THE GENRES AND

THEIR ELEMENTS

Lyza D. Francia
SHS English Teacher
 A. LITERARINESS
Literary
--artistic written expression
as opposed to traditional
forms like myths, epics,
folktales, legends, ballads,
proverbs, fold drama which
had oral culture as their life
and basis.
 In the formalist view,
literariness is the apt use of
devices, techniques, and
figurative language in the
careful shaping of the
elements of a poem or story
to communicate a point or
insight.
The use of creative
techniques must not feel
forced or artificial; verbosity
or shallow, decorative
applications of figurative
language do not qualify as
literariness.
B. FICTION

Fiction is basically
prose narrative, its
distinctive feature
being the centrality of
ELEMENTS OF FICTION
PLOT
-- rarely the most
important element of a
good story. It tells what
happens and how it
happens in a story.
Special Techniques of Plot

1.Suspense

2.Foreshadowing

3.Flashback

4.Surprise ending
PARTS OF A PLOT

1. Exposition—setting the
scene
2. Inciting incident—
something happens to
begin the action
1. PARTS OF A PLOT

2. Rising action—the story

builds and gets more
exciting
3. Climax—the moment of
greatest tension in a story
PARTS OF A PLOT
5. Falling action—events
happen as a result of the
climax and we know that the
story will soon end
6. Resolution—the character
solves the main
problem/conflict or someone
solves it for him/her
7. Denouement—the ending.
ELEMENTS OF FICTION
SETTING—the physical and
social context in which the
action of a story occurs. The
major elements of setting are
the time, the place, and the
social environment that frames
the characters.
ELEMENTS OF FICTION
CHARACTER
Major character—an
important figure at the center
of the story’s action or
theme.
Minor characters—function
is partly to illuminate the
Static(unchanging)—they
remain the same from the
beginning of a work to the
end

Dynamic—exhibit some kind

of change as the story
progresses
ELEMENTS OF FICTION

CHARACTERIZATION
--a writer reveals what a
character is like and how
the character changes
throughout the story
Factors in Analyzing Characters
1. Physical appearance of the
characters
2. Personality
3. Motivation
4. Relationship
5. Conflict
6. Does the character change?
ELEMENTS OF FICTION

STYLE
--the way a writer chooses
words(diction), arranges
them in sentences and
longer units of
discourse(syntax) and
exploits their significance.
Style is the verbal identity of
a writer, as unmistakable as
his or her face or voice.
Reflecting their individuality,
writers’ styles convey their
unique ways of seeing the
world.
ELEMENTS OF FICTION
SYMBOL
--isa person, object, image,
word, or event that evokes a
range of additional meanings
beyond and usually more
abstract than its literal
significance.
ELEMENTS OF FICTION

THEME
--the central idea or
meaning of a story.
--heart of the story
--direct or implied
ELEMENTS OF FICTION
TONE
--the author’s implicit attitude
toward the reader, subject,
and/or people, places, and
events in a work as revealed
by the elements of the
author’s style.
Tone may be
characterized as
serious or ironic, sad or
happy, or any other
attitudes and feelings
that human beings
experience.
ELEMENTS OF FICTION

POINT OF VIEW

-- refers to who tells the

story and how it is
told.
Third Person Narrator (uses
pronouns he, she, or they):
1. Omniscient—the narrator
is all-knowing and takes the
reader inside the
characters’ thoughts,
feelings, and motives, as
well as shows what the
characters say and do.
2. Limited Omniscient—the
narrator takes the reader
inside one (or at most very
few characters) but neither
not the character(s) has
access to the inner lives of
any of the other characters
in the story.
3.Objective—the narrator
does not see into the mind of
any character, rather he or
she reports the action and
dialogue without telling the
reader directly what the
characters feel and think.
First Person Narrator (uses the
pronoun I)
The narrator presents the point
of view of only one character’s
consciousness, which limits the
narrative to what the first-
person narrator knows,
experiences, infers, or can find
out by talking to other
characters.
 MODES OF FICTION

Romance
--the ordinary laws of nature
are slightly suppressed (it’s
like looking at reality
through rose-tinted glass)
--the characters are
rendered superior to the
other and the
environment
--stories are told in
expressive, hyperbolic
language
MODES OF FICTION
Realism
--claims to be the
most transparent in
its imaginative
depiction of reality
--stories are told in sparse,
clinical, straightforward, rational,
plain, and prosaic language

--aims for verisimilitude, or the

empirical and objective depiction
of ordinary people living in the
everyday world.
C. CREATIVE NONFICTION
--a hybrid genre that
incorporates elements of
fiction and poetry in the
retelling of a personal
experience
-- Nobody can fully remember
the past, nobody can assess
--To some degree, then,
fictionalization of the past;
memories are constructions of past
events rather than objectively
retrieved data from the past.

--It inescapably involves re-

imagination and revaluation of the
past based on who we are at
present.
D. POETRY
--“prose bewitched” (Mina Roy)
--“life distilled” through words and
language (Gwendolyn Brooks)
--works via suggestion,
implication, and ambiguity
rather than via literal,
straightforward communication
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
I think I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;d
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
--poems are primarily relished as
words the building blocks of
this art—how their meticulous
selection, arrangement, and
calculated interplay deliver
ideas, feelings, perspectives,
shades, flavors, and layers of
meaning.
General Types
1. Lyric Poetry— This applies to any type
of poetry that expresses emotions and
feelings of the poet. They are usually
short, simple, and easy to understand.
2. Narrative poetry—deals with series of
events
3. Dramatic poetry—the speaker is an
imaginary character addressing
another imaginary character who
remains silent
Elements and Forms of Poetry
1. Theme—the main point or
the insight to be derived
from the poem
2. Speaker/persona—the
fictitious character whose
voice we hear in the poem
3. Dramatic situation—the
moment (in lyric poetry) or series
of events (in narrative poetry)
that the speaker speaks in the
poem.
4. Diction—the poem’s choice of
words, with each word
suggestive in terms of its
meaning, sound, and placement
5. Figurative language/ figure of
speech—comparisons or substitutions
that, for the sake of freshness,
emphasis, or surprise, depart form the
usual denotation of words. In other
words, non-literal use of language.

a. Simile—a stated
comparison(usually formed with “like”
or “as”) between two fundamentally
dissimilar things that have certain
Ex.

“Good coffee is like friendship;

rich and warm and strong.”

“You know life, life is rather like

opening a tin of sardines.
We’re all of us looking for the
key.”
b. Metaphor—an implied
comparison between two unlike
things that actually have something
important in common.

Love is a lie.
Life is going through time.
You are the light of my life.
c. Metonymy—one word or phrase
is substituted for another with which
it is closely associated to.
“between the cradle and grave”
“The pen is mightier than the
sword.”
“I stopped at a bar and had a
couple of double Scotches. They
didn’t do me any good. All they did
was make me think of Silver Wig,
d. Synecdoche—a part is used to
represent the whole (for ex. ABCs
for alphabet) or the whole to part
(England won the World Cup in
1966.)

General Motors announced

cutbacks.
e. Personification—human
qualities are given to inanimate
objects, animals, or abstract terms.

The flowers nodded.

Snowflakes danced.
Thunder grumbled.
Fog crept in.
The wind howled.
f. Apostrophe—the speaker addresses
someone who is absent, dead, does
not/cannot respond, or is not ordinarily
spoken to.
“O western wind, when wilt built thou
blow
That the small rain down can rain?”

“ Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone,

Without a dream in my heart, Without a
love on my own.”
g. Hyperbole—the use of
exaggerated terms for the purpose
of emphasis or heightened effect.
“I was helpless. I did not know what
in the world to do. I was quaking
from head to foot, and could have
hung my hat on my eyes, they stuck
out so far.”

“He snorted and hit me in the solar

h. Understatement—a writer or a
speaker deliberately makes a
situation seem less important or
serious than it is.

“The grave’s a fine and private

place, But none, I think, do there
embrace.”

“I am just going outside and may be

i.Oxymoron—combination of
contradictory words or ideas

“How is it possible to have a civil

war?”
“The best cure for insomnia is to get
a lot of sleep.”
“A yawn may be defined as a silent
yell.”
j. Paradox—a statement that
appears to contradict itself.

“The swiftest travel is he goes

afoot.”

“If you wish to preserve your secret,

wrap it up in frankness.”
k. Pun—a form of word play involving
two similar sounding words but with
different meanings.

“Ask for me tomorrow and you shall find

me a grave man.”

A vulture boards on a plane, carrying

two dead possums. The attendant looks
at him and says, “I’m sorry, sir, only one
carrion allowed per passenger.
6. Image--word/words that appeal
to any of the five senses to
convey a flash of understanding

Imagery—refers to a cluster of
sensory perceptions, all the
images in a poem taken or mean
something together rather than
separately.
7. Tone -- the manner of the poem,
could be the speaker’s attitude
toward a subject. Tone is usually
an effect of distraction and may be
affectionate, hostile, earnest,
playful, sarcastic, respectful,
serious, humorous, surprised,
angry, nostalgic, tender,
expectant, etc.
8. Irony– saying one thing
but meaning another.
a. Ironic point of view
b. Verbal irony
c. Situational irony
9. Sound– patterns of consonants and
vowels, that contribute greatly to the
poem’s effect.
a. Onomatopoeia—a word that imitates
the sound it denotes
e.g. “zoom”, “crash”, “bang”, “buzz”
b. Alliteration—the repetition of the
same consonant sound at the beginning
of or inside successive words.
e.g. “so smooth”, so silv’ry is thy voice
c. Assonance– the repetition of
the same vowel sound at the
beginning of the same sound or
inside successive words
e.g. Eager beaver
d. Rhyme—two or more words
contain the same combination
of vowel and consonant sounds.
10. Rhythm—the recurrence
of stresses and pauses in a
poem