Literary Texts: Characteristics and Genres
Characteristics of Literary Texts
Literary communication involves distinct elements. The issuer is the author of an original, unpublished work. The receiver is the reader, who interprets the work. The message is the work itself. The context differs for the author and the reader. Finally, the code is the common language, modified for aesthetic and expressive purposes.
Creative Language in Literary Works
Writers manipulate language to create a unique and innovative result. Key features include:
- Connotative
Literary Genres: Lyric and Drama Characteristics
Lyric Genre: An In-Depth Look
The lyric genre encompasses a broad and varied range of literary forms, themes, and attitudes. It is based on the intensive use of poetic language, far exceeding that found in narrative and drama. It is characterized by the presence of emotive function, manifested in the expression of feelings, imaginations, and emotions of the author.
Common elements to poetic texts are:
- Concentration and brevity, a product of life experiences and internalization, stripped of accessories
The Rise and Evolution of the Novel
The Novel as a Literary Genre
Historians have often assumed that the words fiction and novel are synonymous and interchangeable, which is not true. Ever since human beings have told stories, there has been fiction – verse or prose – and only in this sense, any work of fiction written before the 1600s in England is somehow an ancestor of the novel.
The concept “novel” comes from “novela” and “nouvelle”. It has its origin in “novellus” from Latin and has the meaning of something
Read MoreUnderstanding Figures of Speech
Understanding Literary Devices
Synecdoche: Using a part to represent the whole, or vice versa. For example, referring to someone as “the Apostle” or a cruel person as “a Nero.”
Allegory: A story or image in which the characters and events represent abstract ideas or moral qualities. Example: Cupid’s band and wings.
Hyperbole: Exaggeration used for emphasis or effect.
Irony: Expressing the opposite of what is literally said, often for humorous or emphatic effect.
Metaphor
A trope that transfers the literal
Read MoreVerb Forms, Punctuation, and Narrative Text Types
The Verb
The verb is a kind of word that expresses action, condition, or situation. It has a root that contains all the verb forms and an ending that varies by person, tense, number, mood, and aspect.
- Person: The verb can be 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person.
- Number: The number of the verb indicates whether the action is carried out by one or more persons (singular and plural).
- Tense: The tense of the verb indicates whether it is spoken in the past, present, or future.
- Mood: Indicates the speaker’s attitude to
Benito Pérez Galdós and Leopoldo Alas Clarín: Spanish Literary Realism
Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920)
Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920) represents the pinnacle of realism in Spanish literature. He was one of the most fertile writers of the time, producing over 80 novels, 24 plays, and numerous articles and essays. The enduring interest in his work lies in his ability to paint a panorama of contemporary society and to historicize recent events.
Life
Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Galdós arrived in Madrid at age 18 to study law. He abandoned his studies to devote
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