STRUCTURE
- FICTION – is a literary work of imaginative narration, either oral or written, fashioned to entertain and to make the readers think and more so, to feel.
- NONFICTION – a literary work of REAL LIFE narration or expression based on history and facts whose main thrust is an intellectual appeal to convey facts, theories, and generalizations, or concepts about a particular topic.
FORM
- PROSE – written in the common flow of language in sentences and paragraphs which give information, relate events, express ideas, or present opinions.
- POETRY – expressed in verse, measure, rhythm, sound, and imaginative language and creates an emotional response to an experience, feeling, or fact.
GENRE
- Fiction (short story, novel, folktale, fable, legend)
- Poetry
- Essay
- Drama / Play
- Arts – paintings, drawings, music, and dances
BASIC ELEMENTS AND CONCEPTS OF LITERATURE
Elements of Fiction
- Characters (protagonist, antagonist, foil, background)
- Plot (exposition, narrative hook, conflict, rising action, complication, climax, falling action, denouement/conclusion)
- Setting (place, time, situation, mood)
- Theme – the overall feeling which the story revolves
- Point of View (first-person- actor, third person-narrator, omniscient-all knowing)
- Structure or style (traditional or linear, modern or episodic)
- Mood and Tone (lonely, happy, suspense, horror, fantastic, etc.)
Elements of Tragedy (Aristotle’s Poetic)
Plot
- Peripeteia – the reversal of fortune
- Anagnorisis – recognition of (ignorance of knowledge and vice versa)
- Hamartia – tragic flaw
- Catharsis – the feeling of pity & fear
- Hubris – problem
- Open ending – hanging
- Close ending
- synopsis
On Drama
- Narrator (Modern drama)
- Messenger (Greek drama)
- Chorus (Greek drama)
- Soliloquy Aside
- Playwright, Author, Poet, Novelist, Essayist, Orator, Public Speaker
- Dialogue and Script
- Scene and Act
- Stage and Stagecraft (end-stage, thrust stage, arena)
- Costume, mask, makeup, set
- Lighting (spotlight, floodlight, shade)
On Poetry
- Verse
- Diction
- Language
- Rhyme
- Rhythm
- Meter
- Imagery
- Symbolism
- Alliteration / Repetition
- Assonance
- Refrain
Foot Patterns such as:
- Iamb = ta-TUM
- Trochee = TUM-ta
- Anapest = ta-ta-TUM
- Dactyl = TUM-ta-ta
- Spondee = TUM-TUM
Types of Stanza in Poetry
- Heroic couplet – 2 verses
- Terza rima – 3 verses
- Quatrain – 4 verses
- Quintet – 5 verses
- Sestet – 6 verses
- Septet – 7 verses
- Octave or Octava Rima – 8 verses
- Nonet or Spenserian stanza – 9 verses
Meter – the systematic measurement of the verse in terms of foot pattern used in verse.
- Monometer – 1 foot verse
- Dimeter – 2 feet verse
- Trimeter – 3 feet verse
- Tetramemter – 4 feet verse
- Pentameter – 5 feet verse
- Hexameter – 6 feet verse
- Heptameter – 7 feet verse
- Octameter – 8 feet verse
How to identify the metrical measurement of a verse?
- Count how many syllables are there in a verse.
- Determine if the syllable pattern is uniform.
- Try what foot pattern would be applicable (iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic)
- Identify the measurement of the verse according to the foot pattern used.