Genres of Literature PDF

Genres of Literature Genres of literature are classifications that help categorize works based on their form, content, and style. Understanding these genres enhances both the writing and reading experience by setting expectations for the audience. Literary genres serve as...

Genres of Literature Genres of literature are classifications that help categorize works based on their form, content, and style. Understanding these genres enhances both the writing and reading experience by setting expectations for the audience. Literary genres serve as essential frameworks for categorizing literature. Each genre not only defines the structure and style of the writing but also shapes the reader's expectations. By understanding these genres, readers can better appreciate the nuances of literary works while writers can find their niche within the vast landscape of literature. Here’s an overview of the primary genres and their characteristics: Prose, pronounced prōz, is defined as writing that does not follow a meter or rhyme scheme. It is writing that follows standard grammatical rules and communicates ideas in a linear, logical order. Prose writing includes works of fiction and nonfiction. Types of Prose 1. Fictional Prose Novels Short stories Flash fiction 2. Nonfictional prose Nonfictional prose is prose that tells a true story or otherwise communicates factual information. Guidebooks, memoirs, analytical essays, editorials, news stories, and textbooks are all examples of nonfictional prose. The language used in nonfictional prose can vary widely, from the formal language of academic papers to the more subjective writing found in opinion pieces. The uniting characteristic of nonfictional prose is that these pieces of writing do not tell fictional stories.  3. Heroic prose Heroic prose is similar to fictional prose but has one crucial difference: Traditionally, it’s not written down. Instead, these stories are passed from generation to generation through oral tradition. This is often reflected in the story’s use of language, which is particularly suited to recitation. 4. Prose poetry Although poetry usually lives outside the constraints of prose, some poems use prose language. Fiction Fiction can be defined as narrative literary works whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact. In fiction, something is feigned, invented, or imagined. Genres of Fiction 1. Drama is the genre of literature that subject for compositions is dramatic art in the way it is represented. This genre is stories composed in verse or prose, usually for theatrical performance, where conflicts and emotion are expressed through dialogue and action. 2. Fantasy is a genre of literature that features magical and supernatural elements that do not exist in the real world. 3. Humor is the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical. A fiction that is full of fun, fancy, and excitement that is meant to entertain. 4. Fable is a narrative form, usually featuring animals that behave and speak as human beings, told in order to highlight human follies and weaknesses. A moral—or lesson for behavior—is  woven into the story and often explicitly formulated at the end. 5. Fairy Tales or wonder tales are a kind of folktale or fable. Sometimes the stories are about fairies or other magical creatures, usually for children. 6. Science fiction is a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals. The term science fiction was popularized, if not invented, in the 1920s by one of the genre’s principal advocates, the American publisher Hugo Gernsback. 7. Short story is a brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few characters and is not able to support subplots. 8. Realistic Fiction is a story that can happen and is true to real life. 9. Folklore are songs, stories, myths, and proverbs of a person of "folk" that was handed down by word of mouth. Folklore is a genre of literature that is widely held, but false and based on unsubstantiated beliefs. 10. Historical Fiction is a story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting. 11. Horror is an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting literature. A fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread in both the characters and the reader. 12. Tall Tale is a humorous story with blatant exaggerations, swaggering heroes who do the impossible with nonchalance. 13. Legend is a story that sometimes of a national or folk hero. Legend is based on fact but also includes imaginative material. 14. Mystery is a genre of fiction that deals with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets. Anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown. 15. Mythology is a type of legend or traditional narrative. This is 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. A body of myths, as that of a particular people or that relating to a particular person. Fiction in Verse is full-length novels with plot, subplots, themes, with major and minor characters. Fiction of verse is one of the genres of literature in which the narrative is usually presented in blank verse form. Non-fiction Literature that recounts a true story and is informative. Non-fiction must be based on fact, it cannot centre around a fictional story. The purpose of non-fiction novels is principally to inform the reader about a true story. Like any category of  literature, non-fiction can be broken down into different genres and subgenres. Types of Nonfiction Informational text deals with an actual, real-life subject. This genre of literature offers opinions or conjectures on facts and reality. This includes biographies history, essays, speech, and narrative nonfiction. Nonfiction opposes fiction and is distinguished from those fiction genres of literature like poetry and drama. 1. Narrative Nonfiction is information based on fact that is presented in a format which tells a story. 2. Essays are a short literary composition that reflects the author's outlook or point on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic,s peculative, or interpretative. 3. Biography is a written account of another person's life. 4. Autobiography gives a person's life history, written or told by the person himself/herself. 5. Speech is the faculty or power of speaking: oral communication: the ability to express one's thoughts and emotions speech sounds, and gesture. They are generally delivered in the form of an address or discourse. Poetry Poetry is verse and rhythmic writing with imagery that evokes an emotional response from the reader. The art of poetry is rhythmical in composition, written or spoken. This genre of literature is for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts. Poetry is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, prosaic ostensible meaning (ordinary intended meaning). Poetry has traditionally been distinguished from prose by its being set in verse. Additionally, prose is cast in sentences while poetry is in lines, and the syntax of prose is dictated by meaning, whereas that of poetry is held across meter or the visual aspects of the poem. One way to better understand poetry is by analyzing the elements that make up a good poem. Poems are written in either closed or open form. Closed form poems are written in specific patterns, using meter, line length, and line groupings called stanzas. Open form poems, often still referred to as "free verse" poems, do not use regular rhythmic patterns (i.e., metric feet), are usually unrhymed, have varying line lengths, and have no set line groupings. As you analyze a poem for an oral interpretation performance, remember that you are looking for relationships between the formal devices of poetry, like word choice, metric pattern, metaphor, and the poem's subject. A thorough investigation of the elements of a poem helps you to better understand the this genre. 1. Odes are one of the most well-known forms of poetry. They tend to serve as a tribute to a subject. This subject can be a person or an inanimate object, and the voice in the poem praises the subject in a ceremonial manner. Odes are short lyric poems, which convey intense emotions, and tend to follow traditional verse structure. They are generally formal in tone. 2. Elegy reflects on death and loss, and traditionally include a theme of mourning. Sometimes they also include a sense of hope, through themes like redemption and consolation. Elegies are generally written in quatrains and in iambic pentameter, with an ABAB rhyme scheme. These are loose guidelines, and many poets adjust them. 3. Villanelles (yes, this really is a type of poem, not just the name of one of the main characters in the TV show Killing Eve) are a little stricter and more complicated in form. They tend to have a fluid, almost lyrical feel to them, as they use lots of repeating lines. Villanelles consist of nineteen lines, in the form of five tercets and a closing quatrain, and they have a very specific rhyme scheme. The tercets follow the rhyme scheme ABA, while the quatrain’s rhyme scheme is ABAA. The first line repeats in lines 6, 12, and 18 of the poem, while the third line repeats in lines 9, 15, and 19. These repeated lines need to be signifcant and well-crafted as they occur so frequently. Villanelles often describe obsessions and intense subject matters. 4. Sonnets are among the most popular forms of poetry. They are fourteen lines long, and typically center around the topic of love. The rhyme scheme varies depending on the type of sonnet used. 5. Free verse is a type of poem that appeals to those who find strict forms intimidating. There are no rules, the poem can establish any rhythm, and rhyme is entirely optional. 6. The sestina is a complex French verse form which usually features unrhymed lines of poetry. It has six sestets, and an ending tercet. The ending words of each line from the first stanza are repeated in a different order as ending words in each of the subsequent five stanzas. The closing tercet contains all six of these ending words, two per line, and they are placed in the middle and at the end of these three lines. 7. Acrostic poems are fun, and very well-known. You may have written an acrostic or two during your time at school. Acrostics vertically spell out a name, word, or phrase, with each letter that begins each new line of a poem. 8. Ekphrastic poetry refers to any poem that uses a visual image or work of art as inspiration. Ekphrastic poetry is not about form, rigidity, or structure, but the connection between poetry and art. It is often created by poets writing down details about an art form and how it makes them feel, or imagining when and how the art form was created. 9. Haikus are very popular types of poetry. The haiku originated in Japan, and it is a short and fun form. These poems often refer to nature, though this is optional, and the form revolves around the use of syllables. Haikus are three lines long, with the first line comprising of 5 syllables, the second line 7 syllables, and the final line 5 syllables. The fact that this form is so short and simple means that haikus are very accessible and pleasant to write. 10. A ballad is a form of narrative verse, and its focus on storytelling can be musical or poetic. Ballads typically follow the pattern of rhymed quatrains, which use a rhyme scheme of ABAB or ABCB. 11. The term lyric poetry houses a broad category of poetry that centres around feelings and emotions. These poems are often short and expressive and tend to have a songlike quality to them. They can use rhyming verse, or free form. Lyric poetry differs from epic and narrative poetry as the focus is on a feeling rather than a story. 12. Erasure (or blackout) poetry is a form of found poetry, wherein you take an existing text and cross out or black out large portions of it. The idea is to create something new from what remains of the initial text, creating a dialogue between the new text and the existing one. This form is great for experimentation as you can use books, magazines, and newspaper. 13. Epic poetry refers to very long poems which tell a story. They contain detailed adventures and extraordinary feats performed by characters (they can be real or fictional) who are often from a distant past. The term ‘epic’ was derived from the accomplishments, adventures, and bravado of these poems. 14. Narrative poems are similar to epics as they too tell a story, but they are not as long nor as focused on adventures and heroism. They focus on plot over emotion, and tell fully developed stories from beginning to end. Narrative poems are typically told by one narrator or speaker, and they often have some kind of formal rhyme scheme. 15. Limericks are short, comedic poems, which can be crude and are largely trivial in nature. They often include pithy tales and brief descriptions. Limericks are five line poems of a single stanza with an AABBA rhyme scheme. The first, second, and fifth lines tend to have 7 -10 syllables, while the third and fourth lines tend to have 5-7 syllables. 16. The term occasional poetry refers to poems written to describe or comment on a particular event. They are often written for a public reading, and their topics range from sad, serious matters like war, to more joyous ones like birthdays and presidential inaugurations. 17. Pantoums are a more complicated type of poetry. They are poems of any length and are composed of quatrains. Within these quatrains, the second and fourth lines of each stanza are used as the first and third lines of the following stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first. 18. Blank verse is poetry written with a precise meter, often iambic pentameter, without rhyme. 19. Prose poetry, as the name suggests, combines elements of the poetic form with those of the prose form. It tends to look like a standard paragraph of prose with standard punctuation and a lack of line breaks, though it utilises poetic elements such as meter, alliteration, repetition, rhyme, and rhythm 20. Concrete poetry is designed to create a particular shape or form on the page which echoes the poem’s message. This form of poetry uses layout and spacing to emphasise certain themes, and they sometimes take the shape of their subjects. For instance, a poem about the moon may have a decidedly crescent shape. 21. Epitaphs are like elegies, but considerably shorter. They often appear on gravestones and can also include an element of humor. There are no strict rules regarding rhyme scheme and the like, so they are another poetry form suited to those who feel restricted by stricter forms. 22. Palindrome Poetry combines poetic form with palindromes, so the words reflect back upon themselves, hence why they are also referred to as mirror poems. These poems start with an initial set of lines and then hinge on a line that usually repeats directly in the middle of the poem before they work through the rest of the lines in reverse order. 23. Diminishing verse is a poetry form with unknown origins. Its main rule is to remove the first letter of the end word in the previous line and then repeat it. For instance, if the first line ends with the word blink, the second line would end with link, and the third would end with ink. There are no other strict rules, though diminishing verse poems tend to be written in tercets. 24. List poems are made up of lists of things or items. They do not follow any strict rules, though the last line is often funny and/or impactful and sums up the entire poem. 25. Echo verse refers to poems that repeat the end syllable of each line. This ending syllable can be repeated at the end of the same line, or it can be placed on its own line directly underneath it. Other than this repetition, this type of poetry doesn’t follow any rules. TASK: 1. Make your ACROSTIC POEM using your FULL NAME. on a short bond paper. Criteria for rating Originality - 25 pts.  Level of vocabulary /choice of words - 15 pts. Poetic Appeal - 10 pts. 2. Bring a long bond paper-sized poster of nature. References: https://www.google.com/search?q=types+of+poetry&rlz Cagalang , et. al. Philippine Literature. Jimczyville. Malabon City :Publications.2014. Notes: 1. Study the 3 Modules for a long test during the next face-to-face class. 2. Prepare a clean sheet of yellow paper.