Exploring Literary Types: Prose

• Literature stems from the Latin "litera," denoting letters or words.
• Literature includes preserved writings or spoken words of a language or people.
• It interprets nature and life via words with charm and power, infused with the author's personality and artistic forms, reflecting enduring interests and significant experiences.

Literary Types

• Literature has two main types: prose and non-prose (poetry).

Prose

• Novels are long narrative works.
• Short stories are shorter narrative works, focusing on a specific theme or event.
• Plays are written for theatrical performance, involving dialogue and action.
• Legends are traditional stories, often based on historical events but embellished with mythical elements.
• Fables are short stories that convey a moral or lesson, often using animals as characters.
• Anecdotes are brief, interesting stories about a real person or event.
• Essays are short, non-fiction compositions on a particular subject.
• Biographies are accounts of a person's life written by someone else.
• News reports current events delivered in a factual way.
• Orations are formal speeches delivered for a specific occasion.

Non-prose (poetry)

• Narrative poetry tells a story through verse.
• Epics are long narrative poems recounting heroic deeds.
• Metrical tales are narratives told in verse, often focusing on romantic or adventurous events.
• Ballads are song-like poems that tell a story, often of love or tragedy.
• Lyric Poetry expresses personal emotions or thoughts.
• Folk songs are traditional songs passed down through generations.
• Sonnets are 14-line poems with a specific rhyme scheme.
• Elegies are poems of mourning, usually for the dead.
• Odes are poems that praise or celebrate a person, thing, or idea.
• Psalms are sacred songs or hymns, often found in religious texts.
• Awit is a type of Filipino folk song, traditionally sung during courtship or celebrations.
• Corridos are narrative songs or ballads popular in Mexico and the Philippines, often recounting historical events or legends.
• Dramatic poetry is poetry written for performance, involving characters and dialogue.

Classification by Content

• Literature can be classified into fiction/literature of power and non-fiction/literature of knowledge.
• Fiction, or "literature of power," includes myths, poems, short stories, novels, and plays.
• Non-fiction, or "literature of knowledge," includes biographies and news.

Literary Standards

• Universality appeals to everyone regardless of culture, race, sex, and time.
• Permanence endures across time, showing both timeliness (relevance to a specific time) and timelessness (remaining relevant indefinitely).
• Artistry has aesthetic appeal and demonstrates a sense of beauty.
• Intellectual Value stimulates critical thinking and enhances abstract reasoning, leading to the realization of life's fundamental truths.
• Suggestiveness taps into emotional power to define symbolism, nuances, and implied meanings, creating profound visions.
• Spiritual Value elevates the spirit and inspires through morals or lessons from literary genres.
• Style reflects how individuals perceive life, evidenced by the formation of ideas, forms, structures, and memorable expressions.

Literary Devices

• Literary devices are structures used by writers to convey messages simply.
• Literary devices have two aspects: literary elements and literary techniques.
• Literary elements are inherent in literary pieces.

Literary Elements

• Plot is the logical sequence of events that develops a story.
• Setting refers to the time and place in which a story occurs.
• Protagonist is the main character or "good guy" of the story.
• Antagonist is the character in conflict with the protagonist or "bad guy".
• Point of View is the perspective through which the reader experiences the story.
• Conflict is the central issue or struggle in a narrative.
• Mood is the general atmosphere or feeling of a narrative.
• Tone is the speaker or narrator's attitude as conveyed through language.
• Theme is the central idea or concept of a story.

Literary Techniques

• Literary techniques are structures, words, or phrases writers use to enhance understanding and appreciation of literary works.
• Symbolism uses an object or action to represent something beyond its literal meaning.
• Pink is a symbol for the fight against breast cancer.
• The Statue of Liberty symbolizes freedom.
• Roses stand for romance
• Flashback interjects a scene from the past into the present story to explain events prior to the current narrative.
• Flash Forward tells a scene that takes the narrative to a future time from the current point of the story
• Cliffhanger ends the story abruptly, leaving characters in a perilous situation without resolution.
• Foreshadowing is giving hints of future events, helping the reader anticipate the outcome.
• A pipe is going to burst is foreshadowed when a family notices a dark spot on the ceiling but ignores it.
• Imagery uses figurative language to create sensory representations, appealing to taste, sight, smell, touch, and hearing.
• Taste (gustatory imagery)
• Sight (visual imagery)
• Smell (olfactory imagery)
• Touch (tactile imagery)
• Hear (aural imagery)
• The words "dark” and “gloomy” create are visual images.
• The word "roaring” appeals to our sense of hearing.
• Simile and Metaphor compare two distinct objects to draw similarities.
• Simile uses "as" or "like", while metaphor does not.
• "My love is like a red rose” is a simile
• "He is an old fox very cunning" is a metaphor
• Personification attributes human qualities to non-human entities.
• The flowers are dancing beside the lake exemplifies personification.
• Have you seen my new car? She is a real beauty! exemplifies personification.
• My clock yelled at me in the morning exemplifies personification.
• Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration for emphasis.
• I'm so sad that I'm drowning in tears! exemplifies hyperbole
• I have got a million issues to look after! exemplifies hyperbole

Literary Approaches

• Feminism associates literature with pieces written by women about women in society.
• It involves characters who resist typical gender norms dominated by masculinity.
• This approach amplifies the voice of women.
• New Historicism examines the cultural context during the creation of a literary work.
• This approach interprets literature within a specific socio-historical atmosphere.
• Formalism or New Criticism focuses on the information and details within the work itself.
• Formalists focus on rhetorical and logical connections within the writing.