Genre that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres
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]
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]
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]
^Koontz, Dean. "Afterword", Lightning, G.P. Putnam's Sons hardcover edition, January 1988. Berkley Publishing Group, mass market edition, May 1989. p. 360
Freedman, Diane P. (1992). An Alchemy of Genres: Cross-Genre Writing by American Feminist Poet-Critics (1st ed.). Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press. ISBN978-0813913773.