Following are some preliminary explorations into thinking about various literary genres.

Modern Experimental Novel

Focus: Perception: epistemological expressions of perception (explorations of how characters perceive; experiments in narrative techniques in expressing perception and consciousness)

• Martin Amis, Time's Arrow: Consequences to perception when life is expressed narratively in reverse
• William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury: Narrative expression of associative, non-linear perception
• James Joyce, Ulysses: Perception as an ideological matrix underlying human activity and response

Character: Individual response to perceptual field; generally psychologically complex

Setting: Dependent on perceptual field

Modern Literary Novel

Focus: Drama of the individual in conflict with self, other characters, society, environment

Character: Psychologically complex, at least for the focal character

Setting: Independent of character and generally consistent with world view of society in which the author lives; occasionally viewed in a psycho-reactive way–environment as expression of psychology of characters, c.f., Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown."

Fantasy

Focus: Ideological conflict between good and evil expressed in mythological terms, where good wins usually at a cost

Character: Generally archetypal, particularly in traditional fantasy (Tolkien)

• when psychologically complex, the character's psychology is consistent with the archetypal world view (T.H.White's The Once and Future King)
• except where the contrast between the character's ideology and the environmental world view are deliberately dissonant and a reflection of the larger ethical concern (Stephen Donaldson, Thomas Covenant novels)

Setting: Mythological world reflecting ideological ground; interactive with character, reflective of character

Science Fiction

Focus: Society constructed around empirical scientific principles/innovations or rationally defined otherworld

• Isaac Asimov, Foundation series: Society defined by psychohistory
• Roger Zelazny, Amber series: Modern world as an alternate world reflection of an archetypal otherworld
• Ray Bradbury, Martian Chronicles: Conflict/interaction between two exclusive ideological systems: one rational/empirical (Earth) and one intuitive/existential (Martian)

Character: Interactions/conflict with society and ideological base - may involve psychologically complex responses or may involve archetypal or contrived responses

Setting: Alternative space/time/ideologue or extrapolation of current space/time/idealogue; Generally independent of character, but may be reflective of/interactive with character where ideological concerns involve perceptual/epistemological issues

Horror

Focus: Individual overborne by evil, where efforts to resist are largely ineffectual

Character: Archetypal/Mythological or Psychological Thriller

Setting: Dark, foreboding or a world of light gradually overwhelmed by darkness