genrefication

English

Etymology

From genre +‎ -fication. In the sense of softening boundaries, coined by Joshua Rothman in 2014.

Noun

genrefication (uncountable)

1. Shelving of library books or similar works based on genre. [since 2000s]
   • 2017, Genrefication 101‎^[1], page 20:

     Genrefication is pretty great. It allows users to find books they're interested in much more easily.

   • 2018 July 22, “How Genrefication Makes School Libraries More Like Bookstores”, in KQED:

     Under the Dewey Decimal System that revolutionized and standardized book shelving starting in 1876, nonfiction essentially already gets the genrefication treatment with, for example, Music located in the 780s and Paleontology in the 560s.

2. Softening of boundaries between literary fiction and genre fiction. [since 2014]
   • 2014 November 6, Joshua Rothman, “A Better Way To Think About the Genre Debate”, in The New Yorker:

     For reasons that aren’t fully explicable (Netflix? Tumblr? Kindles? Postmodernism?), it’s no longer taken for granted that important novels must be, in some sense, above, beyond, or “meta” about their genre. A process of genrefication is occurring.

   • 2016, Bernice M. Murphy, Key Concepts in Contemporary Popular Fiction:

     The so-called ‘genrefication’ or ‘genre debate’ relates to the relationship between popular fiction and literary fiction, and has been of particular significance in US literary circles in recent years.