Fiction genres in your languages?
-
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Oct 07, 2021 4:42 pm
- Languages: English (N), French (~B1)
- x 6
-
- Black Belt - 4th Dan
- Posts: 4978
- Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
- Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
- x 17678
Re: Fiction genres in your languages?
Welcome to the forum! And you start with such an interesting question right away. Thanks!
French: fantasy and scifi are thriving, fantasy a bit more than scifi these days, but both are strong. French offers perhaps the most complete offer from YA books up to rather demanding, original, and complex works, that would definitely shine even on a canon list. Crime novels are always popular and of good quality, thrillers too. BDs (comic books) are one of the fields, where French really shines and even creates genres. I don't think comedy novels or short stories are that strong, but that is just compared to my high expectations from a literature this size. You'll still find many good books. High literature and classics are of course numerous. Historical fiction is still quite rich, but I wouldn't say it is the most popular genre these days.
Spanish: much less fantasy and scifi, but there are still some very good authors, it's a growing trend. Magical realism is typical of Spanish, something between fantasy and high literature, depends on how do you want to look at it. High literature and classics are definitely there, crime novels, historical fiction, all that is very popular. BDs seem to be mostly translated, but there are also a few original authors worth noticing.
Italian: very little fantasy and scifi, most authors in these genres focus on YA, but there is some growth in the amount and quality of fantasy, and the Italians seem to finally draw from their tradition while letting their imagination roam in this direction. Curiously, I've noticed quite a lot of fantasy books in a store, that had been first published on an online platform, perhaps it's a new trend. Il Giallo (crime, thriller) is always thriving in the Italian bookstores, historical fiction has a sure place too. Classics and high literature lovers will be happy in an Italian library too.
German: much less fantasy, but still some good and internationally known authors, almost no scifi. Crime novels and thrillers are the most popular genres now, it seems. Historical fiction seems to be doing ok.
Czech: fantasy and scifi are thriving, so are crime novels (in the Czech literature, they are more "Agatha Christieish" than "thrillerish"), short stories, comedy, historical fiction. There are very few classical novels, and even the canonical literature is mostly not that great, with some exceptions. But there are still some authors, that will satisfy a demanding reader. Lovers of some of the lower genres may be just as happy with Czech as they could be with Italian or German imho. It really depends on your interests.
And I'd like to add one literary language that I know only in translation: Polish: lovers of fantasy, scifi, and BDs/comic books should definitely consider it!
French: fantasy and scifi are thriving, fantasy a bit more than scifi these days, but both are strong. French offers perhaps the most complete offer from YA books up to rather demanding, original, and complex works, that would definitely shine even on a canon list. Crime novels are always popular and of good quality, thrillers too. BDs (comic books) are one of the fields, where French really shines and even creates genres. I don't think comedy novels or short stories are that strong, but that is just compared to my high expectations from a literature this size. You'll still find many good books. High literature and classics are of course numerous. Historical fiction is still quite rich, but I wouldn't say it is the most popular genre these days.
Spanish: much less fantasy and scifi, but there are still some very good authors, it's a growing trend. Magical realism is typical of Spanish, something between fantasy and high literature, depends on how do you want to look at it. High literature and classics are definitely there, crime novels, historical fiction, all that is very popular. BDs seem to be mostly translated, but there are also a few original authors worth noticing.
Italian: very little fantasy and scifi, most authors in these genres focus on YA, but there is some growth in the amount and quality of fantasy, and the Italians seem to finally draw from their tradition while letting their imagination roam in this direction. Curiously, I've noticed quite a lot of fantasy books in a store, that had been first published on an online platform, perhaps it's a new trend. Il Giallo (crime, thriller) is always thriving in the Italian bookstores, historical fiction has a sure place too. Classics and high literature lovers will be happy in an Italian library too.
German: much less fantasy, but still some good and internationally known authors, almost no scifi. Crime novels and thrillers are the most popular genres now, it seems. Historical fiction seems to be doing ok.
Czech: fantasy and scifi are thriving, so are crime novels (in the Czech literature, they are more "Agatha Christieish" than "thrillerish"), short stories, comedy, historical fiction. There are very few classical novels, and even the canonical literature is mostly not that great, with some exceptions. But there are still some authors, that will satisfy a demanding reader. Lovers of some of the lower genres may be just as happy with Czech as they could be with Italian or German imho. It really depends on your interests.
And I'd like to add one literary language that I know only in translation: Polish: lovers of fantasy, scifi, and BDs/comic books should definitely consider it!
13 x
- Yunus39
- Orange Belt
- Posts: 187
- Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2021 8:44 am
- Languages: English (N)
Bangla (Advanced Low ACTFL 060723)
Spanish (dormant)
Ancient Greek
Wishlist:
Scots
Ancient Hebrew
Aramaic
German
Latin
Hindi - Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 20#p217017
- x 480
Re: Fiction genres in your languages?
Bangla has a rich literary history.
The most popular genres are romances (often featuring adultery or love triangles), mysteries, science fiction, and horror. Fantasy is less popular in literature as far as I can tell, but in film Hindu-based fantasy stories featuring reincarnation across time seem quite popular. I have yet to run across one in literature though. Horror stories based on Hindu black magic or Islamic themed demonic possession seem popular.
Who-dunnits are very popular though and Bengali has a couple of detectives that rival the popularity of Poirot or Holmes. Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda (Prodesh C. Mitter). The two most popular writers in Bangladesh, Humayun Ahmed and Muhammad Zafar Iqbal wrote a lot of science fiction, and I hope to dive into their novels soon.
The most popular genres are romances (often featuring adultery or love triangles), mysteries, science fiction, and horror. Fantasy is less popular in literature as far as I can tell, but in film Hindu-based fantasy stories featuring reincarnation across time seem quite popular. I have yet to run across one in literature though. Horror stories based on Hindu black magic or Islamic themed demonic possession seem popular.
Who-dunnits are very popular though and Bengali has a couple of detectives that rival the popularity of Poirot or Holmes. Byomkesh Bakshi and Feluda (Prodesh C. Mitter). The two most popular writers in Bangladesh, Humayun Ahmed and Muhammad Zafar Iqbal wrote a lot of science fiction, and I hope to dive into their novels soon.
10 x
Bangla Pages: 8453
Ancient Greek Pages: 2194
Scots Pages: 449
Ancient Greek Pages: 2194
Scots Pages: 449
- QueenBee
- White Belt
- Posts: 20
- Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2021 11:32 am
- Languages: English (N), Russian (N), French (advanced), Japanese (low N1 ?), Hebrew (~B2), Persian (just started)
Previously learned or dabbled in: Spanish, Thai, Palestinian Arabic - x 89
Re: Fiction genres in your languages?
Cavesa wrote:French: fantasy and scifi are thriving, fantasy a bit more than scifi these days, but both are strong. French offers perhaps the most complete offer from YA books up to rather demanding, original, and complex works, that would definitely shine even on a canon list. Crime novels are always popular and of good quality, thrillers too. BDs (comic books) are one of the fields, where French really shines and even creates genres. I don't think comedy novels or short stories are that strong, but that is just compared to my high expectations from a literature this size. You'll still find many good books. High literature and classics are of course numerous. Historical fiction is still quite rich, but I wouldn't say it is the most popular genre these days.
Recommendations for contemporary French fantasy?
Also, @jammon39, your posts on this forum (including your log) are making me sooo curious about Bangla!
0 x
Active 常用漢字 writing - umpteenth attempt:
-
- Black Belt - 1st Dan
- Posts: 1987
- Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
- Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
- Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
- x 4076
Re: Fiction genres in your languages?
There's a French youtuber you might like, "Les mots de l'imaginaire", she does lots of fantasy/scifi reviews, one of which was devoted to French authors Recommandations auteurs de l'Imaginaire français.QueenBee wrote:Recommendations for contemporary French fantasy?
I bought one of the books she mentioned, la trilogie des elfes which I thought was pretty good
8 x
-
- Black Belt - 4th Dan
- Posts: 4978
- Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
- Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
- x 17678
Re: Fiction genres in your languages?
QueenBee wrote:Recommendations for contemporary French fantasy?
These are great, I've loved their books:
Michel Robert, Pierre Pevel, Pierre Grimbert, Charlotte Bousquet, Fabien Clavel, Estelle Faye, Erik l'Homme, Alain Damasio, Maxime Chattame
And here are some I haven't read yet, but definitely plan to:
Nathalie Dau, Pierre Bordage, Jean-Phillipe Jaworski, Christelle Dabos
And there are many more to discover (I've surely forgotten to mention even some I've read). Some of these are for older kids (l'Homme), most are really for adults (Robert or Bousquet), some are more after historical fantasy (Grimbert or Pevel), some urban fantasy (Clavel), some high fantasy (Pevel), etc. Some are a bit between genres, sometimes also going a bit into scifi etc.
4 x
-
- Black Belt - 1st Dan
- Posts: 1987
- Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
- Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
- Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
- x 4076
Re: Fiction genres in your languages?
DaveAgain wrote:There's a French youtuber you might like, "Les mots de l'imaginaire", she does lots of fantasy/scifi reviews, one of which was devoted to French authors Recommandations auteurs de l'Imaginaire français.QueenBee wrote:Recommendations for contemporary French fantasy?
I bought one of the books she mentioned, la trilogie des elfes which I thought was pretty good
EDIT
There's a festival d'imaginales, which produces a collection of short fiction, published by Mnemos.
0 x
- Iversen
- Black Belt - 4th Dan
- Posts: 4782
- Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:36 pm
- Location: Denmark
- Languages: Monolingual travels in Danish, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and (part time) Esperanto
Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more... - Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
- x 15017
-
- Black Belt - 1st Dan
- Posts: 1987
- Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
- Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
- Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
- x 4076
Re: Fiction genres in your languages?
Are you offering a reward? A Louis d'or?Iversen wrote:I learnt a new word there -"imaginales"
0 x
- Iversen
- Black Belt - 4th Dan
- Posts: 4782
- Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:36 pm
- Location: Denmark
- Languages: Monolingual travels in Danish, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and (part time) Esperanto
Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more... - Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
- x 15017
Re: Fiction genres in your languages?
That would be an imaginary reward - and in the far future.
3 x
Return to “Practical Questions and Advice”
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests