Microgenre master list

  • A master post of extremely specific genres and texts which belong to these genres. 
  • This list shall hopefully be added to over time
  • This list primarily exists to reflect my own interests in media

Persona Swap - wherein a person, most often a woman, through a series of often traumatic events finds herself swapping places with another 




Celine and Julie Go Boating
Persona
An Aria For A Gaze
Mulholland Drive
Fight Club
The Girl Who Was Plugged In
(short story by James Tiptree Jr)
Danganronpa v3
The 25th Ward
Twin Peaks
Perfect Blue
Vertigo
The Double Life Of Veronique  

Semiotic Destruction of Psyche - wherein an individual or group of individuals have their notion of language and therefore reality reconstructed and reprogrammed, usually over a long period of time




My sweet Audrina
No Is Yes
(short story by Paul Jennings)
Dogtooth

Fictive Autonomy - wherein characters within a media product realise that they are characters within a media product, and seek their own autonomy, often against their own creator




The Long Kiss Goodnight
Danganronpa v3
Weekend
Horror Story (short story by Witney Strieber) 
(Italian Play)
Antkind
Being John Malkovich

Death Games - in which a disparate group of individuals are thrown in to a situation where they must solve a series of puzzles or challenges,or must die. Broadly there are two closely related subgenres; where characters must either kill or be killed, or must compete in some way to avoid death




The Hunger Games
The Tenth Victim
Punishment Park
Series Seven The Contenders
Battle Royale
Deadman Wonderland
The most dangerous game
Danganronpa
Zero Escape
13: Game Of Death
Would you rather
Squid Game


Person, following trauma, symbolically overcomes trauma in a fantastical setting




Arrival
The Descent
The Haunting
Midsomer
Annihilation
Close Encounters


High concept universes - worlds based around a single concept, an collective obsession, a unifying, bizarre metanarrative




Crash - car crashes
Closed Hospital (and most of the work of Shintaro Kago) - injuries
Kakeguri - gambling
Pokemon - battling animals
Kill La Kill - school




Kill 5 (or so) to win - where an individual, almost always the protagonist is tasked to kill or defeat a set amount of colourful characters in order to win. There may be a ranking system involved

Shurayukihime
Kill Bill
The Story Of Ricky
Branded To Kill
Pistol Opera
Scott Pilgrim Vs The World
No More Heroes
Crying Freeman