“Turns out I was a single man, in his pants, sitting in his flat” : Finding a more fitting genre than Travel Writing for Danny Wallace’s Yes Man

Sammanfattning:

In  this  essay  I  look  at  the  issue of  literary genre  and  style  in  relation  to Danny Wallace’s Yes Man.  I argue that this book is not travel literature as it  has  thus  far  been  defined  but  that  it  in  fact  belongs  to  the  genre  of humour  due  to  the  evidence  that  proposes  it  is written  in  the  style  of  a parody.  I support this line of reasoning by firstly giving definitions of the terms  ‘genre’ and  ‘parody’ and by  then introducing a background  to  the subject of genre in relation to the novel.  This will consist of how genre is used in both sociological and commercial settings, as well as how readers use  genre  both  knowingly  and  unknowingly.    It  is  also  noted  whether writers consciously use genre as a foundation for their works or whether it emerges  during  the  writing  or  publishing  process.    I  then  use  this background  to  discuss  how  Yes  Man came  to  be  included  with  travel writing  and what  other  genres  it  could  possibly  belong  to.    This  paper concludes that all of these factors ultimately lead to the confirmation  that Yes Man belongs to the genre of humorous literature.