[13]
- Elle (2016; erotic thriller, Black comedy, satire)[14]
- The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017; horror, Greek tragedy, dark comedy)[13]
- Parasite (2019; comedy, drama, thriller)[11]
- Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022; action, fantasy, sci-fi)
TV series
[edit]- Lost (2004-2010; adventure, mystery, science fiction, serial drama, supernatural, survival, thriller)[15]
List of named hybrid genres
[edit]- Action comedy (action and comedy)
- Action drama (action and drama)
- Comedy drama (comedy and drama)
- Comedy-horror (comedy and horror)
- Comic fantasy (comedy and fantasy)
- Comic science fiction (comedy and science fiction)
- Crime drama (crime and drama)
- Crime fantasy (crime and fantasy)[16]
- Dark fantasy (horror and fantasy)
- Docudrama (dramatised documentary)
- Docufiction (documentary and fiction)
- Ethnofiction (ethnography and fiction)
- Fantasy Western (fantasy and Western)
- Horror Western (horror and Western)
- Romantic comedy (romance and comedy)
- Romantic fantasy (romance and fantasy)
- Science fantasy (science fiction and fantasy)
- Science fiction Western (science fiction and Western)
- Tragicomedy (tragedy and comedy)
- Zombie comedy (zombie fiction and comedy)
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Chandler, Daniel; Munday, Rod (2020). "hybrid genre". A Dictionary of Media and Communication (3rd ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198841838. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via Oxford Reference.
- ^ M. Singer/W. Walker, Bending Genre (2013) p. 21-2
- ^ Aldredge, Jourdan (29 August 2022). "A Guide to the Basic Film Genres (and How to Use Them)". PremiumBeat. Shutterstock. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
- ^ "The Psychology of Jumping Genres: Why Audiences Love Hybrid Films". Stylesphere Source. 8 May 2024. Retrieved 3 December 2024.
- ^ "Reviews: Z213: Exit by Dimitris Lyacos". Write From Wrong Literary Magazine. Writefromwrongmag.wordpress.com. 14 March 2011. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
- ^ "How I Learned To Love Experimental Fiction As A Brown Girl By Seeking Out Books By Women Of Color". Bustle. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- ^ ""What to Read Now: Mixed-Genre Literature," Giannina Braschi". World Literature Today. 6 August 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- ^ Marting, Diane E. (2010). "New/Nueva York in Giannina Braschi's "Poetic Egg": Fragile Identity, Postmodernism, and Globalization". The Global South. 4 (1): 167–182. doi:10.2979/gso.2010.4.1.167. ISSN 1932-8648. JSTOR 10.2979/gso.2010.4.1.167.
- ^ "13 Latina Fantasy Books For the Sci-Fi Lover in Your Life". Fierce. 9 January 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- ^ Koontz, Dean. "Afterword", Lightning, G.P. Putnam's Sons hardcover edition, January 1988. Berkley Publishing Group, mass market edition, May 1989. p. 360
- ^ a b c d e f Tibbs, Ros (4 August 2022). "10 essential films that define genre-hybridity". Far Out. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ Ding, Kevin (13 July 2017). "The 20 Best Genre-Hybrid Movies of The 21st Century (1)". Taste of Cinema. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ a b Ding, Kevin (13 July 2017). "The 20 Best Genre-Hybrid Movies of The 21st Century (3)". Taste of Cinema. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ a b Ding, Kevin (13 July 2017). "The 20 Best Genre-Hybrid Movies of The 21st Century (2)". Taste of Cinema. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ VanDerWerff, Todd. "The Lost Interviews". Vox. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
- ^ "When crime meets fantasy in fiction". the Guardian. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
Further reading
[edit]- Freedman, Diane P. (1992). An Alchemy of Genres: Cross-Genre Writing by American Feminist Poet-Critics (1st ed.). Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0813913773.