Literature

Forms with examples

 Prose

Types of Prose:
 Novels – The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, We The Living by Ayn
Rand, Ulysses by James Joyce
 Novellas – Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, A Christmas Carol by
Charles Dickens, The Pearl by John Steinbeck
 Short stories – The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, 1001 Arabian
Nights, Sherlock Holmes
 Plays/ Dramas – Pygmalion by G. B. Shaw, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen,
Hayavadana by Girish Karnad
 Legends – King Arthur, Robin Hood, Helen of Troy (The Trojan War)
 Folk tales – Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty
 Fables – The Panchatantra, The Jataka tales, Aesop’s Fables, The Ants
and the Grasshopper
 Myths – Ramayana, Mahabharata, Illiad, Odyssey
 Anecdotes – Terribly Tiny Tales, Nanotales
 Essays – Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb, Reason before Identity by
Amartya Sen, The Indian Jugglers by William Hazlitt
 Biography/ Autobiography – Wings of Fire: An Autobiography by A P J
Abdul Kalam and Arun Tiwari, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, Playing It My
Way by Boria Majumdar and Sachin Tendulkar
 News – Articles in Newspaper, Magazines and Journals (informative)
 Oration – "Tryst with Destiny" was a speech delivered by Jawaharlal
Nehru on the eve of India's Independence, towards midnight on 15
August 1947, George W. Bush - Address to the Nation on 9-11-01,
Stanford University commencement speech by Steve Jobs
 Poetry

Types of Poetry:
 Narrative – This form describes important events in life either real or
imaginary. Following are the forms of narrative poetry:
1. Epic – The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Iliad
2. Ballads – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Atlantis
 Lyric – This, originally, refers to that kind of poetry meant to be sung
to the accompaniment of a lyre. Now, however, this applies to any type
of poetry that expresses emotions and feelings. They are, usually,
short, simple and easy to understand. Following are the types of lyrical
poetry:
1. Folksongs – A Folk Song from India, Little Sparrow
2. Sonnets – Sonnets by Dante, Petrarch, Shakespeare
3. Elegy – In Memory of W.B. Yeats, O Captain! My Captain!
4. Ode – Ode to Aphrodite, Ode to a Nightingale
5. Psalms – A Psalm of Life, Psalm 52
 Dramatic Poetry – This is an emotional piece of literature which
includes a story that is recited or sung. Soliloquy and dramatic
monologues are the main instruments of this form of poetry.
Following are the types of dramatic poetry:
1. Comedy – Eyesight
2. Melodrama – About An Hour
3. Tragedy – My Last Duchess
4. Farce – Black and White
5. Social poems – Half-Caste
 Types of Drama/ Play

 Tragedy: Hamlet, Othello, Oedipus Rex

 Comedy
1. High Comedy: The Importance of Being Earnest, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream
2. Low Comedy: A few of the many examples of low comedy in
Shakespeare are: the porter scene in Macbeth, Launcelot scene in As
You Like It, and the Trinculo-Stephano-Caliban scene in The Tempest