UNIT ONE

THE CONCEPT OF LITERATURE

Learners at university level get Fundamentals of Literature for the first time. It would therefore
be appropriate to give an introduction that helps students to understand the concept of literature
at the initial stage of the course. Thus, this chapter will examine the notion of literature so as to
acquaint students with the general and specific meanings of literature.

What is Literature?
It should be made clear from the onset that there is no real consensus or one all-embracing
definition of the term literature. You should also know that some of the definitions of literature
given by scholars are largely according to their wealth of life experience within their locations.

There are a lot of definitions of literature. Some short explanation on it would be useful for you.
Very often it simply means anything that is written: time tables, dialogues, textbooks, travel
brochures and so on. If you are thinking of buying a bicycle or a motorcycle or a washing
machine, you will probably want to see the literature about it. If you are medical student, you
will have to read the literature about surgery. An advertisement for soap is as much literature as
Shakespeare’s plays or Dickens’s novels. So, we may conclude all written materials, like this
general grouping: historical books, magazines, newspapers, dictionaries, novels, catalogues,
plays, short stories, encyclopedias, etc. We can divide this large mass of material into two
different groups. The first one mainly presents information and the next mainly gives some
entertainment.
In English we use the word in at least two different ways: Informative literature and imaginative
literature. Informative literature tells us about facts, explanations, history, real ‘great’ life figure,
etc. It tells us the world, for instance, the life of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, Napoleon was
defeated at Waterloo, The story of Malcolm-X, etc. Its main purpose is to offer knowledge.
Hence, there is also imaginative literature that aims to arouse thoughts and feelings. Its author
expresses his ideas, his feelings, his attitude, he may talks of things; people, etc. He wants to
communicate feelings, not facts; emotion, not information only. Imaginative literature according
to many men of letters and writers has fuller and deeper sense than informative literature. Now
when we use the term of literature in this book, we will be talking about written material that
deals with thought and feelings in imaginative or ‘serious’ literature. This kind of literature we
will discuss, the one that appeals to the imagination rather than to the intellect; to

In the attempt to define the term ‘literature’, one can distinguish between two general directions: a broad
and a narrow definition. The broad definition incorporates everything that has been written down in some
form or another, i.e., all the written manifestations of a culture (hence, there are terms such as ‘research
literature’, ‘the literature on civil rights’, etc.). Needless to say that such a broad definition is problematic
as it does not really facilitate communication about the topic. Furthermore, this concept neglects
the fact that in many cultures in the past and for a number of indigenous peoples today, literature
has not been captured in written media but has been passed down in a long oral tradition of
storytelling, myths, ritual speeches, etc.
The General Meaning of Literature

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 It is therefore necessary for us to distinguish the literature we intend to discourse in this
material. The word literature is derived from the Latin word” littera”means letter of the alphabet
or alphabetic letters. The word alphabet denotes the letter used in writing language. This shows
that the derivation of the word literature implies writing.
Literature includes both written and spoken material. On a broader level, ‘Literature’ includes anything
from creative writing to more technical or scientific works.

Specific Meaning of Literature

i. Literature is imaginative

ii. Literature expresses thoughts and feelings

iii. Literature deals with life experiences

iv. Literature uses words in a powerful, effective and yet captivating manner

vi. Literature promotes recreation and revelation of hidden facts

Literature is thus summed up as permanent expressions in words(written or spoken), specially arranged in

pleasing accepted patterns or forms. Literature expresses thoughts, feelings, ideas or other special aspects
of human experiences or it refers works that present an imaginative creation of reality through an artistic
use of meaning.

Attempts to come up with a narrow definition have, however, led to such a diversity of
approaches that one can hardly talk about ‘the’ narrow definition. Nevertheless, it is possible to
sift out some of the criteria scholars have applied in order to demarcate ‘literary texts’ from ‘non-
literary texts’. These criteria include:
• Fictionality
• Specialized language
• Lack of pragmatic function
• Ambiguity
Fictionality
One characteristic feature of literary texts arguably is their fictionality. People usually agree that
literary texts, even if they attempt to represent reality in some form or another, are ultimately
products of a writer’s imagination and that at least the characters and their conversations are
fictitious. Thus, some of the characters in Sir Walter Scott’s historical novels, for example, are
pure inventions although they are situated in authentic historical contexts, and they have
fictitious conversations with historical figures who actually existed. On the other hand, texts that
are normally read as non-fiction, like reportage, often display features that remind one of
literature. Consider the following example:
SescaRompas climbed on to a plastic stool and peered through a dirty window at her
brother, Aldo Kansil, lying motionless in a bed below. He was a pitiful sight: two drips
attached, arms swathed in bandages, his face an angry mosaic of burns.
Taken out of its context, it is difficult to decide what type of text this is. If one looks at the way
this passage is written, one can easily imagine this to be the beginning of a novel.

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Specialized Language
It is often said that literary language is ‘special’ and that it differs considerably from normal
everyday language. The linguist Roman Jakobson spoke of the poetic function of literary texts
in his essay “Linguistics and Poetics: Closing Statement” (1960), i.e., the fact that literary texts
draw attention to the language they employ. As the Russian Formalists maintained in the early
twentieth century, literary texts make use of language in such a way that it becomes strange and
unfamiliar in a given context. They called this process defamiliarisation. The following
example from Charles Dickens’s novel Bleak House illustrates this process:
Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas, in a general infection of ill-temper, and
losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers
have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke), adding new
deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the
pavement, and accumulating at compound interest. (Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch. 1)

The way the bad November weather in London is described here has hardly anything to do with
the way people would normally talk about the weather. One thing is particularly conspicuous: the
blending of a description of natural phenomena (“mud”, bad weather) with the jargon of the
world of finance (“deposits”, “accumulating”, “compound interest”). By combining these two
areas, the words are taken out of their usual context and put into another one, which thus
becomes ‘new’ and ‘unfamiliar’ to the reader. We are attracted by this ‘strange’ linguistic
description and we start to wonder why such language is used here. One area where the
‘literariness’ of language seems to be particularly obvious is poetry. Poetry is often marked by a
conspicuous shape (lines, stanzas, etc.), a dense structure (thematically and linguistically), and
rhetorical devices.
Just around the corner, an anxious-looking couple was standing close together, clutching plastic
bags. At first sight, this looks like a ‘normal’ sentence. There is nothing conspicuous about the
words or the sentence structure. What happens if one pays attention to the rhythm of this
sentence and displays it accordingly?

Just around the corner,

An anxious-looking couple
Were standing close together,
Clutching plastic bags.

All of a sudden, one realizes that the sentence actually follows a regular metrical pattern, namely
a trimeter with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. Again, one can see that the line
between literary and non-literary language is a very fine one and that the decision whether a text
is literary or not largely depends on the way we look at the text and perceive its language. This
leads us to the next criterion often mentioned in discussions of literary texts, namely their lack of
a pragmatic function.
Lack of Pragmatic Function
Pragmatics is the study of language in use taking into account elements which are not covered by
grammar and semantics. We are in a world of (relatively) unstable meanings; the role of the

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reader is that of an interpreter, not a mere passive recipient. Undoubtedly, texts derive their meaning
partly from their context. I read a novel as a novel because it is presented in a certain way (bound, with a
title on the front page, sometimes the word ‘novel’ in the subtitle, and a plot summary as well as
commentary on the back cover). Moreover, I use the novel as a novel and not as a cookery book, a
newspaper or an encyclopedia of garden plants, for example. Why is that? One might argue that these
texts, in contrast to literary texts, have a definite pragmatic function, i.e., they are written and used for a
specific purpose, e.g., to assist with the cooking or gardening or, generally, to inform the reader. A piece
of literary writing, on the other hand, need not have been intended by the author for any specific purpose.
It sometimes seems as though literature was just written into time and space, to nobody in particular and
without any function.
Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to take that as a basic rule. Even literary texts do have a
purpose, e.g., to criticise, to educate or even just to entertain. The fact that authors like Salman
Rushdie, for example, are persecuted by political and religious groups shows that something
must be attributed to their writings which other people consider dangerous or at least influential
in some way or another. While non-literary texts may have a more clearly defined and generally
agreed-upon function, literary texts can have a range of purposes which again depend on the
reader. Thus, I can read a book simply to have a good laugh or, for that matter, a good cry, or I
draw analogies with my own life and try to gain consolation or advice from the text. The text as
such may not necessarily tell me how I have to use it but the reading practices I have been taught
in school, at university, etc. will certainly influence my approach to texts. In other words: Even if
we claim that a literary text has no immediate pragmatic function, we usually start to ascribe one
to it in our usage or treatment of that text. While non-literary texts seem to have an inherent
pragmatic function, i.e., they were ‘born’ to be a telephone book, a time-table, a women’s
magazine, etc., literary texts gain their more specific and possibly individual pragmatic function
in the reading process.

Ambiguity
People generally accept the view that literary texts are far more ambiguous and thus often more
complicated than non-literary texts. If one reads a recipe, for example, or a time-table or an
instruction manual, the meaning expressed in these texts is presumed to be more or less fixed and
not open to interpretation. In fact, these texts must not be open to interpretation because then
they just would not ‘work’. A time-table has to be precise in order for people to be able to rely
on it, and ten people using the same recipe for carrot cake should reach approximately the same
result by following the step-by-step instructions.
This is certainly not the case if these ten people read a novel, for example. As classroom
discussions show, different students can come up with rather different interpretations of what a
specific literary text ‘means’ or what it tries to convey. This is also reflected in the vast amount
of divergent critical interpretations of literary texts published over the years. So what is it that
makes literary texts so ambiguous? For one thing, there is obviously the ‘human factor’: When
we read a text we usually bring to bear on it certain expectations and interests, and inevitably
we start looking for exactly those things that seem relevant to us. Thus, for example, Christina
Rossetti’s long poem “Goblin Market” can be interpreted as a simple fairytale, as a hymn in
praise of sisterly devotion, as a poem restating the biblical concepts of sin and redemption, as
the indirect expression of repressed sexual fantasies, or indeed as a combination of all of these
facets at the same time. No matter which interpretation one favours, one can find evidence for
all of them in the text if one only searches through it thoroughly. This example illustrates that
literary texts must indeed have some quality which makes them more ‘open’ than non-literary

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 texts. One can say that literary texts always express meaning on different levels or in different
layers. In other words: They express something beyond their literal ‘meaning’, and these other
layers of meaning can be explored by attentive reading and analysis. It is a bit like archaeology:
the deeper one digs the more interesting one’s findings are likely to be.
At the same time, one needs suitable equipment for ‘digging out’ hidden meanings; that is where
literary studies become important and where the fun begins once one has mastered the tools at
hand.
The Qualities of literature
The first significant thing is the essentially artistic quality of all literature. All art is the
expression of life in forms of truth and beauty; or rather, it is the reflection of some truth and
beauty which are in the world, but which remain unnoticed until brought to our attention by
some sensitive human soul, just as the delicate curves of the shell reflect sounds and harmonies
too faint to be otherwise noticed. A hundred men may pass a hayfield and see only the sweaty
toil and the windrows of dried grass; but here is one who pauses by a Rumanian meadow, where
girls are making hay and singing as they work. He looks deeper, sees truth and beauty where we
see only dead grass, and he reflects what he sees in a little poem in which the hay tells its own
story:
Yesterday's flowers am I,
And I have drunk my last sweet draught of dew.
Young maidens came and sang me to my death;
The moon looks down and sees me in my shroud,
The shroud of my last dew.
Yesterday's flowers that are yet in me
Must needs make way for all to-morrow's flowers.
The maidens, too, that sang me to my death
Must even so make way for all the maids
That are to come.
And as my soul, so too their soul will be
Laden with fragrance of the days gone by.
The maidens that to-morrow come this way
Will not remember that I once did bloom,
For they will only see the new-born flowers.
Yet will my perfume-laden soul bring back,
As a sweet memory, to women's hearts
Their days of maidenhood.
And then they will be sorry that they came
To sing me to my death;
And all the butterflies will mourn for me.
I bear away with me
The sunshine's dear remembrance, and the low
Soft murmurs of the spring.
My breath is sweet as children's prattle is;
I drank in all the whole earth's fruitfulness,
To make of it the fragrance of my soul

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That shall outlive my death.

One who reads only that first exquisite line, "Yesterday's flowers am I," can never again see hay
without recalling the beauty that was hidden from his eyes until the poet found it. In the same
pleasing, surprising way, all artistic work must be a kind of revelation. Thus architecture is
probably the oldest of the arts; yet we still have many builders but few architects, that is, men
whose work in wood or stone suggests some hidden truth and beauty to the human senses. So in
literature, which is the art that expresses life in words that appeal to our own sense of the
beautiful, we have many writers but few artists. In the broadest sense, perhaps, literature means
simply the written records of the race, including all its history and sciences, as well as its poems
and novels; in the narrower sense literature is the artistic record of life, and most of our writing is
excluded from it, just as the mass of our buildings, mere shelters from storm and from cold, are
excluded from architecture. A history or a work of science may be and sometimes is literature,
but only as we forget the subject-matter and the presentation of facts in the simple beauty of its
expression.
The second quality of literature is its suggestiveness, its appeal to our emotions and imagination
rather than to our intellect. It is not so much what it says as what it awakens in us that constitutes
its charm. When Milton makes Satan say, "Myself am Hell," he does not state any fact, but rather
opens up in these three tremendous words a whole world of speculation and imagination. When
Faustus in the presence of Helen asks, "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?" he
does not state a fact or expect an answer. He opens a door through which our imagination enters
a new world, a world of music, love, beauty, heroism,--the whole splendid world of Greek
literature. Such magic is in words. When Shakespeare describes the young Biron as speaking, in
such apt and gracious words That aged ears play truant at his tales, he has unconsciously given
not only an excellent description of himself, but the measure of all literature, which makes us
play truant with the present world and run away to live awhile in the pleasant realm of fancy.

Another quality one may expect to find in good literature is originality. Of course no work of art can be
original through and through. To find an original subject for a novel, for example, would be an almost
impossible task, since writers have already dealt in one way or another with almost every
imaginable human story or situation; but the novelist may nevertheless see an old story or an old idea in
some quiet new light. None of Shakespeare’s plays was original in the sense that the stories and the
character were created, so to speak, out of nothing. Hamlet and Macbeth were real historical characters;
Othello was in all probability a character invented by an Italian novel writer; but the plays
Shakespeare made out of these figures were truly original in the sense that they showed old
characters and stories and situation s in a new and fascinating light.

Good literature should (to use Hamlet’s phrase) “hold the mirror up to nature”. It is reflecting
some thought or feeling which we immediately recognize as being ‘true to life’. It should be
‘life-enhancing’ or (as Matthew Arnold said of poetry) ‘ a criticism of life’.

Why Study Literature?

Aside from the pleasure of reading, of entering into a new world and having our imagination
quickened, the study of literature has one definite object, and that is to know men. Now man is
ever a dual creature; he has an outward and an inner nature; he is not only a doer of deeds, but a
dreamer of dreams; and to know him, the man of any age, we must search deeper than his

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history. History records his deeds, his outward acts largely; but every great act springs from an
ideal, and to understand this we must read his literature, where we find his ideals recorded.

When we read a history of the Anglo-Saxons, for instance, we learn that they were sea rovers, pirates,
explorers, great eaters and drinkers; and we know something of their hovels and habits, and the lands
which they harried and plundered. All that is interesting; but it does not tell us what most we want to
know about these old ancestors of ours,--not only what they did, but what they thought and felt; how they
looked on life and death; what they loved, what they feared, and what they reverenced in God and man.
Then we turn from history to the literature which they themselves produced, and instantly we become
acquainted. These hardy people were not simply fighters and freebooters; they were men like ourselves;
their emotions awaken instant response in the souls of their descendants. At the words of their gleemen
we thrill again to their wild love of freedom and the open sea; we grow tender at their love of home and
patriotic at their deathless loyalty to their chief, whom they chose for themselves and hoisted on their
shields in symbol of his leadership.
Once more we grow respectful in the presence of pure womanhood, or melancholy before the sorrows and
problems of life, or humbly confident, looking up to the God whom they dared to call the All father. All
these and many more intensely real emotions pass through our souls as we read the few shining fragments
of verses that the jealous ages have left us.
It is so with any age or people. To understand them we must read not simply their history, which records
their deeds, but their literature, which records the dreams that made their deeds possible. So Aristotle was
profoundly right when he said that "poetry is more serious and philosophical than history"; and Goethe,
when he explained literature as "the humanization of the whole world."
It is a curious and prevalent opinion that literature, like all art, is a mere play of imagination, pleasing
enough, like a new novel, but without any serious or practical importance. Nothing could be farther from
the truth. Literature preserves the ideals of a people; and ideals--love, faith, duty, friendship, freedom,
reverence--are the part of human life most worthy of preservation. The Greeks were a marvelous people;
yet of all their mighty works we cherish only a few ideals,--ideals of beauty in perishable stone, and
ideals of truth in imperishable prose and poetry. It was simply the ideals of the Greeks and Hebrews and
Romans, preserved in their literature, which made them what they were, and which determined their value
to future generations. Our democracy, the boast of all English-speaking nations, is a dream; not the
doubtful and sometimes disheartening spectacle presented in our legislative halls, but the lovely and
immortal ideal of a free and equal manhood, preserved as a most precious heritage in every great
literature from the Greeks to the Anglo-Saxons. All our arts, our sciences, even our inventions are
founded squarely upon ideals; for under every invention is still the dream of Beowulf, that man may
overcome the forces of nature; and the foundation of all our sciences and discoveries is the immortal
dream that men "shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

Literature is an imaginative art which expresses thoughts and feelings of the artist on events around him.
In most cases, it deals with life experiences. The author/artist uses words in a powerful, effective and
captivating manner to paint his picture of human experience. Literature is a form of recreation. The three
genres of literature are fiction, drama and poetry. You have seen that drama is a genre of literature. A
person who writes a novel is called a novelist, the person who writes a play is a playwright while the poet
writes poetry. All of us who read literature will find our knowledge of human affairs broadened and
deepened, whether in the individual, the social, the racial or the international sphere; we shall understand
the possibilities of human life, both for good and evil; we shall understand how we came to live at a
particular time and place, with all its pleasures and vexations and problems; and we shall perhaps be able
to make right rather than wrong choices. Literature can be in written or oral form. It could also be
presented in form of performance.
Generally we study Literature for the following reasons.
1. Literature always reflects human ideas, beliefs, and societies.

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2. Literature helps us to discover ordinary human ways of understanding life.
3. While reading literature, we explore significant differences and this allows us to even
experience perspectives of those separated from us by time and social barriers.
4. Getting to know the human psyche would help us discover pride in our own culture, gain
respect for others, and be humble.
5. We find different human responses and reactions in poems, essays, diaries, narratives, and in
the characters of narratives. Exposure to such varied responses helps us gain a greater knowledge
of the human psyche and at the same time, we are familiarized with a greater knowledge of
ourselves and our own responses because we surely compare our lives to those in literature.
6. We learn about the good and evil forces; experience the injustices prevalent in this world and
it cultivates a sense of wisdom in us. Good literature assists us in becoming a better person.
7. Literature provides us with a worldview of things and gives us a mature perspective of things.
8. Literature serves as an entertainment .It also introduces us to the literary figures, movements
and multi-dimensional characters.
Through literature, we learn more about, people, the physical, psychological, religious, political,
cultural and social issue in the world around us. It also inculcates values, imparts knowledge and
helps us in our intellectual and emotional growth as individuals. In fact, it helps us also to
understand human beings and their interpersonal relationships better.

UNIT TWO
FORMS OF LITERATURE
Forms are taken to mean the mode in which literature is expressed. Usually, it is in either the spoken
or written form. The spoken form predated the written one. The spoken form is common to many in
the Third World or developing countries of Africa that are not literate. This is the form of literature
that is called “orature”. It is orally rendered and transmitted from generation to generation. Examples
are the oral literature from your locality
2.1. Oral Literature
What is oral literature? In simple terms, oral literature is a spoken imaginative communication that is
not written but transmitted through the word of the mouth for entertainment and sometimes
edification of the audience. Oral literature therefore means literature that is not written but presented
orally, preserved and transmitted from one generation to the other in that form.
Oral literature reflects the people’s way of life. Those from riverine areas for instance base their
folklore on the sea/sea animals while a race of hunters dwell move on hunting, animals and the
forest. Thus we have different versions of the same basic story, in which the setting and characters
change according to the occupation and environment of the people. Generally oral literature is
realized in performance. The performer in oral tradition “formulates it in words on specific
occasions” (and) renders the performance to suit the occasion.
Alan Dundes’s 1965 in his essay Study of Folklore, a central text for folkloristics, described folk as
“any group of people whatsoever who share at least one common factor. It does not matter what the
linking factor is – it could be a common occupation, language, or religion – but what is important is
that a group formed for whatever reason will have some traditions which it calls its own” Since
Dundes argues that “folk” refers to any group, it would seem that the term “folk” does not contribute
significantly to the definition of “folklore” as a whole. The semantic weight of Dundes definition
must therefore rest upon the notion of “lore” Dundes attempts to define “lore” as an itemized list of
genres. Even though the list is lengthy, he considers it only a sampling of folklore forms: Myths,
legends, folktales, jokes proverbs, riddles, chants, charms, blessings, curses, oaths, insults retorts,
taunts, teases, toasts, tongue twisters and greeting and leave taking formulas such as see you later)
etc. (Refer to page 2 of the handout labeled “Concepts of folklore.”) Elliot Oring (1986) states that

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the term is employed in our everyday speech, its precise definition presents a problem. It is a
compound term made up of “folk” and “lore. “The word folk literature was first used by Thomas
John Thorns in his letter to Athenaeum (A notable London Club). He mentions about the two
important insights. First, “because of the simplicity of the lives of the folks and second they were
considered incapable of producing anything that may be considered "literature" in the same sense that
one would see the works of Shakespeare”. And according to Thomas, oral literature was considered
as a popular literature more than a literature. And it includes riddles, puns, tongue-twisters, proverbs,
recitations, chants, songs, and stories and also represents only the verbal aspect of folklore.

Richard Dorson (1959) “Materials that circulate traditionally among members of any group in
different versions, whether in oral form or by means of customary example” (1968) Robert Georges
(1983) defines folklore as the “Communicative processes (and) forms which evidence continuities
and consistencies in human thought and behavior through time and space. Oral literature is one of the
most vibrant aspects of cultural heritage. It is intricately related to the social environment of the
people who create and perform it. As the creative expression of a people’s culture, it manipulates
language to express their values, beliefs, traditions and entire worldview. All cultures are dynamic;
they all develop alongside the progress of history. A culture’s dynamism is sustained by man’s
ability to adapt his attitudes and practices to changing circumstances. Oral literature is a powerful
tool for facilitating this cultural dynamism. It is both a reservoir and a creative expression of cultural
values; hence, it is the vehicle for propelling the society along its moral path. It is an art based on the
cultural aesthetics of a people so that, besides giving a society a sense of direction, it responds to the
human need to appreciate beauty, and in this way contributes towards making the world a better
place to live in. As CiarunjiChesaina puts it:

The universe is a complex phenomenon and human beings need to understand it in order to build a
comfortable niche for themselves within it. Oral Literature attempts to explain the cosmos and man’s
existence in the universe. It helps people to understand the natural environment and their place
within this environment. By contributing to the creation of order on the physical, social and
psychological levels, the art helps human beings to develop a sense of belonging in their day-today
existence in and otherwise mysterious universe... Oral literature is to society what oars are to a boat.
It facilitates a society’s movement through the waters of historical progression. As a reservoir of a
people’s culture, oral literature gives society a sense of direction and self-confidence. (1997).

Orature occurs in various ways in African literatures. Unlike the western literature, African literature
contains the oral heritage of the African people. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, we have
various oral heritage of the Igbos in the novel. There is the form of drama which manifested in the
form of wrestling and the Egwugwu Masquerade group. We also see the belief in the existence of
changelings as revealed in Ezinma’s search for her iyiuwa. There are sessions where folktales are
narrated and various songs are rendered according to the required circumstance.
2.2. Characteristics of Oral Literature
2.2.1 It is Performance-Based
From what we have said above, it would be by now obvious that the primary distinctive feature of
orature is the fact that it is performance-based and depends absolutely on performance for its
existence. Its creation and transmission are so inextricably interwoven that its actual enactment or
delivery is the most significant aspect of its nature or form, as an aesthetic experience. It invariably
inheres theatricality. Since it is always accompanied by action, its true nature or artistic success rests
as much with its verbal content as with its overall presentation. This means that in addition to its

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structure and content, its ultimate quality depends on elements of performance such as dance, song,
mime, gestures etc. The verbal content is, thus, only one element.
In musical presentations generally, elements such as dance, musical accompaniment, voice quality,
tunefulness, Para lingual sounds, idiophones and calculated pauses, are part of the total make-up of
the oral art.
2.2.2 It is Performer-Based
The status of the composer or performer of orature significantly impacts the quality and very texture
of the composition. Audience reception of, response or reaction to the piece is invariably modulated
also by this. In traditions where orature is a learnt art that point is overt. Examples are Yoruba where
we have the ijala hunting poems and the If a mantic poetry; Senegal where the griot compose
specialist satires, panegyrics and epics; Ethiopia where Coptic dabteras produced intellectual and
ecclesiastical poetry; Sudan and East Africa where dynastic poets maintained the purity of state
orature, etc. Since the art or craft demanded that the composer or performer be an initiate enunciating
an oral tradition in which he is embedded, it was impossible, in such cases, that novices be tolerated.
A qene would only be performed by a Coptic dabtera. Similarly, only a griot would have the
journalistic license to severely and publicly criticize and go scot-free. Other semiprofessionals are the
onirara among the Yoruba and the maroka among the Hausa.
2.2.4 It Is Socially Determined
Especially in Africa, oral Literature is closely watched and criticized by experts and elders.
It is through its close fidelity to artistic propriety that it can be optimally socially functional. Most
oral literature is directed at a particular audience. This is why evidence of its dramatic immediacy
and social relevance usually abound in its style and content. It is usually functional, serving a specific
purpose in specific occasions. It is rarely presented or staged merely for its aesthetic appeal. It tends
to be tied up with some festival, some ceremony or some social activity or the other. It is rarely art
for art’s sake.
In Africa, because of this quality, oral literature tends to project communal or social values rather
than the enigmatic or iconoclastic eccentricism of contemporary written forms. They tend to be
affirmative of cultural values, featuring a high dose of positivism. Tragedy is rarely a subject for
extended preoccupation. It would be seen as morbid. Praises and jubilation are more common than
laments and criticism.
African oral literature makes use of African place-names, local imagery drawn from our flora and
fauna, transliterated culture-bound idioms/ expressions/ideas, etc.
2.2.5 It Is Ephemeral
Oral literature, especially when not preserved in written form, has a very short life. It is easily
forgotten. Closely related to this transience is the rather popular nature of the oral art. It has a
tendency to concentrate on the topical and contemporary rather than the historical or ancient.
2.2.3 It is Extemporaneous
Extemporaneity is one chief characteristic of orature. No two presentations are ever the same. It is
perpetually subject to modification. It is not unusual to have the tortoise drive a car in a tale rooted in
a pre-colonial or pristine world of spirits. Plot and theme are regularly moderated due to the need for
their adaptation to prevailing circumstances. Invariably also, elaboration would vary from artist to
artist, from temperament to temperament and from occasion to occasion.
2.2.6 It Is Simple
Although there are many complex and difficult oral forms, especially in forms with extensive
proverbialization and mantic poetry, oral literature’s general hallmark is simplicity. Even when
written, it bears evidence of its oral origin; the tone of speech and spoken diction. It makes use,
usually, of simple syntactic forms, overt rather than covert imagery and non-individualistic, privatist
and obscurantist allusions.

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2.3. Types of Oral Literature
Classification of Oral Literature Oral Literature, like the written form, is categorized under three
broad genres. The spoken form – prose The sung form – poetry The performance – drama
A. Prose The spoken form is further divided into such as
• Myths
• Fables
• Legends
• Folktales
• Anecdotes
• Riddles
• Proverbs and
• Tongue Twisters.
B. Poetry The sung form is realized in different forms of songs presented on different occasions like
works, births, wars, marriages, funerals and other ceremonies. These are presented in poetic forms.

They are further grouped into the following types of poetry

• Musical poetry
• Lyrics
• Dirges/Elegy
• Invocative poetry
• Didactic poetry
• Narrative poetry
• Praise Poetry
• Heroic Poetry
• Satirical Poetry
• War Poetry
• Ritual poetry
• Casual poetry
• Special Occasion poetry e.g. Births, Weddings…
Traditional Oral Narrative/Prose Forms)
Fable- A fable is a short narrative, in prose or verse that exemplifies an abstract moral thesis or
principle of human behavior. Non-human creatures or inanimate things are normally the characters.
The presentation of human beings as animals (beast fable) is the characteristic of the literary fable, in
which animals talk and act like the human types they represent.
The beast fable is a very ancient form that existed in Egypt, India, and Greece. The genre probably
arose in Greece, and the first collection of fables is ascribed to Aesop (6th c. B.C). In the seventeenth
century a Frenchman, Jean de la Fontaine, wrote a set of witty fables in verse which are the classics
of this literary kind. The American Joe Chandler Harris wrote many Uncle Remus stories that are
beast fables, told in southern African-American dialect, whose origins have been traced to folktales
in the oral literature of West Africa. In Russia the greatest of the fabulists was Ivan Krylov, who
translated a number of La Fontaine's fables and between 1810 and 1820 published nine books of
fables.

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Folktales-This is the most popular and important form of oral literature. Folktales are narrative
stories constructed from the imagination of people over time. They are as old as the culture of the
people. The tales may be about human beings or animal community or both in mutual interaction.
From the above description, you have seen that unlike myths and legends, they are not concerned
with history or set in primordial times. They are mainly fictitious and depict the cultural background
of the people.
Legend- Originally legends were the stories of lives of saints, which, in monastic life, might be read
in church or in the refectory and therefore belonged to hagiography. Today the term applied a story
or narrative which lies somewhere between myth and historical fact, and as a rule, is about a
Particular figure or person which set at specific time and place. Quite often the stories and motifs
which accrete to such figures had nothing to do which them in the first place. Legends originally oral
have been developed into literary masterpieces. Any popular folk heroes; revolutionaries, saints or
warriors are likely to have legends develop about them. Stories about these heroes often grow taller
and longer with time and which may eventually be written down or recited in song, verse and ballad
through which means the oral tradition is sustained. A legend differs from a myth by portraying a
human hero rather than one who is a god. Famous examples are the Flying Dutchm, King Arthur,
Robin, the descendant of Menelik II in Ethiopian case.
Myth-Myths are set in primordial times. It is presented as incidents or events that happened “in those
days”, so, it is difficult to situate myths in a particular period hence there is no date for the origin of
myths. It is assumed that they exist in each community.
A myth may be broadly defined as a narrative that through many retellings has become an accepted
tradition in a society. Experts usually define a myth as a story that has compelling drama and deals
with basic elements and assumptions of a culture. It is a system of hereditary stories of ancient origin
which were once believed to be true by a particular cultural group, and which served to explain why
the world is as it is and things happen as they do, to provide a rationale for social customs and
observances, and to establish the sanctions for the rules by which people conduct their lives. By these
definitions, the term mythology might include all traditional tales, features of sagas, legends, and
folktales. Myths explain, for example, how the world began; how humans and animals came into
being; how certain customs, gestures, or forms of human activity originated; and how the divine and
human worlds interact.
Tongue Twister -Tongue Twisters in whatever language fulfill very important roles in the rhetorical
education of the child. They help to promote fluency in speech. They do so by confronting the child
with patterns of speech error in the language. It is expected that through constant confrontation with
such patterns or errors in the language the child is expected to learn to overcome speech errors of this
kind. He therefore grows up groomed linguistically to overcome slips of tongue. This is in
recognition of the difficulties the slip of tongue can cause speech. In tongue twisters, a child is
expected to repeat a set words or phrases as fast as possible and as many times as possible.
Riddles -Riddle is also part of the rhetorical form of oral literature. Riddles are quizzes or enigmatic
questions or descriptions wrapped up in a figurative language. Riddles consist of a complete system
of verbal expression which encompasses the major rhetorical expression used in the language of a
particular people. In the traditional society, riddles involve two contestants either as individuals or
groups. The first group poses the question and the other to give the answer.
Proverbs- Proverbs deal with all aspects of life. They are used to emphasize the words of the wise
and are the stock in trade of old people, who use them to convey precise moral lessons, warnings and
advice since they make a greater impact on the mind than ordinary discourse. The judicious use of
proverbs is usually regarded as a sign of wit.
Musical Poetry

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This is poetry in form of chant performed to the accompaniment of music. This includes various
types of lyrical performances. The lyric is a short emotional poem in an expression of emotion which
is composed to follow a particular rhythm.
Lament: This is personal elegy because it expresses personal grief without reference to any
particular event. It could be about the tragic circumstances in the world at large or to other causes of
grief in the individual’s personal life. The poet generally renders his laments ladened with
philosophical statements. Laments are presented mostly when a person or group of people are
oppressed or on cases of injustice.
Dirge/Elegy: Is the type of elegy that is common at funeral/burial ceremonies and is usually musical.
It also contains philosophical statements about the inevitability of death, the grief and other effects of
death on the living.
Invocative Poetry -This poetry addresses a second person in an attitude of veneration or respect. The
addressee could be human, plants, animals or inanimate objects. This is one major category of
invocative poetry that is found mainly all over Africa in form of praise. It comprises a series of
praises or celebration of the achievement of the individual animal or objects.
Didactic -This form of poetry teaches moral, spiritual and philosophical lessons. It offers advice or
provides moral instruction on the moral codes of the society. It teaches mainly the young ones on
how to comport themselves and how to be responsible citizens of the society.
Narrative Poetry
This includes the epics, it is a species of heroic narrative poetry which celebrates the achievements of
a hero. Usually, the epic presents the emergence of an individual as a champion in the society against
the background of evil in the society. History is celebrated in another category of narrative poetry. In
this kind of narrative poetry, the major character is that community itself. Other characters are a
galaxy of personalities associated with the development of the community. This is called historical
narratives.
Ritual Poetry - This comprises of recitations and speech forms is verse that are spoken chanted or
recited in magical or religious contexts. They include all kinds of prayers, divination chants, oracle
chants, curses or malediction chants, and incantations by magicians.
Casual Poetry - These are poetry of incidental and non-serious type found in various situations in
social relationships. A good example is greetings to welcome the new moon, as is seen in Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Some of the casual poems are found in the hawker’s song used to sell
merchandise and many others.
Traditional Drama
Ritual
Ritual is an honest act which follows a particular pattern, is performed for a particular effect (result)
and in accordance with the tradition. In the early times, sometimes, the seasons did not come as
expected or calamity may strike in a community. In this event of an abnormality in the cosmos, men
felt that the gods were angry and that they had offended the gods, one way or the other. They then
devise means or ways of atoning for their sins and or appeasing the gods. Sometimes this
appeasement is conducted only once but at other times it becomes a regular form of ceremony for the
community. When it becomes a regular occurrence following a definite pattern to achieve a specific
result, it becomes ritual. So, ritual is a continuous practice of a group of people either to satisfy
custom or cause certain things to happen.
Masquerades- In most traditional African societies, masquerades are seen as gods or heroic
ancestors. They take different forms and there are many varieties depending on the region, the
purpose, the content and the pattern. They are usually masked figures of various kinds. A mask is a
covering or a disguise used to transform the identity of the individual or the wearer into that of
another character. So there is an element of impersonation. In traditional African societies, we can

13
identify different types of masks according to their functions based on the areas of the body covered.
(Thus we head pieces, face masks and body masks).

2.4. Functions of Oral Literature

Oral literature served many roles in a society; it was used for the purpose of entertainment,
education, and the preservation of culture and social customs. The primary role of a work of oral
literature differs according to its genre; historical accounts are to record history, religious texts are to
record the doctrines and rituals of a religion, and epics, legends, and mythologies to educate and
entertain the general public. Almost all oral literature is rich in cultural aspects. They reflect a
society's history, religious bases, and value system. Such works of oral literature, whether the
educative aspects are conveyed explicitly or implicitly, play the role of educating and socializing a
member of the society.
2.5. Written vs. Oral Literature
The written form of literature is that which has been reduced to writing. It is common among literate
cultures. It is no wonder therefore that when the British colonialists came to Africa, they did not
recognise our literature, which was mostly in the oral form. Essentially, what distinguishes oral
literature from written literature is the fact that whiles the latter is dependent on book and print; the
former relies solely on the spoken word for its creation, transmission and preservation. The assertion
is that oral literature is a communal product with no individual authorship and no standard forms.
Joseph-MarieAwouma (1970) confirms that being the product of the masses, oral literature very
often does not have an author but life is given to it by the very presence and personality of the
narrator, hence the consideration of oral literature as a creative and performing art. The very
attachment of the narrator or performer of oral literature is of great importance. In some narrative
forms, the narrator is even the greatest part of the narrative; things like the expressiveness of tone,
gesture, facial expression, dramatic use of time and rhythm, dignity or humor as well as the reaction
and cooperation of the audience all contribute to the buildup of the narrative. The reaction of the
audience depends on how vivid the narrator makes his subject and on the grasp he has on the
psychology of the people listening to him. In fact, one may rightly say that oral literature is contact
literature, living literature and closely knit to the lives of the people. It ceases to be when they cease
to be.
Oral literature is gregarious literature and only strives among people, created by the people,
transmitted by the people and for the people. It is, if we could say, democratic and liberal literature in
as much as it makes use only of the means of communication accessible to everyone and for the
immediate benefit of all. Essential to this form of literature therefore, is the spoken word which
necessitates the presence of the audience-a vast public or a group that recreates the events of the past
through the magic of the spoken word, and the presences of the precision of gestures. It is different
from written literature confined to pages and meant only for those who can read, void of gestures and
facial expressions. In order to liberate itself and live, written literature often makes use of the art of
oral literature especially dramatization.

We cannot overemphasize the value of oral literature especially when we consider the role it has
played and continues to play in education, in the development and preservation of tons upon tons of
knowledge and ethics of the African society and in the maintenance of a cultural identity that is
authentically African. No one today would look down on this form of literature, branding it as
primitive form of literature confined to non-literate or semiliterate societies. Africa owes much to it,
even if it is only for the reason that she has developed her own written literature form from it.

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The scope of oral literature is broad and includes all the narrative forms such as the fable, legend,
allegory, myth as well as riddles, proverbs and idioms. Included also is folksong which happens to be
our bone of contention in this study. The problem of delimiting the scope of oral literature lies in the
difficulty of establishing what ordinary speech is from what is literature. The two are found to be so
woven so much so that only through very careful examination can one make the difference.
UNIT- THRE

Genres of Literature

3.1 Fiction Vs Nonfiction?

3.1.1 What is Fiction?

The word fiction comes from the Latin word ‘fictio’ which means something imagined and invented. In
this context, fiction denotes a story created from the author’s imagination. Or it is the type of book or
story which is written about imaginary characters and events and not based on real people and facts. Can
you recall the fairy tale or other stories that your mother or grandmother used to tell you about animals,
monsters, or even human beings that existed in faraway countries or in the primordial times. These are
fictional narratives

“Fiction” is defined as any imaginative re-creation of life in prose narrative form. All fiction is falsehood
of sorts because it relates events that never actually happened to people (characters) that never existed, at
least not in the manner portrayed in the stories. However, fiction writers aim at creating “legitimate
untruths,” since they seek to demonstrate meaningful insights into the human condition. Therefore, fiction
is “untrue” in the absolute sense, but true in the universal sense. Hence, in the general sense the word
fiction refers to any literature created from the author’s imagination rather than from fact. The telling of
stories is perhaps the oldest of all arts. Therefore, in this sense, the word fiction includes narrative poetry,
drama, fables, and myths. In the specific sense the word fiction is commonly used to refer to the short
story, the novella, and the novel.

3.1.2 Nonfiction is writing that is about real events and facts, rather than stories which have been
invented. Or written works intended to give facts, or true accounts of real things and events.Nonfiction
encompasseshistory, biography, politics, science, and many other areas. People often choose to read
nonfiction because they want to learn more about a particular subject. Even if you’re interested in
something obscure, someone has probably written a book about it. Naturally, most people don’t read only
fiction or nonfiction. They read both. Yet they may read different types of books for different reasons.
Whether you want to study or just relax, a book can help you do it. None fiction, like fiction, has
characters, setting and plot. However, in nonfiction these elements are real. In short, fiction depicts
imaginative representation of reality whereas nonfiction presents information, data or facts

Nonfiction

Type or Form Author’s

Traits Purpose
1. Autobiography Written about a person’s life or one main event
or Biography to inform
Information organized by topic Topics organized inform
2. Encyclopedia alphabetically. The entries are short

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 Used for research
3. Essay Can be based on research or personal experience to entertain
Can be read in one sitting to persuade to inform
Written in paragraph form, usually five or more to persuade
4. Feature Story Focuses on one topic or main idea to inform
Has a plot to entertain
5. Interview Recorded word for word to inform To entertain
Can be read in one sitting to inform
May be written in bullet format or like a drama

6.Newspaper Articles Short to inform to inform

Can be read in one sitting to persuade
Focuses on one topic or main idea

7. Textbook Information organized by topic to inform

Used for reference
Organized chronologically (by time) or by topic

Modes of fiction

Realism: realism is a matter of perception. Given the reality, the realistic writer is expected to have a
good command of observation, with the habit of interpreting even the slightest detail in life that go
unnoticed by the average man. In realism the total content of fiction is geared towards reflecting the fact
of the society in which it is based. As an agent of truth the realistic writer maintains the culture, the
dialect, the norms, the general belief and common sense of the society in his/ her fiction. Consequently,
realism is by and large about life as it is experienced by real people. With this intent, the realistic writer
starts his/ her job. In other words “the realistic writer seeks always to give the reader a sense of the way
things are.” In so doing, the writer achieves some degree of objectivity in his/her fiction. However, the
objectivity in realism is clothed by the subjectivity of impressions from the writer’s part. The content and
material of a realistic fiction is more of life-like, hence objective. The writer’s attitude and impressions
about the life-like material is his/her own, hence subjective. Therefore, even if the realistic writer is to
play in the domain of objective reality, there is still a room to include subjective impressions about this
reality.

Romance: If realism is a sense of perception, romance is a matter of vision. Both perception and vision
seem to entail the act of seeing. But vision is about seeing using the eye in the mind. If you look at a wall
in a class room it is perception (observation), if we look beyond the wall in the same room, it is vision.
Therefore, if romance is a matter of vision, it is a little beyond reality. Going a little beyond the reality is
act of imagination. The romantic writers do not give us their impressions about real life but the ideas
about real life. They depend more on imagination than observation. Their imaginations carry them not to
ugliness they observe in the reality, but to the beauty they create in their imaginations. For instance, if
crime and arrogance are prevalent in the youngsters of a given society, it creates dissatisfaction in the
romantic writers. Then they will go beyond this reality and make-up a story in which there are good
natured and disciplined young characters in their fiction. In other words, romantic writers create beauty in
their fictions when they don’t find it in reality. In this manner, they go a little beyond reality. The idea of
going beyond reality in romance clearly shows distortion of reality. This means that in romance the reality
is deliberately altered, shaped, and modified. Therefore, in romance, unlike in reality, there is a

16
presentation of the way things should be or ought to be. to achieve the goal (the way things should be),
romantic writers usually give us a polished, decorated and beautified form of reality.

3.1.3 Prose
Prose is the most typical form of language and it is derived from the Latin word prosawhich literally
means 'straight-forward.' It is like talking to someone in a straight- forward manner and not in a sing-
song or poetic way. This means that anything you say or write in prose is presented in a straight-
forward manner. For instance, this course material is presented in prose.
3.1.3.1 Prose Fiction
We have learnt the meaning of the words “prose” and “fiction” as separate words. Now let us try to
merge the two words to get the meaning in our present context, that is, as a genre of literature. What
then is prose fiction? It is fictional work that is presented in a narrative form. Fiction and narrative
are words that distinguish prose fiction from any other form of narrative or fictional work. For
instance, drama is fiction but it is presented in dialogue and not narrative. Prose fiction as a literary
genre is made up of the short story, the novella and the novel. Prose fiction tells a story and the fact
that the story is not factual distinguishes it from history.
Among the genres of literature, prose-fiction is the one that most resembles our conventional,
everyday kind of story telling activity. A writer of prose-fiction basically narrates a story in a
continuous form as any teller of folktales, or any narrator of an exciting event or episode would.
3.1.1.1 Types of Fiction

Fiction can be divided into two major types. These are short fiction and long fiction
The Novel
Definition: The Oxford Twentieth Century Dictionary defines the novel as a fictional prose narrative
or tale presenting the picture of real life, especially the emotional crises in the life history of the men
and women portrayed. In Dictionary of Literary Terms , the novel is defined as “a fictitious prose
narrative of considerable length, portraying characters, actions, or scenes representative of real life in
a plot of more or less intricacy” (Harmsworth 78). It is a long narrative in literary prose that has its
historical roots both in the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella.
The present generic term “novel” is coined from the Italian word novella which means “a compact
prose tale of somewhat longer length than the short story” (Kayode-Iyasere 113). In many European
countries, the novel is known as roman which means new or a link to the early romance.

The medium of communication for the novel and other types of prose fiction is print and
paper which accelerated the evolution and spread of this literary genre.

Origin: The term novel refers back to the production of short stories that remained part of a
European oral culture of storytelling in form of fairy tales, jokes, little funny stories designed to
make a point in a conversation; the exemplum a priest would insert in a sermon belong to this
tradition. These stories were later collected, written and circulated in a wide range of products from
practical compilations of examples designed for the use of clerics to such poetic cycles like
Boccaccio’s Decameron orThe Canterbury Talesas we saw in the last unit. The origin of the novel is
usually traced to these early writings. Also, the European tradition of the novel as the genre of
extended prose fiction is rooted in the tradition of medieval "romances".

Interestingly, the novel is the newest among the literary forms, coming into life after poetry and
drama had become established literary genres. Though there have been arguments that the novel

17
existed in several forms in the English, Italian, Greek and Roman literary traditions before the
eighteenth century, critics have cited Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1919) as the world’s first
novel. The novel has grown from those humble beginnings characterized by uncertainty to become
the world’s most popular literary form today. The essential distinguishing factor between the novel,
the novella and the short story has to do with length/volume. The novel is basically longer than the
novella, while the short story is the shortest of the three.
The Novella
Novella is simply a term used for a miniature or short novel. It shares all the characteristics of the
novel and can fall into any of the categories of the novel. However it is not as popular as the novel
and sometimes, readers cannot differentiate between a novel and a novella. It is a written fictional
prose narrative longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy
Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction defines the novella as having a word count of
between 17,500 and 40,000. Other definitions start as low as 10,000 words and run as high as 70,000
words (Wikipedia).
The novella is regarded as one of the richest and most rewarding of literary forms because “.it allows
for more extended development of theme and character than does the short story, without making the
elaborate structural demands of the full-length” book – the novel. It therefore provides an intense and
detailed exploration of its subject by providing to some degree both the concentrated focus of the
short story and the broad scope of the novel.

Structure: A novella has generally fewer conflicts than novels, yet more complicated ones than short
stories. The conflicts also have more time to develop and their endings are usually located at the
brink of change. Sometimes, they are not divided into chapters but in such cases, white space is often
used to demarcate the sections (Barnet 312). Novellas are often intended to be read at a single sitting,
just like the short story since they maintain a single effect.
In most cases, there are no subplots or multiple points of view. Most often it is concerned with
personal and emotional development rather than with the larger social sphere. The novella “generally
retains something of the unity of impression that is a hallmark of the short story, but it also contains
more highly developed characterization and more luxuriant description” (Obstfeld 40). The Germans
were the most active writers of the Novelle(in their language) and for them it is a fictional narrative
of indeterminate length—a few pages to hundreds—restricted to a single, suspenseful event,
situation, or conflict leading to an unexpected turning point, provoking a logical, but surprising end.

Origin: The English word “novella”is derived from the Italian word “novella”, feminine of
“novello” which means new. For the Germans it is “Novelle” ; plural: “Novellen”. (Wikipedia) The
novella is a common literary genre in several European languages and the idea of the novellas dates
back to the 10th century prose narrative, Arabian Night but as a literary genre its origin is traced to the
early renaissance literary work like Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron. In the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries the novella was fashioned into a literary genre structured by precepts and
rules (McKeon 24).

Examples: English language novellas include George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Ernest Hemingway’s
The Old Man and The Sea, Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of
Darkness. However, opinions are divided on the classification of these works as novella instead of
novel.

The Short Story

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The short story is a genre of prose fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format.
This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or
books. A short story is defined based on the length but this differs somewhat even among
professional writers. Since the short story format includes a wide range of genres and styles, the
actual length is determined by the individual author's preference. Another major determinant of the
length of a short story is the submission guidelines that are relevant to the story's actual market.
Guidelines vary greatly among publishers. Many short story writers define their work through a
combination of creative, personal expression and artistic integrity. Consequently, definitions of the
short story based upon length splinter evenmore when the writing process is taken into consideration.
Short stories are usually used for literary competitions so the organizers often stipulate guidelines for
submission.
A classic definition of a short story is that one should be able to read it in one sitting, a point most
notably made in Edgar Allan Poe's essay, “The Philosophy of Composition” (1846). In contemporary
usage, the term short story most often refers to a work of prose fiction that is not longer than 20,000
words and not shorter than 1,000.
Origin: Short stories have their roots in oral story-telling traditions and the prose anecdote, a swiftly
sketched situation that quickly comes to its point. The art of story-telling is doubtlessly older than the
record of civilization. Perhaps the oldest and most direct ancestor of the short story is the anecdote
and illustrative story, straight to the point. The ancient parable and fable, starkly brief narrative used
to enforce some moral or spiritual truth, are reflected in many contemporary short stories.

Short story in written form dates back to oral story-telling traditions which originally produced epics
such as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Oral narratives were often told in the form of rhyming or
rhythmic verse, often including recurring sections or, in the case of Homer, Homeric epithets. Such
stylistic devices aided recall, rendition and adaptation of the story. Short sections of verse might
focus on individual narratives that could be told at one sitting. Another school of thought traces the
origin to fables invented in the 6th century BC by a Greek slave named Aesop. These ancient fables
are today known as Aesop Fables. The other ancient form of short story was the anecdote and they
functioned as a sort of parable, a brief realistic narrative that embodies a lesson.

Characteristics: Short stories tend to be less complex than novels. Usually a short story focuses on
one incident, has a single plot, a single setting, a small number of characters, and covers a short
period of time. A typical pattern in a short story could be presented with exposition, complication,
climax and resolution as in longer forms of fiction. However, some short stories may not follow this
pattern while some do not follow any patterns at all. A typical pattern in a short story could be
presented with exposition, complication, climax and resolution as in longer forms of fiction.
However, some short stories may not follow this pattern while some do not follow any patterns at all.
(in medias res). As with longer stories, plots of short stories also have a climax, crisis, or turning
point. However, the endings of many short stories are abrupt and open. As with any art form, the
exact characteristics of a short story vary by its creator.

3.1.3.2 Poetry
Poetry is another genre or type of literature. It is written in verse, that is, it is usually in lines
known as verse. The use of verse is hence different from the biblical sense of chapter and verse.
It simply refers to poems written in rhythmic patterns and lines.
Here are a few hints:
 Poetry requires creativity
 Poetry requires emotion

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  Poetry requires an artistic quality
 Poetry requires logic
Consider the following poem:
WE HAVE COME HOME
We have come home
From the bloodless wars
with sunken hearts -
Our boots full of pride
From the true massacre of the soul
When we have asked
"What does it cost?
To be loved and left alone"
The illustrative poem above depicts versification. It was not written in prose or continuous form,
but line by line. This is one of the reasons it is a poem and not a play (drama) or prose (novel).
Thus poems are written in specialised language. The words are not usually used in the ordinary
sense of a word. They have surface and deeper meaning. For example: sunken hearts (shows lack
of joy), bloodless wars (conflicts that are not bloody), boots (not used in the same sense of boots
but means our hearts or that we walk with pride).
3.1.3.2.1Types of Poems
There are different types of poems. Sometimes a poet decides to write a particular type of poem
but at other times, the poem is written without consideration to the type. As you read through
this, it will help you to appreciate and classify poems. It will also help you to choose your style
when you are writing your own poem. However, some modern poets write in styles that are
difficult to classify.
1. Lyric Poetry
Lyric means in Greek a song that is sang with the accompaniment of a lyre. Lyric is the
commonest form of poetry. It is usually short and musical. Lyrical poems record emotions and
are not narrated. Most nursery rhymes are lyrical. It is the kind of poetry that Plato approves of.
In lyric, the poet’s emotions or feelings on some issues or objects are expressed in an exciting
and vivid manner to achieve the musical effect that characterizes this type of poem. The
rhythmic and harmonious pattern in lyric are achieved by the use of repetitive patterns like
alliteration, assonance, rhythm and musical rhyme schemes. Lyrics convey personal experiences
so are “intensively personal for they express individual’s emotions, moods and thoughts
(Maxwell – Mahon 4). Originally, lyrics were sung with musical accompanied.
2. Narrative Poetry
A narrative poem tells a story presented either in verses stanzas or in a long continuous verse.
Although it tells a long story, the poet is usually cautious so that it does not translate into the
stringing together of connected or unconnected incidents. A poem that is narrative invariably
tells a story. A good narrative poem presents incidents or episodes that are relevant to the central
idea or theme. Thus, “theme and action must form a unified structure that will not become
overburdened with the addition of unnecessary incidents or that will disintegrate with the
subtraction of any vital ones” (Maxwell-Mahon 47). The story told in a narrative poem could be
a serious or unserious story. Ballad and epic are examples of narrative poems.
a. Ballad
Ballad is the oldest form of poetry. It tells a simple story but is presented in verse form.
Originally, they were composed as songs with refrains for the audience to sing. In a strict sense,
ballads are written in a series of four-line stanzas in which alternate end-line words rhyme. In

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Ballads, certain words or phrases are repeated throughout the poem. This helps to heighten the
musicality of the poem. The language is usually simple, straight forward and easy to understand.
Some scholars refer to ballad as folk songs that are meant to be danced to.
b. Epic
Epic is a long great narrative poem. It tells the story of marvelous deeds of one or more
characters, mainly, from myth, legend or history. It is usually about the adventures or exploits of
a hero. It thrives on vivid description of incidents, events and actions. The subject matter in epic
is always rendered in a serious manner. Epics are great poems and are planned carefully by the
poet to achieve the desired effect. The hero in epic encounters severe obstacles but in the end,
like in melodrama, is able to overcome all the obstacles. He emerges triumphant but after a
turbulent struggle.
3.Sonnet
3.1 Italian Sonnet:Most Italian sonnets have two distinct sections. The first eight lines, called the
octave, generally follows the rhyme scheme: abbaabba. The second is formed by the last six lines, the
sestet, usually has more flexibility in rhyme schemes, though the most common ones are: cdcdcd; cddcdc;
cdecde; cdeced; or cdcedc. Very rarely does the Italian sonnet end in a couplet (as do English sonnets):
ee. The second half of the Italian sonnet indicates a turn in the sonnet – a change of subject, an expression
of enlightenment, etc. We call this a volta. The octave often forms a question or presents a problem that
the poet is seeking greater insight to. The volta is his attempt to answer. This turn is what gives the sonnet
formit’s more philosophical bent.
3.2English Sonnet:Unlike the Italian sonnet, the English sonnet breaks into 3 quatrains and an ending
couplet. The rhyme scheme is: ababcdcdefef gg. This rhyme scheme is more suited to the English
language where it is harder to find enough words to rhyme is following the abbaabba scheme of the
Italian sonnet. Each quatrain expresses a thought, oftentimes building in intensity to the couplet. Other
times, the quatrains are parallel – using different metaphors to express the poet’s concern. Like the Italian
sonnet, the English sonnet usually poses a problem or question. The volta in the English sonnet can be at
line 9, as in the Italian sonnet, or it can come atthe couplet.
ITALIAN SONNET ENGLISH SONNET

A A

B B Quatrain =1

B A

A B

A Octave C

B D Quatrain=2

B C

A D

__________ volta or turn

C E

D F Quatrain=3

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E E

C sestet F

D ________ Volta, or turn

E G

One of the most enduring poems in American history is a Petrarchan sonnet. In 1903, this poem was
engraved on a plaque and placed on the lower level of the Statue of Liberty, where it can still be found
today. This poem is 'The New Colossus' by Emma Lazarus. Let's take a look at it:

Emma Lazarus. Let's take a look at it:

'Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, (a)

With conquering limbs astride from land to land; (b)
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand (b)
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame (a)
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name (a)
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand (b)
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command (b)
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. (a)
'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she (c)
With silent lips. 'Give me your tired, your poor, (d)
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, (c)
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. (d)
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, (c)
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!' (d)

In order to determine whether a poem is a Petrarchan sonnet, we have to look for two signs. The first sign
is that the poem has 14 lines. The next sign is the nature of the poem's rhyme scheme. It's easiest to look
for the 'abbaabba' than for the rhyme scheme in the sestet. Chances are, if a poem has 14 lines and an
octave that follows an 'abbaabba' rhyme scheme, you've encountered a Petrarchan sonnet. 'The New
Colossus' certainly fits the bill! Does 'The New Colossus' contain a volta? Absolutely! The first eight lines
offer a vivid image of the Statue of Liberty, and the last six lines give us a new perspective by allowing
the Statue to speak.

“Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?a

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:b
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,a
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:b
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,c
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,d

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And every fair from fair sometime declines,c
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: d
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,e
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,f
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,e
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,f
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,g
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.g

What Makes a Poem?

Poetry is not just about language and ideas. It is an emotional exercise so it involves an
experience. In this experience the poet explores a subject that crystallizes in a theme. In this
experience, the poet expresses his feeling about that idea (theme) through the creative
manipulation of words in a language he chooses. When this experience and expression are fused
creatively he produces a very good poem. If however there is no blend of the experience and
expression, the poem will not be coherent and consequently the audience/reader will not get the
desired or the right message. In such situations the poet fails to communicate.
Form and Structure of Poetry
a. Line Arrangement and Capital Letters
One feature that marks poetry out is the arrangement in lines and in a regular manner. Another
one is the beginning of each line with a capital letter. These features are forms and structure
peculiar to poetry.
b. Stanza
The stanza is a group of lines in a repeated pattern, forming part of a poem. A stanza may consist
of two, three, four or sometimes more than twelve lines.
It will interest you to know that special names have been given to some of these stanzas. These
are set out in the table below:

Stanza Names
Number of Lines Special Name

Two Distich or couplet

Three Tercet
Three lines that rhyme Triplet
Four Quatrain
Five Quintain
Six sestet
Seven Rhyme royal
Eight OttavaRima

There are, however, no special names for stanzas of nine lines and above. You should know that
there are poems with irregular stanzas. These are poems without uniform stanzas. Some stanzas
may be of four or five lines, while others may be ten or more.

c. Rhythm
Rhythm is usually associated with music – song, dance, drumming and other forms. Rhythm is
also associated with motion, architecture or mathematics. In all these, repetition is constant,

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though, with certain forms of development and variation. It appeals to the senses. Words are
given prominence by the rhythm. Poetry is musical because of the rhythmic pattern in which it is
presented. Rhythm is also produced through stressed or unstressed syllables that are patterned in
metre. The best way to describe metre ismeasure. It is the measurement of words in a poem.

Metre as stated above is the measurement of words and it is based on the stress on syllables of
the words in a line. In simple terms, a syllable is that minimum utterance that can be produced
with one breath or pause. In poetry accent is the stress that is placed on certain syllables in a line
of poetry. A line of poetry contains a number of accented (stressed) and unaccented syllables
arranged in a particular order or pattern. This orderor pattern is called metre.
There are different types of metre in poetry. Each metre is categorized based on the number of
feet in a line of poetry. A foot is used to describe a group of syllables that form a metrical unit
between two or three syllables.
d. Rhyme
Poets produce musical effects in the poem through rhythmic patterns. Apart from the production
of rhythm in poetry through alliteration and assonance, another important aspect of rhythm is
rhyme. Rhyme is the repetition of the same sound usually at the end of each line. Assonance and
alliteration could be located anywhere within the line but rhyme is the repetitive pattern or sound
found at the end of two or more lines.
The sequence in which the rhymes occur in a poem is called rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme
is indicated by the use of alphabets at the end of the line. Some of the popular rhyme schemes are
aabb, abab, abcb, abba. There are many rhyming patterns that are not indicated here.
You should just learn that sound repetitions at the end of the lines are matched to form the rhyme
scheme. Let us use a simple nursery rhyme to illustrate this:
Twinkle twinkle little star, a
How I wonder what you are, a
Up above the world so high, b
Like a diamond in the sky. b
In this short poem, ‘stars’ and ‘are’ have similar sounds while ‘high’ and‘sky’ share the same
sound. Here is another simple illustration:
• Rhyme is the repetition of the same stressed vowel sound and any succeeding sounds in
two or more words.
• Internal rhyme occurs within a line of poetry.
• End rhyme occurs at the end of lines.
• Rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes that may be designated by assigning a
different letter of the alphabet to each new rhyme

Sound Devices
Alliteration
Alliteration is another poetic device used in poetry. It is the use of a series of words with the
same initial letter. It is a patterned repetition of identical consonantal sounds at the beginning of
words. Let's give some examples:
Peter Piper picked a piece of pickled pepper
Six words in this line start with "p".
Let's take another example from Alexander Pope:
The book full blockheaded
Ignorantly read

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With loads of learned lumbar in his head.
Can you analyse the alliteration in this poem?
"b" is repeated in the first line and "1" is repeated in the second one.
IMPORTANCE OF ALLITERATION
Alliteration is used for:
i. Musical quality
ii. Adding beauty to the poem
iii. Conveying strong emotions
iv. Making the poem interesting, peculiar,
harmonious and enjoyable

Assonance
This is another way the poet gains sound effect in his poem. The difference between assonance and
alliteration is that in assonance, unlike alliteration, the repetition of sounds involves vowels and not
consonants. The other difference is the lack of rigidity in the rule regarding the position in which the
identical vowel sounds should occur in words. Study the following words;
Twinkle/milky
bought/down
rays/flames
hold/road
What do you notice in all these words. There is a repetition of vowel sounds, mostly at the middle of the
words. These are partial internal rhyming schemes.
 gain musical quality
 for poetic sound effect
 make poems interesting
 gain harmony in poems

Read the following poem, and try to analyze it.

By Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down today

Nothing gold can stay.

3.1.3Drama
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What is Drama?
Drama as a literary genre is realized in performance, which is why Robert Di Yanni (quoted in
Dukore) describes it as “staged art” (867). As a literary form, it is designed for the theatre
because characters are assigned roles and they act out their roles as the action is enacted on stage.
These characters can be human beings, dead or spiritual beings, animals, or abstract qualities.
Drama is an adaptation, recreation and reflection of reality on stage. Generally, the word,
dramatist is used for any artist who is involved in any dramatic composition either in writing or
in performance.
Drama is different from other genres of literature. It has unique characteristics that have come
about in response to its peculiar nature. Really, it is difficult to separate drama from performance
because during the stage performance of a play, drama brings life experiences realistically to the
audience. It is the most concrete of all genres of literature. When you are reading a novel, you
read a story as told by the novelist. The poem’s message in most cases is not direct because it is
presented in a compact form or in a condensed language. The playwright does not tell the story
instead you get the story as the characters interact and live out their experiences on stage. In
drama, the characters/actors talk to themselves and react to issues according to the impulse of the
moment. Drama is therefore presented in dialogue.
Drama is an imitation of life. Drama is different from other forms of literature because of its
unique characteristics. It is read, but basically, it is composed to be performed, so the ultimate
aim of dramatic composition is for it to be presented on stage before an audience. This implies
that it a medium of communication. It has a message to communicate to the audience. It uses
actors to convey this message. This brings us to the issue of mimesis or imitation. We say that
drama is mimetic which means that it imitates life. You may have heard people say that drama
mirrors life. Yes, it is the only branch of literature which tries to imitate life and presents it
realistically to the people. It is this mimetic impulse of drama that makes it appeal to people.
Drama thrives on action.
Aristotle defines drama simply as an imitation of an action. He links it to the mimetic impulse in
human beings like children playing father and mother in a childhood play. This means that
imitation is part of life. Human beings have the desire to imitate others, situations or events.
Origin of Drama

Scholars are divided on the origin of drama. Some trace the origin to Greece but others insist that
drama in its definitive form or pattern evolved from Egypt which is regarded as one of the
cradles of civilization in the world. The latter group argues that it was borrowed by western
merchants who developed and documented it, and who nowtrace the origin to Greece. However,
the account of tracing the origin of drama to Greece is more plausible. The evolution is clearer
and well-documented.
Apparently, Greek drama evolved from religious festivals (ritual) that were celebrated to ensure
the fertility of the land and the well-being of its people. These festivals were connected with the
worship of the god Dionysius, a native god who like the vegetation dies and was reborn each
year. The festival involved singing and dancing by a chorus of fifty men. The choral song,
known as Dithyramb, was sang in honour of the god. The men danced around the altar of
Dionysius in a circular dancing place called orchestra. Sometimes a story about the god was
improvised by the leader of the chorus, though remaining part of the chorus. Sometimes he
dresses like a character from mythology. At this stage, individual actors were not involved in the
performances.

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The dramatist, Thepsis, is believed to have been the first person to introduce the individual actor and the
element of impersonation in the 6th century B.C. During a particular performance, he stood out from the
chorus and instead of singing in the honour of the god, he sang as the god. He performed between the
dances of the chorus and he conversed at times with the leader of the chorus. Thus drama was literally
born. Thepsis, therefore appeared as the first actor, and when he broke away from the chorus, he added
the dramatic potential of impersonation. It is impersonation, because, instead of describing the god,
Dionysius, or his actions, he pretended to be the god. Thus the performance changed from poetry
performance to drama.
Meaning of Dramatic Genre
Etymologically, the term genre is taken from the French language and it means type, kind, or
form. In simple terms dramatic genre means type or kind of dramatic composition. Drama is
grouped into distinct types, kinds or categories because there are qualities that are common to all
dramatic compositions. There are also qualities that make each composition unique. It is these
similarities and differences that determine each genre. The dramatic genres include tragedy,
comedy, tragi-comedy, melodrama, drame, mime, etc.
a. Tragedy
We are familiar with the words 'tragedy' and tragic as they are associated with misfortune.
Usually, they are used to describe personal misfortunes that do not concern the rest of the
society. For example, the breakdown of a marriage or death of a dear one in an accident or even
natural causes could be described as tragic. Also, some public events that are unpleasant like the
assassination of a head of state or a political leader, natural or human disasters like earthquakes,
flood disasters, plane crashes and other such disasters are referred to as tragedies. In this unit we
are not concerned with these tragedies or tragic' events in our daily lives but as they relate to
dramatic compositions.
Tragedy in drama is believed to have originated from the Greek worship of Dionysius, the god of
wine and fertility. During the festival, the dithyramb, a choral lyric in honour of the god is sang
and danced around the altar by fifty men dressed in goat-skin (goat was the sacred animal of the
god). This is perhaps from where tragedy got its name because in Greek, “tragoedia” meant goat
song. During this song, a story about the god was improvised by the choral leader but later
Thepsis stood out and instead of singing in honour of Dionysius, sang as Dionysius. However,
the song continued but a minimal part of it was acted by one actor.

Tragedy is the most esteemed of all the dramatic genres. It has attracted many definitions and
rules, from the days of Aristotle, who is the first person to write on the circumstances of and
what tragedy should be, to the present day. According to him in his “Poetics”:
Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude; in
language embellished with each kind of artistic ornaments, the several kinds being found in
separate parts of the play; in the form of action not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting
a proper purgation of these emotions.

In drama, tragedy is a serious play that deals with the misfortunes of man. It presents a man
(tragic hero) who is not too virtuous or too vicious but one who aspires for higher ideals. He tries
to improve himself and the world around him. In the course of this, he makes a mistake, or
commits an error of judgment. This leads to his fall. Traditionally, in classical tragedies, the hero
must be of noble birth, suffer and is overwhelmed in the end. Tragedy presents injustice, evil,
pain, misfortunes, paradoxes and mysterious aspects of human existence.
b. Comedy

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We use the words 'comedy' and comic to describe something that is funny in our everyday lives.
These include a joke, or a fantastic story that is full of nonsense, or an absurd appearance that
makes us giggle, smile or laugh. Comedy is not inherent in things or people but the way
things/people are perceived. Comedy is a deliberate presentation of events/experiences drawn
from real life but not the same with real life. We should therefore not expect dramatic comedy to
be the same as real life.
Generally, the plays have good endings or resolutions, so when a play ends happily, we refer to it
as comedy. In most comedies, the principal characters begin in a state of opposition either to one
another or to their world or both. By the end of the play, their opposition is replaced by harmony.
Aristotle in his “Poetics” insisted that in tragedy men are shown “better than they are”, while in
comedy “worse than they are”. For him it is an artistic imitation of men of inferior moral bent,
not in every way but only in so far as their shortcomings are ludicrous. These short comings
cause no pain.
(1) Romantic comedy was developed by Elizabethan dramatists on the model of contemporary
prose romances such as Thomas Lodge's Rosalynde(1590), the source of Shakespeare's As You
Like It (1599). Such comedy represents a love affair that involves a beautiful and engaging
heroine (sometimes disguised as a man); the course of this love does not run smooth, yet
overcomes all difficulties to end in a happy union (refer to E. C.

2) Satiric comedy ridicules political policies or philosophical doctrines, or else attacks

deviations from the social order by making ridiculous the violators of its standards of morals or
manners. (See satire.) The early master of satiric comedy was the Greek Aristophanes, c. 450-c.
385 B.C., whose plays mocked political, philosophical, and literary matters of his age.
Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben Jonson, wrote satiric or (as it is sometimes called) "corrective
comedy." In his Volponeand The Alchemist, for example, the greed and ingenuity of one or more
intelligent but rascally swindlers, and the equal greed but stupid gullibility of their victims, are
made grotesquely or repulsively ludicrous rather than lightly amusing.
3)Farce
Farce which is referred to as comedy of situation, is a humorous play on a trivial theme usually
one that is familiar to the audience. The themes that are treated in farce include mistaken
identity, elaborate misunderstanding, switched costume (men in women’s clothes) heroes forced
under tables, misheard instructions, discoveries, disappearances and many such situations.
Farce is not considered an intellectual drama because it does not appeal to the mind. It deals with
physical situations and does not explore any serious idea. It presents physical activities that grow
out of situations like the presence of something when something is not expected or the absence
of something when something is expected.
A distinction is often made between high and low comedy. High comedy, as described by
George Meredith in the classic essay The Idea of Comedy (1877), evokes "intellectual
laughter"—thoughtful laughter from spectators who remain emotionally detached from the
action—at the spectacle of folly, pretentiousness, and incongruity in human behavior. Meredith
finds its highest form within the comedy of manners, in the combats of wit (sometimes identified
now as the "love duels") between such intelligent, highly verbal, and well matched lovers as
Benedick and Beatrice in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing (1598-99) and Mirabell and
Millamant in Congreve's The Way of the World (1700). Low comedy, at the other extreme, has
little or no intellectual appeal, but undertakes to arouse laughter by jokes, or "gags," and by
slapstick humor and boisterous or clownish physical activity; it is, therefore, one of the common
components of farce.

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c. Melodrama
The word melodrama is coined from melo (music) and dran (drama). It is, therefore, a play that
utilizes music extensively. But the utilization of music is not the only factor in melodrama, what
really makes it melodrama is its portrayal of the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist
suffers a lot but triumphs in the end while the antagonist
suffers. So, melodrama can be defined as a play that has serious action caused by a villain and a
destruction of the villain which brings about a happy resolution in the play. The hero is usually
involved in very dangerous circumstances but is rescued or he disentangles himself at the last
possible moment. The rescuer is usually a benevolent character who identifies himself with the
good role of the protagonist. An ideal melodrama, therefore, must have a protagonist and an
antagonist. The protagonist always fights the antagonist who is usually poised to destroy
goodness. In the end, the characters are easily identified by the audience. The protagonist is
admired and the antagonist is hated.
d. Tragi-Comedy
You have seen that tragedy is a serious play that ends on a sad note, while comedy ends happily.
In traditional tragedy, playwrights are not allowed to bring in any comic action. If you read
Oedipus Rex, for instance, you will observe that the atmosphere is tense from the beginning to
the end. As time went on, even from the Elizabethan period, comic characters were included in
tragic plays. This is called comic relief. Tragi-comedy is a play that mixes both comic and tragic
elements in equal proportion of each. It therefore elicits bothtragic and comic emotions.

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