The CWRC Genre Ontology Specification 0.3

"Documents of any type that are biographies of individuals written by themselves. For the overall genre, use "autobiography (genre)."" (Getty, 2017)

"Captivity narratives are usually stories of people captured by enemies whom they consider uncivilized, or whose beliefs and customs they oppose. The best-known captivity narratives are those concerning the indigenous peoples of North America. These narratives (and questions about their accuracy) have an enduring place in literature, history, ethnography, and the study of Native peoples. However, captivity narratives have also come to play a major role in the study of contemporary religious movements, thanks to scholars of religion like David G. Bromley and James R. Lewis. In this article, both main types of captivity narratives are considered. Traditionally, historians have made limited use of certain captivity narratives. They have regarded the genre with suspicion because of its ideological underpinnings. As a result of new scholarly approaches, historians with a more certain grasp of Native American cultures are distinguishing between plausible statements of fact and value-laden judgements in order to study the narratives as rare sources from "inside" Native societies. Contemporary historians such as Linda Colley and anthropologists such as Pauline Turner Strong have also found the narratives useful in analyzing how the colonists constructed the "other", as well as what the narratives reveal about the settlers' sense of themselves and their culture, and the experience of crossing the line to another. Colley has studied the long history of English captivity in other cultures, both the Barbary pirate captives who preceded those in North America, and British captives in cultures such as India, after the North American experience. Certain North American captivity narratives involving Native peoples were published from the 18th through the 19th centuries, but they reflected a well-established genre in English literature. There had already been English accounts of captivity by Barbary pirates, or in the Middle East, which established some of the major elements of the form. Following the American experience, additional accounts were written after British people were captured during exploration and settlement in India and East Asia. Other types of captivity narratives, such as those recounted by apostates from religious movements (i.e. "cult survivor" tales), have remained an enduring feature of modern media, and currently appear in books, periodicals, film, and television. The unifying factor in most captivity narratives, whether they stem from geopolitical or religious conflicts, is that the captive portrays the captors' way of life as alien, undesirable, and incompatible with the captive's own (typically dominant) culture. This underscores the utility of captivity narratives in garnering support for social control measures, such as removing Native Americans to "reservations", or stigmatizing participation in religious movements – whether Catholicism in the nineteenth century, or ISKCON in the twentieth. Captivity narratives tend to be culturally chauvinistic, viewing an "alien" culture through the lens of the narrator's preferred culture, thus making (possibly unfair) value judgements like "Puritans good, Indians bad."" (DBpedia, 2017)

"Refers to books containing the daily, personal accounts of the writer's own experiences, attitudes, and observations. Use "journals (accounts)" when referring to an individual's or an organization's account of occurrences or transactions." (Getty, 2017)

"A memoir (from French: mémoire: memoria, meaning memory or reminiscence) is a collection of memories that an individual writes about moments or events, both public or private, that took place in the subject's life. The assertions made in the work are understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobiography since the late 20th century, the genre is differentiated in form, presenting a narrowed focus. A biography or autobiography tells the story "of a life", while a memoir often tells "a story from a life", such as touchstone events and turning points from the author's life. The author of a memoir may be referred to as a "memoirist."" (DBpedia, 2019)

Fiction in which a character, typically an adolescent, experiences sexual desires for the first time or has a first sexual encounter.

"An autobiographical account of the life of an escaped or freed slave. Typically written and published in the Americas and used as a form of protest against the slave trade." (Oxford, 2015)

"A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. A date is the designation of a single, specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physical record (often paper) of such a system. A calendar can also mean a list of planned events, such as a court calendar or a partly or fully chronological list of documents, such as a calendar of wills. Periods in a calendar (such as years and months) are usually, though not necessarily, synchronized with the cycle of the sun or the moon. The most common type of pre-modern calendar was the lunisolar calendar, a lunar calendar that occasionally adds one intercalary month to remain synchronised with the solar year over the long term. The calendar in most widespread use today is the Gregorian calendar, introduced in the 16th century by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of the Julian calendar, which was itself a modification of the ancient Roman calendar.The term calendar itself is taken from calendae, the term for the first day of the month in the Roman calendar, related to the verb calare "to call out", referring to the "calling" of the new moon when it was first seen.Latin calendarium meant "account book, register" (as accounts were settled and debts were collected on the calends of each month). The Latin term was adopted in Old French as calendier and from there in Middle English as calender by the 13th century (the spelling calendar is early modern)." (DBpedia, 2019)

"Refers to graphic or photogrammetric representations of the Earth's surface or a part of it, including physical features and political boundaries, where each point corresponds to a geographical or celestial position according to a definite scale or projection. The term may also refer to similar depictions of other planets, suns, other heavenly bodies, or areas of the heavens. Maps are typically depicted on a flat medium, such as on paper, a wall, or a computer screen." (Getty, 2017)

"Publications that document the works displayed in an exhibition." (Getty, 2017)

"Literature written and published for children." (Getty, 2017)

"A lullaby, or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music, usually played for or sung to children. The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledge or tradition. In addition, lullabies are often used for the developing of communication skills, indication of emotional intent, maintenance of infants' undivided attention, modulation of infants' arousal, and regulation of behavior. Perhaps one of the most important uses of lullabies is as a sleep aid for infants. As a result, the music is often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in many countries, and have existed since ancient times." (DBpedia, 2019)

"Tales in rhymed verse for children." (Getty, 2017)

Writing aimed at a young adult audience.

"Collections of choice extracts, from the writings of one author, or various authors, and usually having a common characteristic such as subject matter or literary form." (Getty, 2017)

"Bibliography (from Greek βιβλιογραφία bibliographia, literally "book writing"), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from Greek -λογία, -logia). Carter and Barker (2010) describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography)." (DBpedia, 2019)

"Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are a way to compile knowledge, usually by writing information into books. Such books are essentially scrapbooks filled with items of every kind: recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, proverbs, prayers, legal formulas. Commonplaces are used by readers, writers, students, and scholars as an aid for remembering useful concepts or facts they have learned. Each commonplace book is unique to its creator's particular interests. They became significant in Early Modern Europe. "Commonplace" is a translation of the Latin term locus communis (from Greek tópos koinós, see literary topos) which means "a theme or argument of general application", such as a statement of proverbial wisdom. In this original sense, commonplace books were collections of such sayings, such as John Milton's commonplace book. Scholars have expanded this usage to include any manuscript that collects material along a common theme by an individual. Commonplace books are not diaries nortravelogues, with which they can be contrasted:English Enlightenment philosopher John Locke wrote the 1706 book A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books, "in which techniques for entering proverbs, quotations, ideas, speeches were formulated. Locke gave specific advice on how to arrange material by subject and category, using such key topics as love, politics, or religion. Commonplace books, it must be stressed, are not journals, which are chronological and introspective." By the early eighteenth century they had become an information management device in which a note-taker stored quotations, observations and definitions. They were even used by influential scientists. Carl Linnaeus, for instance, used commonplacing techniques to invent and arrange the nomenclature of his Systema Naturae (which is the basis for the system used by scientists today)." (DBpedia, 2019)

"A black comedy (or dark comedy) is a comic work that employs morbid humor, which, in its simplest form, is humor that makes light of subject matter usually considered taboo. Black humor corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor. Black comedy is often controversial due to its subject matter." (DBpedia, 2017)

"A form of comic drama set to music, first popularized in the 1700s." (Penguin, 1999)

"Genre encompassing forms of theatre, literature, and improvisation with the basic objective to amuse, humor, and induce laughter. In general, it is often contrasted with tragedy and can be applied in the form of social criticism through satire and political or intellectual wit or applied in the form of pure spectacle through farce or burlesque." (Getty, 2017)

"The comedy of humours refers to a genre of dramatic comedy that focuses on a character or range of characters, each of whom exhibits two or more overriding traits or 'humours' that dominates their personality, desires and conduct. This comic technique may be found in Aristophanes, but the English playwrights Ben Jonson and George Chapman popularized the genre in the closing years of the sixteenth century. In the later half of the seventeenth century, it was combined with the comedy of manners in Restoration comedy. In Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour (acted 1598), which made this type of play popular, all the words and acts of Kitely are controlled by an overpowering suspicion that his wife is unfaithful; George Downright, a country squire, must be "frank" above all things; the country gull in town determines his every decision by his desire to "catch on" to the manners of the city gallant. In his Induction to Every Man out of His Humour (1599) Jonson explains his character-formula thus: Some one peculiar qualityDoth so possess a man, that it doth drawAll his affects, his spirits, and his powers,In their confluctions, all to run one way. The comedy of humours owes something to earlier vernacular comedy but more to a desire to imitate the classical comedy of Plautus and Terence and to combat the vogue of romantic comedy, as developed by William Shakespeare. The satiric purpose of the comedy of humours and its realistic method lead to more serious character studies with Jonson’s The Alchemist. The humours each had been associated with physical and mental characteristics; the result was a system that was quite subtle in its capacity for describing types of personality." (DBpedia, 2019)

"A dramatic form popularized in the 16th century in which the comedy depends on complex plots, surprising twists, and ridiculous situations. The characters and their development tend to be secondary to plot in importance." (Penguin, 1999)

"The comedy of manners is an entertainment form which satirizes the manners and affectations of a social class or of multiple classes, often represented by stereotypical stock characters. For example, the miles gloriosus ("boastful soldier") in ancient times, the fop and the rake during the English Restoration, or an old person pretending to be young. Restoration comedy is used as a synonym for "comedy of manners". The plot of the comedy, often concerned with scandal, is generally less important than its witty dialogue. A great writer of comedies of manners was Oscar Wilde, his most famous play being The Importance of Being Earnest. The comedy of manners was first developed in the new comedy of the Ancient Greek playwright Menander. His style, elaborate plots, and stock characters were imitated by the Roman playwrights Plautus and Terence, whose comedies were widely known and copied during the Renaissance. The best-known comedies of manners, however, may well be those of the French playwright Molière, who satirized the hypocrisy and pretension of the ancien régime in such plays as L'École des femmes (The School for Wives, 1662), Le Misanthrope (The Misanthrope, 1666), and most famously Tartuffe (1664)." (DBpedia, 2017)

"A type of comedic drama in which the dark humour stems from the main characters’ fear, irrational or not, that some dark force threatens them." (Penguin, 1999)

"(from Latin Farsus, "stuffed"): A farce is a form of low comedy designed to provoke laughter through highly exaggerated caricatures of people in improbable or silly situations. Traits of farce include (1) physical bustle such as slapstick, (2) sexual misunderstandings and mix-ups, and (3) broad verbal humor such as puns. Many literary critics (especially in the Victorian period) have tended to view farce as inferior to "high comedy" that involves brilliant dialogue. Many of Shakespeare's early works, such as The Taming of the Shrew, are considered farces. Contrast with comedy of manners." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

"(from Old English roedel, from roedan meaning "to give council" or "to read"): A universal form of literature in which a puzzling question or a conundrum is presented to the reader. The reader is often challenged to solve this enigma, which requires ingenuity in discovering the hidden meaning. A riddle may involve puns, symbolism, synecdoche, personification (especially prosopopoeia), or unusual imagery. For instance, a Norse riddle asks, "Tell me what I am. Thirty white horses round a red hill. First they champ. Then they stamp. Now they stand still." The answer is the speaker's teeth; these thirty white horses circle the "red hill" of the tongue; they champ and stamp while the riddler speaks, but stand still at the end of his riddle. Another famous example is the riddle of the sphinx from Sophocles' Oedipus Trilogy. The sphinx asks Oedipus, "What goes on four feet, on two feet, and then three. But the more feet it goes on, the weaker is he?" The answer is a human being, which crawls as an infant, walks erect on two feet as an adult, and totters on a staff (the third leg) in old age. The earliest known English riddles are recorded in the Exeter Book, and they probably date back to the 8th century. Examples, however, can be found in Greek, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, and Chinese, and many other languages. Authors of Anglo-Latin riddles include Aldhelm of Sherborne, Archbishop Tatwine of Canterbury, and Abbot Eusebius of Wearmouth. A large Renaissance collection can also be found in Nicolas Reusner's Aenigmatographia (1602)." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

A form of intertextuality in which an author writes a response to a work by another writer, typically to argue against the statements of that work. Often takes the form of an essay or letter.

"A popular style of fiction in the 17th and 18th centuries featuring conversations between the ghosts of well-known figures. Based on the satirical Dialogues of the Dead by Lucian (120-around 180 CE), but not necessarily satirical themselves." (Mazella, 2007)

"A text made up of a conversation between two or more characters, often in which the characters take up opposing sides of an argument." (Oxford, 2015)

"Aggressive, forcefully presented arguments, often disputing a policy or opinion." (Getty, 2017)

"Collections of moralized fables, especially as written in the Middle Ages, about actual or mythical animals." (Getty, 2017)

"A catechism (/ˈkætəˌkizəm/; from Greek: κατηχέω, to teach orally), is a summary or exposition of doctrine and served as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult converts. Catechisms are doctrinal manuals - often in the form of questions followed by answers to be memorised - a format in non-religious or secular contexts as well. The term catechumen refers to the designated recipient of the catechetical work or instruction. In the Catholic Church, catachumens were usually placed separately during Holy Mass from those who received the Sacrament of Baptism. Early catecheticals emerged from Graeco-Roman mystery religions, especially the late cult of Mithras meant to educate their members into the secretive teachings, which competed with the Christian Church as an underground religion in the 1st to 4th centuries CE and allegedly shared its many ritual practices. Today, they are characteristic of Western Christianity but are also present in Eastern Christianity." (DBpedia, 2017)

"Prescriptive literature, usually directed to a specific gender, that outlines the rules of appropriate behaviour according to the gender roles and societal norms prevalent at the time of writing. Conduct books became very popular in the 18th century." (Penguin, 1999)

"Writing that is "preachy" or seeks overtly to convince a reader of a particular point or lesson. Medieval homilies and Victorian moral essays are often held up as examples of didactic literature, but one might argue that all literature is didactic to one extent or another since the written word frequently implies or suggests an authorial attitude. Sometimes, the lesson is overtly religious, as in the case of sermons or in literature like Milton's Paradise Lost, which seeks to "justify God's ways to men." In a more subtle way, much of Romantic literature hints at a critique of urbanized and mechanized life in 19th-century London." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

"A lullaby, or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music, usually played for or sung to children. The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledge or tradition. In addition, lullabies are often used for the developing of communication skills, indication of emotional intent, maintenance of infants' undivided attention, modulation of infants' arousal, and regulation of behavior. Perhaps one of the most important uses of lullabies is as a sleep aid for infants. As a result, the music is often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in many countries, and have existed since ancient times." (DBpedia, 2019)

"Short, fictitious stories that illustrate a moral attitude or religious principle." (Getty, 2017)

"Sage writing was a genre of creative nonfiction popular in the Victorian era. The concept originates with John Holloway's 1953 book The Victorian Sage: Studies in Argument. Sage writing is a development from ancient wisdom literature in which the writer chastises and instructs the reader about contemporary social issues, often utilizing discourses of philosophy, history, politics, and economics in non-technical ways. Prominent examples of the genre include writings by Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, John Ruskin, and Henry David Thoreau. Some 20th-century writers, such as Joan Didion and New Journalists such as Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe, have also been identified as sage writers." (DBpedia, 2017)

"A compilation of coded instructions or sequence of code that, when run, achieves a certain task in a mechanism, usually a computer." (Getty, 2017)

"Contemporary works of art that employ several distinct art forms, such as sculpture and music or painting and light art." (Getty, 2017)

"A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but as of the 2000s, it implies any type of display device that can produce two- or three-dimensional images. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial. The electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms; examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices. Specialized video games such as arcade games, in which the video game components are housed in a large, coin-operated chassis, while common in the 1980s in video arcades, have gradually declined in use due to the widespread availability of affordable home video game consoles (e.g., PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) and video games on desktop and laptop computers and smartphones. The input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouses, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices and buttons. Players typically view the game on a video screen or television and there are often game sounds from loudspeakers. Some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the video game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games, which are played on smartphones. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD 74 billion annually worldwide, and were the third-largest segment in the U.S. entertainment market, behind broadcast and cable TV." (DBpedia, 2019)

"A website, also written as web site, is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server. A web site may be accessible via a public Internet Protocol (IP) network, such as the Internet, or a private local area network (LAN), by referencing a uniform resource locator (URL) that identifies the site. Websites have many functions and can be used in various fashions; a website can be a personal website, a commercial website for a company, a government website or a non-profit organization website. Websites can be the work of an individual, a business or other organization, and are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, ranging from entertainment and social networking to providing news and education. All publicly accessible websites collectively constitute the World Wide Web, while private websites, such as a company's website for its employees, are typically a part of an intranet. Web pages, which are the building blocks of websites, are documents, typically composed in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). They may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors. Web pages are accessed and transported with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which may optionally employ encryption (HTTP Secure, HTTPS) to provide security and privacy for the user. The user's application, often a web browser, renders the page content according to its HTML markup instructions onto a display terminal. Hyperlinking between web pages conveys to the reader the site structure and guides the navigation of the site, which often starts with a home page containing a directory of the site web content. Some websites require user registration or subscription to access content. Examples of subscription websites include many business sites, parts of news websites, academic journal websites, gaming websites, file-sharing websites, message boards, web-based email, social networking websites, websites providing real-time stock market data, as well as sites providing various other services. As of 2016, end users can access websites on a range of devices, including desktop and laptop computers, tablet computers, smartphones and smart TVs." (DBpedia, 2019)

"A short drama performed after a main play, popularized in the 1700s as justification for a new half-price entrance fee charged to latecomers. Typically a comedic one-act, regardless of the genre of the preceding play." (Penguin, 1999)

"Derived from agitation propaganda, meaning intended to inspire political action. With reference to visual art, refers to the specific art movement arising in Soviet Russia following the Bolshevik revolution." (Getty, 2017)

"A drama combining song and spoken dialogue, popularized in the 1700s by John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. It can be seen as a precursor to the modern musical." (Penguin, 1999)

"A folk dance originating in Bergamo, Italy, in the 16th century, but often included in theatre productions unrelated to Italian culture." (Merriam-Webster, 2017)

"Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting aesthetic attributes such as beauty, value, and taste through an invitation of a different kind of apprehension and consumption. Camp can also be a social practice. For many it is considered a style and performance identity for several types of entertainment including film, cabaret and pantomime. Where high art necessarily incorporates beauty and value, camp necessarily needs to be lively, audacious and dynamic. "Camp aesthetics delights in impertinence." Camp opposes satisfaction and seeks to challenge. Camp art is related to—and often confused with—kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as "cheesy". When the usage appeared in 1909, it denoted ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical, and/or effeminate behavior, and by the middle of the 1970s, the definition comprised: banality, artifice, mediocrity and ostentation so extreme as to have perversely sophisticated appeal. American writer Susan Sontag's essay "Notes on 'Camp'" (1964) emphasized its key elements as: artifice, frivolity, naive middle-class pretentiousness, and 'shocking' excess. Camp as an aesthetic has been popular from the 1960s to the present. Camp aesthetics were popularised by filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar, Jack Smith and his film Flaming Creatures, and later John Waters, including the last's Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, and Polyester. Celebrities that are associated with camp personas include drag queens and performers such as Dame Edna Everage, Divine, RuPaul, Paul Lynde, and Liberace. Camp was a part of the anti-academic defense of popular culture in the 1960s and gained popularity in the 1980s with the widespread adoption of postmodern views on art and culture." (DBpedia, 2019)

"A drama, often written in verse and frequently with extensive stage directions, that is meant to be read in private rather than performed for an audience." (Oxford, 2015)

"A historical period drama (also known as a historical drama, period drama or period piece) is a work of art set in, or reminiscent of, an earlier time period. The term is usually used in the context of film and television. It is an informal crossover term that can apply to several genres but is most often heard in the context of historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swashbucklers. The implication is that the audience is attracted as much by the lavish costumes as by the content. In the performing arts, a period piece is a work set in a particular era. This informal term covers all countries, all periods and all genres. It may be as long and general as the medieval era or as limited as one decade—the Roaring Twenties, for example." (DBpedia, 2019)

"A composition in prose or verse presenting, in pantomime and dialogue, a narrative involving conflict between a character or characters and some external or internal force (see conflict). Playwrights usually design dramas for presentation on a stage in front of an audience. Aristotle called drama "imitated human action." Drama may have originated in religious ceremonies. Thespis of Attica (sixth century BCE) was the first recorded composer of a tragedy. Tragedies in their earliest stage were performed by a single actor who interacted with the chorus. The playwright Aeschylus added a second actor on the stage (deuteragonist) to allow additional conflict and dialogue. Sophocles and Euripides added a third (tritagonist). Medieval drama may have evolved independently from rites commemorating the birth and death of Christ. During the late medieval period and the early Renaissance, drama gradually altered to the form we know today. The mid-sixteenth century in England in particular was one of the greatest periods of world drama. In traditional Greek drama, as defined by Aristotle, a play was to consist of five acts and follow the three dramatic unities. In more recent drama (i.e., during the last two centuries), plays have frequently consisted of three acts, and playwrights have felt more comfortable disregarding the confines of Aristotelian rules involving verisimilitude. See also unities, comedy, tragedy, revenge play, miracle play, morality play, and mystery play. An individual work of drama is called a play." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

"Dramatic monologue, also known as a persona poem, is a type of poetry written in the form of a speech of an individual character." (DBpedia, 2017)

"Written texts of stage plays, screenplays, and radio or television broadcasts." (Getty, 2017)

"Guerrilla theatre, generally rendered "guerrilla theater" in the US, is a form of guerrilla communication originated in 1965 by the San Francisco Mime Troupe, who, in spirit of the Che Guevara writings from which the term guerrilla is taken, engaged in performances in public places committed to "revolutionary sociopolitical change." The group performances, aimed against the Vietnam war and capitalism, sometimes contained nudity, profanity and taboo subjects that were shocking to some members of the audiences of the time. Guerrilla (Spanish for "little war"), as applied to theatrical events, describes the act of spontaneous, surprise performances in unlikely public spaces to an unsuspecting audience. Typically these performances intend to draw attention to a political/social issue through satire, protest, and carnivalesque techniques. Many of these performances were a direct result of the radical social movements of the late 1960s through mid-1970s. Guerrilla Theater, also referred to as guerrilla performance, has been sometimes related to the agitprop theater of the 1930s, but it is differentiated from agitprop by the inclusion of Dada performance tactics." (DBpedia, 2019)

"Improvisation is the process of devising a solution to a requirement by making-do, despite absence of resources that might be expected to produce a solution. In a technical context, this can mean adapting a device for some use other than that which it was designed for, or building a device from unusual components in an ad-hoc fashion. Improvisation as a context of performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific preparation. The skills of improvisation can apply to many different faculties, across all artistic, scientific, physical, cognitive, academic, and non-academic disciplines. Musical improvisation is usually defined as the composition of music while simultaneously singing or playing an instrument. Improvisational comedy is a theatre art performed throughout the world and has had on-again, off-again status throughout history. Dance improvisation is frequently used as a choreographic tool. Choreography is also frequently used as a tool for improvisation. Improvisation was originally rarely used on dramatic television. A major exception was the situation comedy Mork & Mindy where star Robin Williams, famed for this kind of performing, was allotted specific sections in each episode where he was allowed to perform freely. Improvisation also exists outside the arts. Improvisation in engineering is to solve a problem with the tools and materials immediately at hand. Improvised weapons are often used by guerrillas, insurgents and criminals." (DBpedia, 2019)

"Originating in Britain in the 1950s, realistic drama centred on the domestic lives of working-class characters." (Oxford, 2015)

"Not to be confused with a masquerade, a masque is a type of elaborate court entertainment popular in the times of Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, and Charles I--i.e., the early 17th Century after Queen Elizabeth's death. The masque as a performance grew out of medieval plays, but it was more spectacle than drama proper. The content was suitable for amateur actors rather than professional performers. The masques tended to use long speeches and little action. They combined poetic drama, singing, dancing, music, and splendid costumes and settings. The imagery was influential on later poets and poems, such as Andrew Marvell, who makes use of masque-imagery in "Upon Appleton House." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

"A dramatic form characterized by excessive sentiment, exaggerated emotion, sensational and thrilling action, and an artificially happy ending. Melodramas originally referred to romantic plays featuring music, singing, and dancing, but by the eighteenth century they connoted simplified and coincidental plots, bathos, and happy endings. These melodramatic traits are present in Gothic novels, western stories, popular films, and television crime shows, to name but a few more recent examples." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

"In theatre, a monologue (from Greek μονόλογος from μόνος mónos, "alone, solitary" and λόγος lógos, "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their mental thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media (plays, films, etc.), as well as in non-dramatic media such as poetry. Monologues share much in common with several other literary devices including soliloquies, apostrophes, and aside. There are, however, distinctions between each of these devices." (DBpedia, 2017)

"Religious dramas or pageants, typically written anonymously, that were popular in medieval Europe. Mystery plays represent one or more scenes from the Bible, and were first performed in the 13th century, often using a wagon as a stage to allow a performance to take place in various locations, . Morality plays were first popularized in the 15th century, and are allegorical rather than directly representational works in which personified vices and virtues compete to win a human soul for eternity." (Oxford, 2015)

"Entertainments, frequently held in the open air, illustrating themes by means of spectacle rather than by consecutive narrative and dramatic characterization." (Getty, 2017)

"A speech or poem designed to praise another person or group. In ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric, it was one branch of public speaking, with established rules and conventions found in the works of Menander and Hermogenes. Famous examples include Pliny's eulogy on Emperor Trajan and Isocrates' oration on the Olympic games of 380." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

"Pantomime (informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production, designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is still performed there, generally during the Christmas and New Year season and, to a lesser extent, in other English-speaking countries. Modern pantomime includes songs, slapstick comedy and dancing, employs gender-crossing actors, and combines topical humour with a story loosely based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or folk tale. It is a participatory form of theatre, in which the audience is expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers." (DBpedia, 2017)

"Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theater, or audio theater) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story." (DBpedia, 2017)

"Revenge tragedy (less commonly referred to as revenge drama, revenge play, or tragedy of blood) defines a genre of plays made popular in early modern England. Ashley H. Thorndike formally established this genre in his seminal 1902 article "The Relations of Hamlet to Contemporary Revenge Plays," which characterizes revenge tragedy "as a tragedy whose leading motive is revenge and whose main action deals with the progress of this revenge, leading to the death of the murderers and often the death of the avenger himself." Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (c.1580s) is often considered the inaugural revenge tragedy on the early modern stage. However, more recent research extends early modern revenge tragedy to the 1560s with poet and classicist Jasper Heywood's translations of Seneca at Oxford University, including Troas (1559), Thyestes (1560), and Hercules Furens (1561). Additionally, Thomases Norton and Sackville's play Gorbuduc (1561) is considered an early revenge tragedy (almost twenty years prior to The Spanish Tragedy). Other well-known revenge tragedies include William Shakespeare's Hamlet (c.1599-1602) and Titus Andronicus (c.1588-1593) and Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy (c.1606)." (DBpedia, 2019)

"Short literary compositions on single subjects, often presenting the personal view of the author." (Getty, 2017)

"The Theatre of Cruelty (French: Théâtre de la Cruauté) is a form of theatre developed by avant-garde playwright, actor, essayist, and theorist, Antonin Artaud, in The Theatre and its Double. Originally a member of the surrealist movement, Artaud eventually began to develop his own theatrical theories. The Theatre of Cruelty can be seen as break with traditional Western theatre, and a means by which artists assault the senses of the audience, and allow them to feel the unexpressed emotions of the subconscious. While Artaud was only able to produce one play in his lifetime that reflected the tenets of the Theatre of Cruelty, the works of many theatre artists reflect his theories." (DBpedia, 2017)

"The Theatre of the Absurd (French: théâtre de l'absurde) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s, as well as one for the style of theatre which has evolved from their work. Their work focused largely on the idea of existentialism and expressed what happens when human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down, in fact alerting their audiences to pursue the opposite. Logical construction and argument gives way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence." (DBpedia, 2017)

"Literary works of serious and dignified character that reach disastrous or sorrowful conclusions." (Getty, 2017)

"Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can variously describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious play with a happy ending." (DBpedia, 2017)

"A section that appears towards the end of a book, does not form part of the main body, and often concludes or summarizes." (Oxford, 2015)

"Notes added as comment or explanation, such as those accompanying an entry in a bibliography, reading list, or catalogue intended to describe, explain, or evaluate the publication referred to." (Getty, 2017)

"An addendum, in general, is an addition required to be made to a document by its author subsequent to its printing or publication. It comes from the Latin verbal phrase addendum est, being the gerundive form of the verb addo, addere, addidi, additum, "to give to, add to", meaning "(that which) must be added". Addenda is from the plural form addenda sunt, "(those things) which must be added". (See also memorandum, agenda, corrigenda.)" (DBpedia, 2019)

"A short bit of text conventionally appearing before the start of a novel or poem in which the author or poet addresses some individual, invoking his or her gratitude or thanks to that individual. Frequently, the dedication is to a spouse, friend, loved one, child, mentor, or individual who inspired the work. Several of the Inklings dedicated specific fictional works to each other (or in the case of C.S. Lewis, to children of fellow Inklings). Among scholars, one of the most significant types of dedications is a festschrift. A festschrift is a collection of essays or studies in book form, dedicated to a former teacher or professor in his or her advanced age. The individual scholarly writings come from his or her students, who typically collaborate to organize the work and contact the publisher, and they present the collection to the teacher upon its publication." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

"A conclusion added to a literary work such as a novel, play, or long poem. It is the opposite of a prologue. Often, the epilogue refers to the moral of a fable. Sometimes, it is a speech made by one of the actors at the end of a play asking for the indulgence of the critics and the audience. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream contains one of the most famous epilogues. Contrast with prologue. Do not confuse the term with eclogue." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

A bundle or bound set of pages, usually a portion of a book that is published in parts or installments, but used more rarely to refer to unpublished bundles such as Emily Dickinson’s fascicles.

"The opening section of a text, often in the form of an essay, that usually provides an overview of the text's subject matter and explains the author's reason for writing." (Penguin, 1999)

A part of or supplement to a work that is structurally associated with the main body of a cultural work that "contains supplementary information about the body but is not necessariy colocated with it, such as a preface, annotation, afterword, footnote, or glossary."(Oxford, 2015)

"Texts preceding the main literary work and containing comments about such matters as the reason for or circumstances of the author's writing the work, or comments by another about the author or the work." (Getty, 2017)

"(1) In original Greek tragedy, the prologue was either the action or a set of introductory speeches before the first entry (parados) of the chorus. Here, a single actor's monologue or a dialogue between two actors would establish the play's background events. (2) In later literature, a prologue is a section of any introductory material before the first chapter or the main material of a prose work, or any such material before the first stanza of a poetic work." (L. K Wheeler, 2017)

"Literary genre taking the form of letters, usually of a literary, formal, or public nature. Examples are the epistles in the Biblical New Testament." (Getty, 2017)

"Novels written by using the device of a series of letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, or other documents." (Getty, 2017)

Moralised case-histories in the form of letters in which the dead strive to reclaim the living beloved by persuading them to repent and reform. Often include features of lively fiction: character-drawing, narrative, suspense, surprise, humour, and love-situations including transgression of all kinds.