Classification of Literature

STRUCTURE

  1. 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.
  2. 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

  1. PROSE – written in the common flow of language in sentences and paragraphs which give information, relate events, express ideas, or present opinions.
  2. POETRY   – expressed in verse, measure, rhythm, sound, and imaginative language and creates an emotional response to an experience, feeling, or fact.

GENRE

  1. Fiction (short story, novel, folktale, fable,   legend)
  2. Poetry
  3. Essay
  4. Drama / Play
  5. 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.