Stories

I recently watched the TV marathon of a highly popular program on PBS. During a phone call, I mentioned that I was watching it and the caller said, "Oh, that Soap Opera". I was a little taken aback at the description, but I agreed, yes, it is a soap opera, and we went on to talk of other things.

Later I got to thinking about soap operas and exactly what made them different from other stories. With a little research on the net, I found definitions of the following:

Story Types

Soap Opera

A drama, preformed as a serial on daytime TV or radio, characterized by dramatic displays of motion.

Saga

A long story or poem telling the sequence of events; an epic tale or legend.

Literature

Writings in which expression and form, creating a connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest are essential features in poetry, history, novels, biography and essays.

Greek Tragedies

A play in which the drama is based on human suffering, invoking an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences.

Famous storytellers

Shakespeare

Considered the greatest storyteller of all time.

Homer

Stories of war and adventure.

Dickens

Melodramatic satires, human behaviors, social criticism.

Chekov

Short fictions, plays with forms of storytelling.

Tagore

Infusing characters with life, explores bonds between humans.

Fairtales

Aesop's Fables

Anderson's Fairy Tales

Arabian Nights

Grim's Fairy Tales

Legend of King Arthur

Perrault's Fairy Tales
  (Sleeping Beauty, Tom Thumb, Puss in Boots)

Walt Disney
  (Mickey Mouse, stories for all ages)

Stephen King