WORLD LITERATURE

Mr. Marco D. Meduranda

Review of Literary Genres

Literature, according to Wordsworth, is the expression of life in words of truth and beauty. It is written record of
man's spirit, his emotions, thoughts and aspirations. It is the history and only history of the human soul.

Literature has two main divisions: prose and poetry.

POETRY is a literary composition in verse form having a regular rhyme, rhythm and meter and divided into stanzas.
Prose on the other hand, is a literary composition in sentence form having no regular rhyme, rhythm nor meter and
divided into paragraphs.

Poetry is of three kinds namely: narrative poetry which tells a story; lyric poetry which expresses the ardent
personal feelings of the poet on a subject and dramatic poetry which is designed to be spoken and acted on
stage.

Narrative poetry is of three kinds: epic, ballad and metrical tale/romance.

 An epic is a long narrative poem elevated in style and dignified in tone telling of the adventures and
achievements of a hero important to the history of his race or nation.

The following are the national- epics of some countries:

England : Beowulf
France : Song of Roland
Germany : Siegfried
Greece : Iliad and Odyssey
Icelandic countries : The Volksunga Saga
India : Mahabharata and Ramayana
Italy : Aenied
Spain : El Cid
United States : Song of Hiawatha
of America

 A ballad is a simple narrative poem often meant for singing, characterized by simplicity of language and
usually dealing with basic subjects such as love, honor or death.

 A metrical tale/romance is a medieval tale in verse form dealing with heroic or marvelous achievements of
knights in shining armor and of fair ladies in distress.

Lyric poetry is of six types namely: ode, elegy, sonnet, song, idyll and simple lyric.
 An ode is a lyric poem about a subject written when the poet is at the height of his emotion
 An elegy is a poetic lament for the dead.
 A sonnet is a lyric poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines rhymed according to a traditional rhyme
scheme. Sonnets are of two kinds:

1. English or Shakespearean sonnet. The fourteen iambic pentameter lines are divided into 3
quatrains plus a concluding couplet with the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg
2. Italian or Petrachean sonnet. The fourteen iambic pentameter lines are divided into octave
rhyming abbaabba and sestet rhyming cdecde or cdccdc.

 A song is a lyric poem set to music,

 An idyll is a descriptive poem of rural or pastoral character which expresses the poet's feeling for his
immediate landscape. . '

Dramatic poetry is classified into poetic plays, which in turn are of five types namely: comedy, tragedy, dramatic
history, farce and melodrama, masque and dramatic monologue.

 A comedy is a dramatic play of light and humorous character, typically with a cheerful or happy ending.
 A tragedy is a dramatic play portraying the struggle of a strong-willed protagonist against fate, as
predestined by mysterious, divine, social or psychological forces culminating in disaster and usually death
caused by a flaw in the protagonist's character.
Five great Shakespearian tragedies are:
1. Hamlet - the tragedy of indecision
2. King Lear - the tragedy of parental love
3. Macbeth - the tragedy of ambition
4. Othello - the tragedy of conjugal love
5. Romeo and Juliet - the tragedy of young love

 A dramatic history is a dramatic play dealing with a past historical event.

 A farce is a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot.
  A melodrama is a dramatic composition characterized by extravagant theatricality and by the
predominance of plot and physical action over characterization.
 A masque is a short allegorical dramatic entertainment popular with courtly audiences in 16th century and
17th century England originally consisting of pantomime and dancing, but later characterized by elaborate
staging and costuming, the use of dance and song and very little dialogue.
 A dramatic monologue is a dramatic composition is verse form having one speaker only.

PROSE is divided into six; general types namely: essay, prose drama, prose fiction, biography and autobiography,
letters, diaries, journals and other prose forms.

 An essay is a prose composition which discusses a particular subject. It may deal with any subject and
maybe descriptive, expository argumentative, narrative or any combination of these; it may be humorous or
serious. An essay is usually unified by a central idea with all parts in the essay contributing to that idea.
 The prose drama has the same types as the poetic plays except that these are in prose form.
 Prose fiction is a prose composition in which character, setting or events are imaginatively created. Prose
fiction are of various types namely: prose allegory, prose romance, tale of adventure, or experience, novel,
novelette, short story, fable and parable, myth, legend, folk tale and fairy tale.
 Prose allegory is a narrative in prose form in which abstract ideas are personified,
 Prose romance a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place
and usually heroic, adventurous or mysterious.
 Tale of adventure or experience is a prose fiction dealing with something involving danger and unknown
risks or man's encounter with nature.
 Novel is a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length portraying characters, actions, and scenes
representative of real life in a more or less intricate plot.
 Novelette is a prose composition shorter than a novel, longer than a short story containing the elements of
plot, setting and character with its plot more complicated and the characters more in number than a short
story.
 Short Story is a prose narrative of about 10,000 words intended to be read in one sitting with plot, setting
and character contributing to achieve a unified or single effect.
 Fable is a prose narrative with animals or inanimate objects as characters and devised to teach a moral
lesson.
 Parable is a short prose narrative that teaches a spiritual truth or moral lesson. It differs from a fable as it
uses persons as characters. It has setting, characters and events.
 A myth is a prose narrative embodying the convictions of a people as to their gods and other divine
personages, their own origin and early history and the heroes connected with it or the origin of the world or
to explain a natural phenomenon.
 A legend is a prose narrative coming down from the past especially one regarded as historical although not
verifiable.
 A folk tale is a characteristically anonymous, timeless and placeless tale circulated orally among a people.
 A fairy tale is a narrative of' adventures involving fantastic forces and beings too good to be true and
almost always has a happy ending.
 A biography is an account of a person's life written by another.
 An autobiography is an account of a person's life written by himself.
 A letter is a direct or personally written or printed message addressed to a person or organization.
 A journal is a prose composition published periodically for an exclusive readership.
 A diary is a daily record of personal activities, reflections or feelings written by a person for posterity.

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