literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material

7/28/2019 Literature is a Term Used to Describe Written or Spoken Material

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Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, "literature" is used todescribe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly

used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.

Importance:Literature, besides being an art form used for expression, also preserves cultural ideals, customs, and morals.

The written word gives us a deeper context into the lives and livelihood of people distinct from ourselves this

can be true of historical literature but is equally true of modern literature, as well. We can learn as much from

William Shakespeare's time through his plays as we can from authors from a different mindset or place.

Besides this detailed and nuanced window into another person's or people's world, literature also challenges the

reader to profoundly ponder the art form itself. Through metaphor, allusions, themes, foreshadowing and other

literary devices, the reader has the opportunity to analyze a work beyond the written words.

Genre categories: fiction and nonfictionGenre may fall under one of two categories: Fiction and Nonfiction. Any genre can be either: a work of Fiction

(nonfactual descriptions and events invented by the author) or a work of Nonfiction (a communication in which

descriptions and events are understood to be factual).

Common genres: fiction

Subsets of genres, known as common genres, have developed from the archetypes of genres in written

expression. The common genres included in recommended Literature from kindergarten through Grade Twelve by

the California Department of Education are defined as:

Drama stories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical performance, where conflicts and emotion are

expressed through dialogue and action

Fable narration demonstrating a useful truth, especially in which animals speak as humans; legendary,

supernatural tale

Fairy tale story about fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children

Fantasy fiction with strange or other worldly settings or characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality

Fiction narrative literary works whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on

fact

Fiction in verse full-length novels with plot, subplot(s), theme(s), major and minor characters, in which the

narrative is presented in (usually blank) verse form

Folklore the songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a people or "folk" as handed down by word of mouth

Historical fiction story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting


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Horror fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread in both the characters and the reader

Humor fiction full of fun, fancy, and excitement, meant to entertain; but can be contained in all genres

Legend story, sometimes of a national or folk hero, that has a basis in fact but also includes imaginative

material

Mystery

fiction dealing with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets

Mythology legend or traditional narrative, often based in part on historical events, that reveals human

behavior and natural phenomena by its symbolism; often pertaining to the actions of the gods

Poetry verse and rhythmic writing with imagery that creates emotional responses

Realistic fiction story that is true to life

Science fiction story based on impact of actual, imagined, or potential science, usually set in the future or on

other planets

Short story fiction of such brevity that it supports no subplots

Tall tale humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the impossible with

nonchalance

Common genres: nonfiction

Biography/Autobiography - Narrative of a person's life. A true story about a real person.

Essay - A short literary composition that reflects the author's outlook or point.

Narrative nonfiction - Factual information presented in a format which tells a story.

Speech - Public address or discourse.

Textbook - Authoritative and detailed factual description of a topic.

DIVISIONSProse

Prose is derived from a Latin root word, prosa, that means "straightforward" (other scholars argue that the

root for "prose" is proversa oratio, which means " straightforward discourse." Prose is generally defined as

direct, common language presented in a straightforward manner. A victim of identity by negation, prose is

frequently defined as "that which is not poetry." Prose demonstrates purposeful grammatic design in that it

is constructed strategically by the author to create specific meaning. Prose also contains plot and the

attendant narrative structures of plot.


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In most cultures, prose narrative tends to appear after a culture has developed verse. Prose genres are many

and varied, ranging from science fiction to romance. The major generic divisions of prose are:

novel - A lengthy fictional prose narrative.

novella - A fictional prose narrative ranging from 50 to 100 pages, most common in science fiction anddetective fiction.

short story - a brief fictional prose narrative.

anecdote - A very brief account of some interesting, usually humorous, event.

Poetry

Poetry, from the Greek poetes which means "doer" or "creator," is a catch-all term that is applied to any

form of rhythmical or metrical composition. While poetry is considered to be a subset of verse (and alsoconsidered to be superior to verse) both are rhythmical/metrical. What distinguishes poetry from verse is its

"imaginative quality, intricate structure, serious or lofty subject matter, or noble purpose." Most culture's

first serious literary works are poetry (In Western tradition, we need look only as far as Homer and Hesiod).

The purposes of poetry are said to include:

A didactic purpose, meaning that it aims to instruct the reader.

Unique insight that is not available in other genres.

To provide pleasure to the reader.

To uplift the reader to some higher insight or meaning.

Drama

Drama, is simply a work that is written to be performed on stage by actors. From the Greek dran, meaning

"to do," drama is thought to have developed from ancient religious ceremonies. For instance, Greek comedy is

traced to ancient fertility rites. Tragedy (which comes from the Greek word for "goat song") can be traced

back to sacrificial rituals.

The term play has come to mean drama written exclusively for performance, while the "loftier" term drama, is

commonly reserved for works that are considered to be more serious works.

Poetry (from the Greek poiesis with a broad meaning of a "making", seen also in suchterms as "hemopoiesis"; more narrowly, the making of poetry) is a form of literary art which uses aesthetic

and rhythmic[1][2][3] qualities of languagesuch as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metreto evoke

meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.


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ELEMENTSVoice

Voice is a word people use to talk about the way poems "talk" to the reader.

Lyric poems and narrative poems are the ones you will see most. Lyric poems express the feelings of the

writer. A narrative poem tells a story.

Some other types of voice are mask, apostrophe, and conversation. A mask puts on the identity of someone or

something else, and speaks for it. Apostrophe talks to something that can't answer (a bee, the moon, a tree)

and is good for wondering, asking, or offering advice. Conversation is a dialogue between two voices and often

asks us to guess who the voices are.

Stanza

A stanza is a group within a poem which may have two or many lines. They are like paragraphs.

Some poems are made of REALLY short stanzas, called couplets--two lines that rhyme, one after the other,

usually equal in length.

Sound

One of the most important things poems do is play with sound. That doesn't just mean rhyme. It means many

other things. The earliest poems were memorized and recited, not written down, so sound is very important in

poetry.

Rhyme - Rhyme means sounds agree. "Rhyme" usually means end rhymes (words at the end of a line). They

give balance and please the ear. Sometimes rhymes are exact. Other times they are just similar. Both are okay.

You mark rhyme in a poem with the letters of the alphabet. For instance, in this stanza:

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

the rhyme scheme is aaba (because "know," "though," and "snow" rhyme, they are marked "a," while "here" is

another rhyme, and is marked "b")

Repetition - Repetition occurs when a word or phrase used more than once. Repetition can create a pattern

Refrain - Lines repeated in the same way, that repeat regularly in the poem.


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Alliteration - Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound in different words.

Onomatopoeia - Onomatopoeia means words or phrases that sound like the things they are describing. (hiss,

zoom, bow-wow, etc.)

Consonance - Consonance happens when consonants agree in words, though they may not rhyme. (fast, lost)

Assonance - Assonance happens when vowels agree in words, though they may not rhyme. (peach, tree)

Rhythm

Meter (or metrics) - When you speak, you don't say everything in a steady tone like a hum--you'd sound

funny. Instead, you stress parts of words. You say different parts of words with different volume, and your

voice rises and falls as if you were singing a song. Mostly, we don't notice we're doing it. Poetry in English is

often made up of poetic units or feet. The most common feet are the iamb, the trochee, the anapest, and

the dactyl. Each foot has one stress or beat.

Depending on what kind of poem you're writing, each line can have anywhere from one to many stressed beats,

otherwise known as feet. Most common are:

Trimeter (three beats)

Tetrameter (four beats)

Pentameter (five beats)

You also sometimes see dimeter (two beats) and hexameter (six beats) but lines longer than that can't be said

in one breath, so poets tend to avoid them.

Figures of speechFigures of speech are also called figurative language. The most well-known figures of speech are are simile,

metaphor, and personification. They are used to help with the task of "telling, not showing."

Simile - a comparison of one thing to another, using the words "like," "as," or "as though."

Metaphor - comparing one thing to another by saying that one thing is another thing. Metaphors are stronger

than similes, but they are more difficult to see.

Personification - speaking as if something were human when it's not.

Poetic forms

There are a number of common poetic forms. .


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Ballad - story told in verse. A ballad stanza is usually four lines, and there is often a repetitive refrain. As you

might guess, this form started out as a song. An example of a traditional Scottish ballad is Lord Randal at

http://www.bartleby.com/243/66.html

Haiku - a short poem with seventeen syllables, usually written in three lines with five syllables in the first line,

seven in the second, and five in the third. The present tense is used, the subject is one thing happening now,

and words are not repeated. It does not rhyme. The origin of the haiku is Japanese.

Cinquain - a five-line poem with two syllables in the first line, four in the second, six in the third, eight in the

fourth, and two in the fifth. It expresses one image or thought, in one or possibly two sentences.

Villanelle - a 19-line poem with five tercets and one quatrain at the end. Two of the lines are repeated

alternately at the ends of the tercets, and finish off the poem: the first line and the third line of the first

tercet. Although it sounds very complicated, it's like a song or a dance and easy to see once you've looked at a

villanelle.

Limerick - A five-line poem, usually meant to be funny. The rhythm is anapests. Lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme with

one another, and lines 3 and 4 rhyme with one another. Lines 1, 2, and 5 have three feet, lines 3 and 4 have

two feet. An iamb can be substituted for an anapest in the first foot of any line. The last foot can add

another unstressed beat for the rhyming effect.

Sonnet - There are different types of sonnet. The most familiar to us is made of three quatrains and ends

with a couplet. They tend to be complicated and elegant. William Shakespeare wrote the most well-known

sonnets.

Free verse (or open form) - Much modern poetry does not obviously rhyme and doesn't have a set meter.

However, sound and rhythm are often still important, and it is still often written in short lines.

Concrete poetry (pattern or shape poetry) is a picture poem, in which the visual shape of the poem

contributes to its meaning.


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Different Types of Poetry

ABC poem Alexandrine Poetry Type Allegory

Analogy Poetry Type Ballad Poems Ballade Poetry Types

Blank Verse Burlesque Types Cacophony

Canzone Poetry Type Carpe diem Cinquain Poetry Type

Classicism Types Conceit Poetry Type Couplet Poetry Type

Dactyl Poetry Type Doggerel Elegy

Enjambment Epic Poems Epigram

Epitaph Epithalamium Form Free Verse

Haiku Poetry Type Idyll Poetry Types Imagery Poems

Irony Lay Poetry Types Limericks

Lyric Poetry Name Poem Narrative Poetry

Odes Pastoral Poetry Type Quatrain Poetry Type

Refrain Poetry Type Rhymes Romanticism Type

Senryu Poetry Type Rhyme Royal Type Sonnets

Tanka Terza rima Verse

Prose and Prose Poetry
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