Genres: Sonny Blues by James Baldwin and Countee Cullen’s Incident
Humanities
Assignment Two: What’s in a Genre?
There are many different forms of literature, and one of the biggest differences is in genre. Is a text a novel? Essay? Short story or poem? Of course, there are distinctions even within genres, but one of the first things we notice about a text is what kind of text it is. Similarly, when a writer decides to write something, genre is often the first thing he or she will consider. Could you imagine Romeo and Juliet as a short story? Or Frankenstein as a sonnet? Authors choose to work in a specific genre because of what that genre lends them in terms of length, breadth, publishability, and more. What happens, then, when two different authors try to tackle similar topics in different genres? What can we learn by comparing and contrasting texts that deal with closely related subject matters but in different ways?
For this assignment, you will choose two texts that you have read for this class. Each text must be from a different genre. For example, you may want to choose one play and one poem, or one short story and one essay. Your selections must represent two different genres but deal with similar issues. You may want to consider how race is dealt with in Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and Countee Cullen’s “Incident.” Or perhaps you’re interested in how women’s lives are represented in a play like “Trifles” and a short story like “A Worn Path.” Maybe you’re interested in how language is used differently in different genres, how the form allows an author to express him or herself in different ways. Whatever you choose, you should choose texts that allow you to compare and contrast both how the authors deal with their subject matter but also how genre considerations can change the way this issue is represented.
Some things to think about:
Does the length of a specific genre change how this issue is represented? Even if a poem is very short, does that make it less complex than a short story or an essay?
If you’re writing about a play, how does it change your understanding of the text when the majority of it is dialogue?
Your paper should be 2-4 pages, (roughly 500-1,000 words, though more is okay), double spaced and in a regular sized font. Be sure to proofread!
