Forms or Genres of Literature
Literature, as you must have learnt in your previous studies, comprises some major types or forms or genres. These major types, which could be further reduced to sub-types or categories, are three and they are poetry, drama and novel or prose fiction. It is important for you to note that these literary types are not defined or based on thematic focus, since all three types often share common themes as literature. They are categorised strictly by their stylistic features. Thus the best approach to the study or understanding of these major forms is by noting their elements or defining characteristics which are as follows:
Poetry
This is the oldest of the three major forms of literature with roots deep in the rituals and religious observances of antiquity. Thus it was mainly oral, performance-driven and public as it was, more often than not, a tool for supplication, communal tribal celebration and celebration of the supernatural as well as appreciation of the gifts of nature. From these early beginnings developed the personal and impersonal forms of poetry represented by the lyric on the one hand and the traditional epic and ballad on the other. Since we shall dwell on this form (poetry) in more detail in subsequent sections of this course material, we shall now move on to briefly enumerate the defining characteristics, namely: imagery, sound, rhythm and diction.
- Imagery is the sensory language used in poetry. By sensory we imply that the language appeals to or affects the senses of the reader or audience.
- Sound is the auditory aspect or quality inherent in poetry. The importance of this characteristic lies in the fact that poetry is meant to be heard and in its original form it was a song and most short lyrics today still retain this character.
- Rhythm is the wave-like movement discernible in poetry. It accounts, along with sound, for the musical quality in poetry.
- Diction refers to the special choice or selection of words utilised by the poet in his work.
Drama
Drama was to second to evolve of the three major genres of literature and like poetry it had its origins in ritual, song and dance. Hence a comprehensive definition of drama takes into account these defining strands as you will notice in the definition that follows: Drama is a story told through action by actors who impersonate the characters of the story. It is a work of literature designed to be presented on a stage in a theatre by persons who impersonate or imitate the characters of other persons, speak and perform prescribed dialogues and actions.
For drama to exist there must be characters who imitate or impersonate the speeches and actions of other persons on a stage in a theatre; hence the defining characteristics or elements of this form are: action, plot, dialogue, character(isation) and setting.
Novel/Prose Fiction
The novel is an extended fictitious prose writing or narrative with human beings or humanised nonhumans engaged in actions over a period of time, and displaying varieties of human characters engaged in human relationships in situations that simulate life. In other words, the novel is a make-believe account of the sequence of the lives of human beings. As a literary genre, it attained recognition as a widely practised form of literature at a later time than the other two major literary genres although its antecedents were already present in the oral modes and poetic narratives of past eras.
Despite its relative newness in relation to poetry and drama, the novel has developed by leaps and bounds to be the most popular and widely read of the three and has successfully embraced/accommodated such subcategories as science fiction, fantasy, utopia, biography and autobiography within its fold. And the unifying factors they share are the following elements or defining features: story, plot, setting and characterisation.
Functions/Uses of Literature
As we have mentioned in passing above, literature serves some important purposes in human society, the two major ones being entertainment/pleasure and teaching of values. Along the lines of these two uses, critics have made large claims of the roles of literature to include being the conscience or gadfly of society whereby the writer is seen as the sensitive moral point of society who is constantly chiding errant humanity and pointing them in the right direction to take to ensure that social harmony and health are maintained. PB Shelley, the Romantic poet, regards poetry (by extension literature generally) as “at once the centre and circumference of knowledge” in one breathe and as the unacknowledged legislator of the world.
While the above views of what literature is and is capable of doing in society may be debatable, depending on where one stands in what PC Snow referred to as the “Two Cultures”, there is no doubt that literature entertains and edifies through the creation of beauty, expression of thought and expression of emotions.
CONCLUSION
We have been able to go through some of the basic concepts of literature as an art form in this unit. This knowledge will serve you as a good reference point as you study any of the forms of literature and poetry in particular.
In this article you have learnt about the following:
- the concept of literature as an imaginative and creative construct that communicates its thoughts through suggestion/ indirection.
- the major forms or genres of literature and thei stylistic markers such as imagery, sound, rhythm and diction (poetry); action, dialogue, plot and character(isation) and setting (drama); story, plot, setting and characterisation (novel).
- The main functions of literature in society, viz: pleasure and instruction.
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