Mode (literature)

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In literature, a mode is an employed method or approach, identifiable within a written work. As descriptive terms, 'form' and/or 'genre' are often used inaccurately instead of 'mode' (for example; the pastoral mode is often mistakenly referred to as a 'genre'). The term 'mode' refers more to the attitude or intention of a writer when producing a work, than to the categorisation of a finished product.

According to The Writers Web, A List of Important Literary Terms, the term 'mode' can be described in the following way:

"An unspecific critical term usually identifying a broad but identifiable literary method, mood, or manner that is not tied exclusively to a particular form or genre. [Some] examples are the satiric mode, the ironic, the comic, the pastoral, and the didactic." (CB)

To expand on the above definition; several genre's or forms may be covered in a written work that is nevertheless attributable to a single mode. For example, literature written in the comic mode may include elements of both the comedy and drama genre's.

[edit] References

• The Writers Web, A List of Important Literary Terms
• A Glossary of Literary Criticism