THE LITERARY GENRES
Genres are the different types of literary text. There are three main literary genres:
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Narrative. It tells a story with a narrator. It is usually in prose.
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Poetry (or lyrical genre). It tells about the author's inner feelings or perceptions. It is often in verse.
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Drama. It is a genre in which characters speak their own words and usually there is no narrator. Modern drama is usually in prose, but many dramas in the past were written in verse.
NARRATIVE
A narrative is an account of a sequence of events, usually in chronological order.
Verbal tenses:
- The typical tense for a narrative is the
past simple (he got up). The parts that are descriptive are usually in the past continuous tense (the sun was shining).
- We can also tell a story in the
present simple (he gets up) when we want to make it more colloquial or closer to the reader. In that case, descriptions go in the present continuous: (the sun is shining).
Here are some concepts that are used when speaking about narrative:
Point-of-view is the angle from which a story is told; i.e., the type of narrator the author chooses to use.
• In first-person narration the narrator uses "I" to tell his or her story.
The
first-person narrator may be a major character in the story or simply an observer. In third- person narration narrators are not actually characters in the story.
Omniscient third-person narrators can reveal the thoughts of all their characters; they are "all-knowing." Until the twentieth century, most narrators were omniscient third-person narrators or sometimes first-person narrators.
In modern literature, other types of narrator have appeared:
• A
limited omniscient narrator only reveals the thoughts and feelings of one (or possibly a limited few) character(s).
• An
objective third-person narrator does not reveal anyone's thoughts and provides the sort of external, objective information that a camera (or an objective reporter) might record.
•
Reliable/unreliable narrator. The typical omniscient narrator in the third person is usually reliable; i.e., we can believe all the information it gives us. In modern literature, especially in first person narrators, some unreliable narrators appear. The reader must be clever enough to know what information it gives us that is probably not accurate or true.
Character. Character is a fictional representation of a person (or animal). Characters may be
described as either flat or round.
•
Round characters are usually main characters and are fully developed so that the reader can understand their personality and motivations.
•
Flat characters are usually minor characters who are barely developed or may be stereotypes.
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Major characters are the most important characters in a story.
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Minor characters play a secondary role in the action.
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Protagonist is the main character, the one that receives the most attention from the narrator.
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Antagonists. These are characters that place themselves against the protagonist's goals or well-being.
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Hero. A character with noble qualities that are intended to provoke the admiration of the reader.
•
Anti-hero. A character with flaws that are not typical of a hero, but is chosen as the protagonist of the story by the narrator.
• A
foil is a character who serves to contrast with another character. A hypocritical character, for example, may help emphasize the hero/heroine's honesty.
Plot. Plot is the way in which the narrative events are arranged.
Theme: the central or dominant idea of a work of fiction.
Setting: the historical, physical, geographical, and psychological location where a fictional work takes place.
Style: the way a writer selects and arranges words to express ideas.
Tone: the attitude of the speaker or author of a work toward the subject matter. (For example serious, humorous, ironic…)
NARRATIVE GENRES AND SUBGENRES
The two broadest divisions of genre are Fiction and Nonfiction.
Fiction: works of imaginative narration, especially in prose form. In modern times, a long narrative text is a
novel, a short narrative text is a
short story, and something in between is a
novella (too long to be a short story but too short to be a novel.)
Nonfiction (n): works that tell a real story or speak about facts of life.
Types of nonfiction:
Essay is a short literary composition that reflects the author’s outlook or point.
A
biography is a written account of another person’s life.
An
autobiography gives the history of a person’s life, written or told by that person.
Speech or discourse is an address to an audience about a topic.
