Literary Genres and Devices: An Overview
Literary Genres and Devices
Narrative Genres
The Modern Novel
The modern novel’s transformative journey began in 1605 with the publication of Miguel Cervantes’ Don Quixote, widely regarded as the first modern novel.
The Chronicle
Chronicles offer a personal account of current events, often incorporating the narrator’s perspective and opinions. They blend information with personal viewpoints, utilizing descriptive language like adjectives, adverbs, comparisons, and metaphors to convey the writer’s assessment of the events. Chronicles can be written in the first or third person, recounting past occurrences.
The Epic
Epics are lengthy narrative poems celebrating the exploits of a hero. Notable examples include:
- Greek epics: The Iliad and The Odyssey, attributed to Homer, recount the siege of Troy and the adventures of Odysseus, respectively.
- Medieval epics: Spanning various traditions such as Germanic, Castilian, and French epic poetry.
- Eastern epics: Extensive works like the Indian Mahabharata and Ramayana, and the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh.
Types of Novels
Novels are extended narratives of imagined events written in prose, designed to entertain the public. They delve into the setting, time period, and character development. Novels typically feature more complex plots than short stories, often incorporating subplots. Some common types include:
- Action-driven novels
- Novels focused on setting and atmosphere
- Character-driven novels
Early Novels
Early novels exhibit distinct characteristics in terms of characters, structure, and action:
- Characters: Often heroic figures with exceptional qualities or intense emotions.
- Structure: Episodic adventures.
- Action: Frequent inclusion of fantastical elements.
Examples of early novel types include:
- Chivalric romance: Chronicling the adventures of a knight defending justice, honor, and their lady.
- Byzantine romance: Narrating the misadventures of a couple in love.
- Pastoral romance: Depicting the love stories of noble characters disguised as shepherds.
Narrative Techniques
Linear and Nonlinear Narratives
Linear narratives present events in chronological order. Nonlinear narratives deviate from this chronological sequence, presenting events in a different order.
Literary Devices
Figurative Language
- Hyperbole: An exaggerated representation of reality.
- Metonymy: Using a word to represent something else with which it has a part/whole or container/content relationship.
- Synesthesia: Attributing sensations of one sense to another (e.g., “a loud color”).
- Symbol: An image with a systematically associated meaning.
Poetic Language
Poetic language uses expressive and aesthetic language, often employing literary devices like metaphor, comparison, and personification.
- Image: The author’s chosen medium to evoke a sensation or suggest a reality poetically.
Sound Devices
- Alliteration: Repetition of similar sounds in a verse or phrase.
- Anaphora: Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive verses or phrases.
- Parallelism: Repetition of syntactic structure across verses or phrases.
- Rhyme: Repetition of sounds from the last stressed vowel (assonance: vowels only; consonance: all sounds).
Rhythm and Meter
Rhythm creates a pleasing auditory sensation through the regular repetition of sounds. Rhythmic procedures achieve this effect through the repetition of sounds, words, and structures. Meter studies the length of verses and their combinations to analyze a poem’s rhythm.
Language and Vocabulary
Neologisms
Neologisms are newly coined words introduced into a language.
Technicalities
are words used k cn a meaning in a particular area of expertise. Rhythm and evocation: the pace is a pleasant sensation to the ear k x the repetition occurs sound at regular intervals. rhythmic procedures: the rhythmic effect of a text is achieved poe employment of procedures based on the repetition of sounds, words and structures. Rima: the total or partial repetition of sounds from the last stressed vowel can be asonate (match only the vowels) and consonants (match all the sounds). alliteration: repetition of similar sounds in a verse or a prayer. anaphora: repetition of a word or words at the beginning of two or more verses or phrases. Parallelism:repetition of the same syntactic structure between two or more verses or phrases. Metrica: studying the extent of the verses and the combinations between them to describe the rhythm of the poem. Loans are words k is imported, that is, borrowed from other languages.