name that genre

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by thrash

Ah, I see. I was taking "social" to mean "inter-personal" rather than "pertaining to society as a whole." It seems to me that drama typically occurs between and among persons (or personifications), though I'll give you psychological drama as a counterexample; I agree that physical drama is better termed "action" or "action-adventure."

"Social drama" isn't bad as a descriptive phrase; both the genus and the epithet seem appropriate. But I was kind of hoping for a word or phrase that's already established in popular or critical usage, like "romance" or "dark fantasy" or "bildungroman" or "Menippean satire." Maybe there's a better one that I haven't thought of.

I agree with the point that was made about Bonanza being purely episodic. But I'm going to suggest that better examples could be The Godfather (I'm thinking of the novel primarily) or Upstairs, Downstairs or Courtship Rite or the Vorkosigan novels, especially from The Vor Game to A Civil Campaign (and looking backward to Shards of Honor and Barrayar). All of these have continuity, and all of them focus on a family. Perhaps the span of time isn't sufficient for "saga" to fit, but I'd think there would be some phrase . . .