The classical definition of "mystery" is about the logic puzzle, though obviously other stuff is added to flavor the narrative.
I think you're partially onto something, but I don't think genres as currently defined match that idea of genres exactly.
Science Fiction and Fantasy are both theoretically all-encompassing in terms of emotional genre (you could write a science-fiction mystery, a science-fiction horror, etc etc) but in practice they tend to center around a few. Awe is one, yes.
A brighter future for a darker age.If you go by statements by the old master himself, the Cosmic Horror Story is rooted primarily in awe, of which terror is simply a logical outgrowth.
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.RE title: Redundancy Department of Redundancy, for the most part. It obviously won't work for genres which describe settings (sci-fi, fantasy, western, Regency, surrealist) rather than tones (humor, romance, drama, horror).
You could consider the defining emotion of Mystery to be Curiosity, which is not on this list, though by all accounts, I don't see why it shouldn't be.
edited 10th Nov '11 12:00:44 PM by CountSpatula
I draws things. And I seem to be some sort of marine entity.I think some of the best fiction is designed to evoke moral discomfort, presenting two options that both have bad outcomes, and encouraging the reader to decide which one's better and which one's worse, without ever outright stating which choice the author believes is right. I don't know of a better term than "moral discomfort" to describe the emotion in question, but I don't think it fits into any of the given categories.
edited 13th Nov '11 2:57:07 PM by feotakahari
That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

Traditional Indian aesthetics
recognizes eight types of drama, divided by their dominant emotions. These rasas are love, pity, anger, disgust, heroism, awe, terror, and humor.
Is such a system useful for understanding Western fiction too?
Is the mystery genre a problem for this scheme? Is the essential pleasure the logic puzzle (and thus no emotion at all), or fearful suspense?
Other issues?
“Love is the eternal law whereby the universe was created and is ruled.” — St. Bernard