Humanistic and Literary Texts: Core Features & Communication
Humanistic Texts: Definition and Characteristics
Humanistic texts belong to the humanities, a broad group of subjects that deal with everything concerning human knowledge and development, both at the individual and social levels, in the present and throughout the historical and cultural past.
The Essay Format in Humanities
Among humanistic texts, a common format is the essay, in which the author develops their ideas. An essay is defined as the study of various topics treated subjectively, with argumentative and expository rigor, but without requiring definitive proof.
Key Characteristics of Essays
Therefore, their general characteristics include:
- A general speculative tone.
- A specialized lexicon.
- An abundance of abstract nouns.
- A very complex syntactic structure.
Finally, the most distinctive feature of essays is their subjectivity, which manifests through elements such as:
- Characterizing evaluative adjectives.
- The appearance of the first person plural in some verbs.
- Rhetorical questions.
Humanistic Texts: Scientific vs. Literary Approaches
Characteristics When Closer to Scientific Texts
Humanistic texts can approach either scientific or literary texts. If a humanistic text is closer to scientific literature, it presents common features with them, including:
- Forms of expository and argumentative discourse.
- A specialized vocabulary with denotative terms.
- Clarity, precision, rigor, and cohesion, marked mainly by definitions, lexical repetitions, connectors, and the use of impersonal sentences.
- A generic, timeless character or the particular item with a generic function.
Characteristics When Closer to Literary Texts
On the other hand, if a humanistic text is closer to literary texts, it has the following characteristics:
- The poetic function dominates.
- Lexical richness.
- The explanatory use of ornamental adjectives.
- The presence of rhetorical figures.
Communication Elements in Humanistic Texts
Finally, regarding the elements of communication, we must note that the sender of a humanistic text is either:
- Specialized: In this case, the text presents a more technical language.
- General: In this case, the text is informative and has a much more accessible style.
The code provides a formal and cultivated register. Ultimately, humanistic texts are intended to impart knowledge and thus primarily serve a referential function.
Literary Texts: Characteristics and Communication
Defining Literary Texts
Literary texts often fall into the narrative genre, which is defined as an account of events that happen to certain characters in a specific time and space.
Common Features of Literary Works
Literary texts exhibit great variety, not only due to differences between prose and verse, but also because their characteristics vary depending on the genre. However, some common features differentiate them from other texts:
- Their primary purpose is artistic creation, aiming to create beauty through language.
- The poetic function is predominant.
Language Characteristics in Literature
Secondly, we highlight the characteristics that determine the language of literature:
- The connotative value of words.
- The use of a rich and evocative vocabulary.
- The frequent use of rhetorical figures.
Narrative Elements: Description, Narration, Dialogue
Narrative texts often combine description, narration, and dialogue. For instance:
- Narration is typically shown by the use of verbs in simple and compound perfect tenses.
- Description often appears with verbs in the imperfect indicative and the presence of adjectives.
- Dialogue is commonly shown in a direct style with dashes, second-person pronouns, and direct interrogatives, often awaiting the response of the receiver.
Communication Elements in Literary Texts
Finally, regarding the elements of communication, we must note that the sender of a literary text is typically the author, conveying their vision of the world from a subjective point of view. The recipient is the reader, who is universal, interprets the meaning of the text, and possesses the critical capacity to form an opinion.
The message often carries a double meaning: that intended by the sender and that interpreted individually by the receiver. Regarding the code, the sender uses language, often altering its rules and structures to suit their aesthetic and communicative intent. Ultimately, literary texts aim to beautify language, thus serving a poetic function.