Hybrid genre
A hybrid genre is a literary or film genre that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres. Works in hybrid genres are also referred to as cross-genre, multi-genre, mixed genre, or fusion genre. Some such sub-genres have acquired their own specialised names, such as comedy drama, romantic comedy (aka "rom-com", horror Western, and docudrama.
History
The origin of the word hybrid is the Latin word for "mongrel".[1]
Hybrid genres are a longstanding element in the fictional process. An early example is William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell, with its blend of poetry, prose, and engravings.[2]
Definition and terminology
The Oxford reference work Dictionary of Media and Communication describes the 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] Other terms for hybrid genre works include "cross-genre", "multi-genre", "mixed genre", and "fusion genre".[citation needed]
A genre is distinguished by particular character types, settings, and points in the storyline. Storytellers or filmmakers may create works that have elements of more than one genre, which may allow for changes in tone through the work.[3]
Examples
Literature
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.[4]
Many contemporary women of color have published cross-genre works, including Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Giannina Braschi, Guadalupe Nettel, and Bhanu Kapil.[5] Giannina Braschi creates linguistic and structural hybrids of comic fantasy and tragic comedy in Spanish, Spanglish, and English prose and poetry.[6][7] Carmen Maria Machado mixes psychological realism and science fiction with both humor and elements of gothic horror.[8]
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..."[9]
Films
Examples of hybrid-genre films include:
- Grease (1978; musical, comedy, romance, coming-of-age)[3]
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988; live action, animation, mystery)[3]
- 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)[3]
- Let the Right One In (2008; horror (vampire), romance, coming-of-age, Nordic noir)[10]
- Drive (2011; art-house drama, B-movie)[11]
- Elle (2016; erotic thriller, Black comedy, satire)[12]
- The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017; horror, Greek tragedy, dark comedy)[11]
List of named hybrid genres
- Action comedy (action and comedy)
- Action drama (action and drama)
- Comedy drama (comedy and drama; aka dramedy)
- 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)[13]
- 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)
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Hybrid genre". A Dictionary of Media and Communication. 22 February 1999. Retrieved 21 July 2023 – via Oxford Reference.
- ^ M. Singer/W. Walker, Bending Genre (2013) p. 21-2
- ^ a b c d e f g "10 essential films that define genre-hybridity". Far Out Magazine. 4 August 2022. Retrieved 21 July 2023.
- ^ "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. 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.
- ^ "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
- ^ 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.
- ^ "When crime meets fantasy in fiction". the Guardian. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
Further reading
- Diane P. Freedman, An Alchemy of Genres (1997)