LITERATU

RE
WHAT IS LITERATURE?

It is generally written.

It is considered to be superior and of lasting artistic merit

It may be based on reality or an imagination.

Its words are artfully arranged to stimulate feelings

and impart understandings.
It is a source of enjoyment, reflection and knowledge
2 Classifications of Literature

PROSE

POETRY
PROSE
It does not use rhymes, meters, or line
breaks
It is a written work on its ordinary form
It follows conventions too, like grammar,
structure, organization, etc
2 Divisions of PROSE

NON-FICTION

FICTION
NON-FICTION PROSE
is more informative and factual prose
writing.
It does not invent characters, events or
phrases
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
BIOGRAPHY
An account of a person’s life written by another
individual.

Biographers often write about historical or influential

persons and may get information about the lives of
these people from diaries, letters and history books
DIARY
From the Latin word dies meaning “day”

A diary is a book which one keeps a daily record of

experiences and events

Includes person’s thoughts, feelings, and fears are

written, and thus, it is generally meant to be read by no
one excepts its writer
EPISTLE
Literary work in the form of a letter or a series of
letters

Other literary genres, like the novel, may use letters

to tell stories called epistolary
ESSAY
A short piece of writing on a particular subject

It may attempt to explain, define, or discuss this

specific subject in a few paragraphs or more
Regarded as the “Originator of the Modern
Essay”.
FICTION PROSE
describes imaginary events and people

Invented or made-up
FABLE
Short stories in which main characters are animals
that talk like humans and retain their animal
characteristics
FAIRY TALE
A simple folk narrative and oral in origin

Described as being magical, idealized or extremely

happy.

Involve supernatural or magical elements such as

fairies, wizards, witches, and other enchanted beings
FRAME-TALE
Contains other tales within it. Thus, it maybe
described as a story within a story.
LEGEND
Are generally stories of origins

The most common of which are creation stories and

the origins of a people, place, animal or object

It reveals the culture of the society from which it

came
NOVEL
A narrative prose of book length

It can be fantasy, comedy, tragedy, romance,

suspense, etc
PARABLE
A simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual
lesson

Many examples of parables may be found in the

Bible’s New Testament such as the “Parable of the
Mustard Seed “
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SAGA
A medieval narrative prose in Old Norse or Old
Icelandic with themes of Europian Scanadinavian
kings, histories of Icelandic individuals, families and
districts

Today, the term “saga” refers not only to along story

of a heroic achievement but also to any fictional
history involving several generations of a family
SHORT STORY
significantly shorter and less elaborate than the novel
since it tends to focus on a single event or episode

It could make the plot more complicated by adding

more episodes or by heightening the conflict
POETRY
Is said to have come from ancient songs, prayers or
rituals

Now, it has evolved to any literary work that is associated

with the expression of feelings and ideas
 Such expression is given intensity by the use of
any or all of the following devices :

 RHYME – the resemblance of sound between

words or the ending of words, especially when these
are used at the ends of the line of the poetry
 METER – the number of syllables per line and
designated stress on syllables
 STANZA – a group of lines forming the basic
recurring metrical unit in a poem
 LINE BREAK –the interval that marks the
end of a line in a poem
 FIGURES OF SPEECH– a word phrase used
in a non-literal sense for vivid or rhetorical
effect
3 Classifications of POETRY

LYRIC

NARRATIVE

DRAMATIC
LYRIC POETRY
The word “LYRIC” comes from the word lyre, a stringed
instrument especially used by the ancient Greeks to
accompany their poems

Expressing the writer’s emotions, it is usually short and

in stanzas
ELEGY
A poem of serious reflection, the elegy has death as its
main theme
Those who recite elegies mourn for someone who died
and/or reflect on death as such
The main themes in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
are the universality of death, social class and value, and poetry
and posterity.
• The universality of death: Gray's poem depicts death as a
leveling force that brings all people, whether rich or poor, to
the same final fate.
• Social class and value: The poem argues against the notion
that the poor are less worthy than the rich. Indeed, Gray
suggests that all deserve to be remembered.
• Poetry and posterity: Gray's speaker is a poet, and as he
memorializes others in his melancholic mode, he is aware of
his own finitude.
EPIGRAM
A short and satirical poem with a witty or ingenious
ending
Often used for remembrance, in epitaphs or
dedications
EPITHALAMIUM
Originally written in praise of the Greek god of
marriages
A song or poem featuring a wedding celebration where
nymphs, shepherds, and mythical figures often take
part in the event
HAIKU
A traditional Japanese poem of 17 syllables, in three
lines of five, seven, and five (575)
generally evokes images of the natural world or
scenes taken from daily life
LIMERICK
Humorous five-line poem with a rhyme scheme of
aabba
deals with everyday affairs like marriage and love
ODE
From a Greek word meaning “song”

A lyric poem written in a dignified tone to idealize

objects, qualities or ideas

The poetry of praise or tribute

PASTORAL
Coming from a Latin word linked to shepherding and
animal breeding

It features shepherds and portrays or evokes country

life, typically in a romanticized or idealized form
SONNET
Usually relating to love, the sonnet is a poem of
14lines and is generally classified as either Petrarchan
or Elizabethan

The Petrarchan Sonnet is of the kind used by the

Italian poet Francisvo Petrarca with an octave (8 lines)
rhyming abbaabba and a sestet (6 lines) typically
rhyming cdcdcd or cdecde
The Elizabethan Sonnet

The Elizabethan Sonnet hs 3 qutrins (4 lines)

rhyming bb cdcd efef, nd couplet (two
lines) rhyming gg
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