İDE 159 Short Story and Novel

Analysis
- Introduction -

Dr. Emine ŞENTÜRK

eminesenturk@akdeniz.edu.tr
  Literature: A broad term which usually denotes
works which belong to the major genres: epic,
drama, lyric, novel, short story, ode.
Defining and Categorising  Traditionally, if we describe something as
‘literature’, as opposed to anything else, the term
Literature carries with it qualitative connotations which
imply that the work in question has superior
qualities; that it is well above the ordinary run of
written works. (Cuddon, 1999, pp. 404-5)
 However, there are many works which cannot be
classified in the main literary genres which
nevertheless may be regarded as literature by virtue
of the excellence of their writing, their originality
and their general aesthetic and artistic merits.
Defining and Categorising Recent challenges to the canon, debates about what
Literature constitutes artistic merit, and theorization of genres
like children’s literature and graphic novels have
made this term vastly more comprehensive and far
less indicative of aesthetic hierarchy. (Cuddon,
1999, pp. 404-5)
 Etymologically, the Latin word “litteratura” is
derived from “littera” (letter), which is the
smallest element of alphabetical writing. The
word text is related to “textile” and can be
translated as “fabric”: just as single threads form
a fabric, so words and sentences form a
meaningful and coherent text.
Literature The origins of the two central terms are,
therefore, not of great help in defining literature
or text. It is more enlightening to look at
literature or text as cultural and historical
phenomena and to investigate the conditions of
their production and reception. (Klarer, 1999, p.
1)
 Literature is the body of writing, in the
language modes of prose, that is, unmetered
Genre (Types of language, and verse, that is, metered language
in all genres, that is, types of writing, that has
Literature) been deemed to be worthy of study and
preservation in the languages of the world but
particularly, in the present case, of the
English-speaking world. (Turco, 1999, p. 9)
  The types of writing to be found in literature are called
genres; the primary genres are fiction, drama, poetry,
and nonfiction- all of these terms are umbrella terms,
for there are subgenres in each category, such as the
novel, novella, novelette (long story), short study, short-
short story (very short story), episode (one incident or
Genre (Types of event in a longer work of fiction), and anecdote (short
account often of humorous interest) of fiction; the
Literature) tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, melodrama, and skit (a
short dramatic presentation of a humorous or satiric
turn) of drama; the autobiography, biography, essay,
and discourse of nonfiction, and the lyric, verse
narrative, and verse drama of poetry. (Turco, 1999, pp.
9-10)
  Any of the genres may be written in either of the
modes: there may be prose fiction or verse fiction,
prose drama or verse drama, prose poetry or verse
poetry, prose nonfiction or verse nonfiction. That
Genre (Types of group or listing of works of a language, in all the
genres and both the modes, which is considered to be
Literature) central to its literature, is called the canon. The word
also may mean a list of works of a particular author,
genre, literary period, and so forth. (Turco, 1999, pp.
9-10)
 A writer of literature is an author, and there
are as many types a writer as there are genres:
Genre (Types of novelist, dramatist, essayist, fictionist, poet,
Literature) critic, scholar, playwright, scriptwriter,
speechwriter, journalist, biographer, and so
forth. (Turco, 1999, p. 10)
  Systems for categorising genre have developed over time as
generic categories have proliferated.
 Plato held that there were only three genres: lyric, epic, and
drama
 Lyric: a song sung accompanied by a lyre => poem
 Epic: a long narrative poem about the deeds of heroes (e.g.
Gilgamesh, Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf)

 Aristotle extended this classification to distinguish epic, tragedy,

Types of Literature and comedy
 Tragedy: goat song in Greek; the imitation of an action that
is serious
 Comedy: Komos (Gr.) dramatic work designed to amuse

 Other genres have developed such as autobiography, essay,

satire, and pastoral.
 For practical purposes, we often categorise literature in three
genres: prose, poetry, and drama.
 Prose:
The word derives from the Latin prosa or
proversa oratio, ‘straightforward discourse’.
Thus, a direct, unadorned form of language,
Prose, Poetry, and Drama written or spoken, in ordinary usage. It
differs from poetry or verse in that it is not
restricted in rhythm, measure or rhyme.
However, there are such things as poetic
prose and the prose poem. (Cuddon, 1999, p.
564)
 Prose is an inclusive term for all discourse, spoken or
written, which is not patterned into the lines either of metric
verse or of free verse. It is possible to discriminate a great
variety of nonmetric types of language, which can be placed
along a spectrum according to the degree to which they
Prose, Poetry, and Drama exploit, and make prominent, modes of formal organization.
At one end is the irregular, and only occasionally formal,
prose of ordinary discourse. Distinguished written discourse,
in what John Dryden called "that other harmony of prose,» is
no less an art than distinguished verse; in all literatures, in
fact, artfully written prose seems to have developed later
than written verse. (Abrams, 2009, pp. 246-7)
 As written prose gets more "literary"—whether its function is
descriptive, expository, narrative, or expressive—it exhibits more
patent, though highly diverse, modes of rhythm and other formal
Prose, Poetry, and Drama features. The prose translations of the poetic books of the Old
Testament in the King James Bible, for example, have a repetition,
balance, and contrast of clauses which approximate the form that in
the nineteenth century was named "the prose poem." (Abrams,
2009, pp. 246-7)
 Prose poems are densely compact, pronouncedly rhythmic, and
highly sonorous compositions which are written as a continuous
sequence of sentences without line breaks. Examples of prose
poems are, in French, Charles Baudelaire's Little Poems in Prose
(1869) and Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations (1886), and in English,
excerptible passages in Walter Pater's prose essays, such as his
famous meditation on Leonardo da Vinci's painting the Mona Lisa,
Prose, Poetry, and Drama in The Renaissance (1873). John Ashberry's Three Poems (1972)
are prose poems, in that they are printed continuously, without
broken lines. Farther still along the formal spectrum, we leave the
domain of prose, by the use of line breaks and the controlled
rhythms, pauses, syntactical suspensions, and cadences that
identify free verse. At the far end of the spectrum we get the
regular, recurrent units of weaker and stronger stressed syllables
that constitute the meters of English verse. (Abrams, 2009, pp. 246-
7)
 Poetry:
MedL poetria based on Gk poētēs, ‘doer, creator’) It is a
comprehensive term which can be taken to cover any kind of
metrical composition. However, it is usually employed with
reservations, and often in contradistinction to verse. For
example, we should describe Shakespeare’s sonnets as poetry,
Prose, Poetry, and Drama and the wittily ingenious creations of Ogden Nash as verse;
though both are in verse. We speak of ‘light verse’ rather than
‘light poetry’. The implications are that poetry is a superior
form of creation; not necessarily, therefore, more serious.
Aristophanes, Chaucer, Ben Jonson, Donne, Marvell, Pope,
Byron and Auden, to name a few, have all written witty and
humorous poems (Cuddon, 1999, p. 546).
 Drama:
In general, any work meant to be performed on a stage by actors.
A more particular meaning is a serious play; not necessarily
tragedy. Diderot and Beaumarchais were responsible for this
restricted usage. (Cuddon 216)
Prose, Poetry, and Drama
The form of composition designed for performance in the theatre,
in which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the
indicated action, and utter the written dialogue. (The common
alternative name for a dramatic composition is a play.) (Abrams,
2009, pp. 69-70)
 Drama:
In poetic drama the dialogue is written in verse, which in English
is usually blank verse and in French is the twelve-syllable line
called an Alexandrine; almost all the heroic dramas of the English
Restoration Period, however, were written in heroic couplets
Prose, Poetry, and Drama (iambic pentameter lines rhyming in pairs). A closet drama is
written in dramatic form, with dialogue indicated settings, and
stage directions, but is intended by the author to be read rather
than to be performed; examples are Milton's Samson Agonistes
(1671), Byron's Manfred (1817), Shelley's Prometheus Unbound
(1820), and Hardy's The Dynasts (1904-8). (Abrams, 2009, pp.
69-70)
 In short:
Prose: is expression (whether written or spoken) that does not have a
regular rhythmic pattern. Prose does have rhythm, but its rhythm
lacks any sustained regularity and is not meant to be scanned.

Poetry: is expression that is written in verse, often with some form of

regular rhythm. The basis of poetic expression is a heightened sense
of perception or consciousness.

Prose, Poetry, and Drama Drama: drama is a story intended to be acted out on a stage. Some
critics include pantomime (silent acting), but others specify that
drama requires dialogue. Drama also requires a plot, a setting, end
characters. (Myers-Shaffer 3-4)

Drama is divided into two very broad categories, each

with its own characteristics:
Comedy: generally, comedy refers to plays that amuse and
or have happy endings
Tragedy: in a tragic play, the protagonist is disastrously
overcome by some catastrophe.
A few questions that can be used while analysing a literary work:

Meaning:
 What is the work about? What is its topic? What is its theme?
 What effect or impression does the work have on the reader?
 What is the argument or summary of the work?
 What is the writer’s intent? (Myers-Shaffer, 2000, p. 7)
A few questions that can be used while analysing a literary work:

Form:
 How has the writer organised the literary work to achieve the effect or express the meaning?
 How is the work structured or planned? Is prose or poetry? As topics or scenes? As a long narrative,
several short stories, or episodes?
 Into what genre (type or category) could the work be placed?
 What method of organisation or pattern of development was used within the structure of the work?
(Myers-Shaffer, 2000, p. 8)
 A few questions that can be used while analysing a literary work:

Voice and tone:

 Who is telling the story?
 How is the speaker or narrator characterised (his or her character revealed)? By action or description? Expressed or implied?
 From what perspective is the story told? By a person outside story or by someone actually involved in the narrative?
 Is the speaker (the one telling the story) and the author or writer of the work the same person?
 If the writer and speaker are two different individuals, are their attitudes toward the subject, events, and readers the same or
different?
 What is the author’s attitude toward the material, subject, or theme?
 What is the speaker’s attitude (if different from the author) toward the material, subject, or theme? Toward the reader?
 Is the tone playful? Serious? Angry? Formal? Pleading? Joyful?
 What is the atmosphere of the work (the way in which the mood, setting, and feeling blend together to convey the prevailing
tone)? (Myers-Shaffer, 2000, p. 8)
A few questions that can be used while analysing a literary work:

Character(ization):
 Who are the people in the work?
 How do dialogue (what he or she says) and action (what he or she does) reveal a character’s personality
traits?
 Is there a principal character (protagonist, leading character)?
 What is the character’s motivation?
 Is the character’s personality revealed directly by the speaker telling the reader or indirectly by the
character’s own words and deeds (requiring the reader to come to conclusions about the character based on
dialogue and action)?
 In a nonnarrative work, how would you characterise the speaker or the writer? How would you characterise
the work itself? (Myers-Shaffer, 2000, p. 8-9)
A few questions that can be used while analysing a literary work:

Language (uses and meanings):

 Does the selection include any imagery (the use of sensory images to represent someone or something)?
 What figures of speech does the writer use, and what effect do they have on the meaning of the selection?
 How does the writer use diction (word choice) to convey meaning?
 What is the impact of the words, phrases, and lines as they are used in the selection?
 Did the writer intend the words used to convey the meanings normally assigned to those words (the denotations)?
 Did the writer intent that some words would imply additional, associated meanings for the reader (connotations)?
 What is the significance of those implications to the meaning of the selection and the intent of the writer?
 How does the use of denotation, connotation, and syntax (how the words are structured and grouped to form meaningful
thought units) relate to the style of the selection?
 Does the language of the selection include any elements of propaganda? (Myers-Shaffer, 2000, p. 9)
 WORKS CITED

Abrams, M. H. and G. G. Harpham. (2009). A Glossary of Literary Terms. 9th ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning
Baldick, C. (2001). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford UP.
Cuddon, J. A. (1999). The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Penguin Books.
Klarer, M. (1999). «What is Literature, What is a Text?» An Introduction to Literary Studies. Routledge.
Myers-Shaffer, C. (2000). The Principles of Literature: A Guide for Readers and Writers. Barron’s.
Turco, L. (1999). The Book of Literary Terms: The Genres of Fiction, Drama, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, and
Scholarship. University Press of England.