ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of major critical and theoretical approaches to the definition of genre within the saga literature. It also provides some ideas for future research that may contribute to a (re)definition of the notion of genre, one which can account for the historical development of genres within saga literature. The historical continuum is split up into a number of segments which provide both the basis and the subject matter for the writing of sagas. Much scholarly effort has been expended on discussing whether it is appropriate to categorize the surviving saga corpus using the taxonomy established by a number of studies during the twentieth century. The labels employed to describe the saga genres are largely a modern construct. The question of heterogeneity intrinsic in the delineation of a genre’s boundaries is also a central issue in saga scholarship and begets the question of how to define a set of core features which adopt a distinctive function.
