A literary genre categorizes literature based on aspects like technique, tone, content, or length, with distinctions that are flexible and evolve over time. The foundational concept originated with Aristotle in ancient Greece, who classified "species" such as epic, tragedy, and comedy in his treatises Rhetoric and Poetics, establishing early frameworks for literary analysis. Genres are often organized into complex sub-categories, demonstrating their intricate structure.

During the European Romantic movement (late 18th/early 19th centuries), strict genre constraints were challenged, with many believing each literary work could be a "genre unto itself," leading to the emergence of 'imaginative' genres for escapism. Later, in 1957, Canadian scholar Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism offered a comprehensive system for classifying genres like myth, comedy, and tragedy, based on factors such as the hero's relationship to nature and the intended audience. Ultimately, literary genres remain dynamic and culturally influenced, continually adapting and blending.