21/06/2019

Genres of
Literature
21st Century Literature from the
Philippines and the World

prepared by:
Ms. Erika Crizel D. Lacsam
English Teacher (HUMSS) Genr es of Liter atur e Gr aphic Or ganizer

There are 2 Key

Words in this topic: What is
Genre; and
Literature?
Literature

What is Literature? What is Literature?

 Literature, in its broadest sense, consists of any  The value judgment definition of literature
written productions. considers it to cover exclusively those writings that
possess high quality or distinction, forming part of
 It refers to those deemed to have artistic or
the so-called Belles-lettres ('fine writing')
intellectual value, or which deploy language in
tradition. (Eagleton, Literary theory: an
ways that differ from ordinary usage.
introduction, 9)
 In Western Europe prior to the eighteenth
 This sort of definition is that used in the
century, literature as a term indicated all books
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–11)
and writing. (Leitch et al., The Norton
where it classifies literature as:
Anthology of Theory and Criticism, 28)
"the best expression of the best thought
reduced to writing."

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What is Literature?
 Problematic in this view is that
there is no
Objective definition of what constitutes
What is Genre?
"literature“.
 Anything can be literature, and anything
which is universally regarded as
literature has the potential to be
excluded, since value judgments can
change over time.

What is Genre? What is Genre?

 is any category of literature, music, or other
forms of art or entertainment, whether written  Genre began as an absolute
or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of classification system for ancient Greek
stylistic criteria.
literature. Poetry, prose, and
 Genres form by conventions that change over
time as new genres are invented and the use of
performance each had a specific and
old ones is discontinued. calculated style that related to the
 Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of theme of the story.
borrowing and recombining these conventions.

Prose
What are the major FORMS
Consists of those written within the common
of Literature?
flow of conversation in sentence and
1. Prose paragraphs. Prose is a form of language which
2. Poetry applies ordinary grammatical structure and
natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic
structure (as in traditional poetry).

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Poetry
It comes from the Greek poiesis —
with a broad meaning of a "making",
seen also in such terms as
"hemopoiesis"; more narrowly, the
making of poetry. It is refers to those
expressions in verse, with measure and
rhyme, line and stanza and has a more
melodious tone.
Poetry
Itis the form of literature characterized
by its highly controlled manner of
choosing and arranging language with
the use of regulating devices such for
sound and rhythm to aesthetically
convey a meaning which may call for a
specific emotional response.

There are 3 Genres of

Literature Poetry
Poetry Genre of Literature
Prose
Drama

Poetry
Poetry has 3 different kinds:
is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and
rhythmic qualities of language. Lyric Poetry;
e.g.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Narrative Poetry; and
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Descriptive and Didactic
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, Poetry.
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

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Lyric Poetry Lyric Poetry

- Is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a
single
speaker presents a state of mind or an emotional state.
It has 4 kinds:
Elegy - a poem of serious reflection, typically a
lament for the
dead.
Ode - a poem in which a person expresses a strong
feeling of love or respect for someone or something.
❑ Sonnet - a fourteen-line poem written in iambic
pentameter, which employ one of several rhyme
schemes and adhere to a tightly structured thematic
organization.
❑ Dramatic Monolouge - a poem in the form of a speech
or narrative by an imagined person, in which the
speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their
character while describing a particular situation or
series of events.

❑ FOLK SONG (Awiting Bayan)

❑ - These are short poems intended to be sung. The common
theme is love, despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope and sorrow.
❑ PSALM (DALIT)
❑ It is a sound praising god or the Virgin Mary and containing a
philosophy of life.
❑ AWIT (SONG)
❑ Measures of a 12 (do decasyllabic) and slowly sung to the
Examples of Lyric Poetry
accompaniment of a guitar or Banduria.
❑ CORRIDO
– Have measure of eight (octosyllabic) and recited to a martial beat.

Elegy
O Captain! My Captain!
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; The
ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and
done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object
won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread, Walk the
deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and
dead.
Ode
Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of
Early Childhood by William Wordsworth.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth,
and every common sight
To me did seem Apparelled in celestial
light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as
it hath been of yore;--
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

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And every fair from fair sometime

Sonnet declines, Melodic Drama
By chance, or nature's changing My necktie rich and modest,
Shall I compare thee to a summer's
course untrimmed:
day?  And indeed there will be time but asserted by a simple pin--
But thy eternal summer shall not
Thou art more lovely and more fade,  To wonder, 'Do I dare?' and, 'Do I dare?'
temperate: (They will say: 'But how his
 Time to turn back and
Nor lose possession of that fair
Rough winds do shake the darling  descend the stair, arms and legs are thin!')
thou ow'st,
buds of May,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st  With a bald spot in the middle of Do I dare
And summer's lease hath all too in his shade, my hair-
short a date: Disturb the universe?
When in eternal lines to time  (They will say: 'How his hair
Sometime too hot the eye of In a minute there is time For
thou grow'st,  is growing thin!')
heaven
So long as men can breathe, or  My morning coat, my collar mounting decisions and revisions
shines,
eyes can see, firmly to the chin, which a minute will reverse.'
And often is his gold complexion
dimmed,
Sonnet Number 18 by William Shakespeare
So long lives this, and this gives life T.S. Eliot's The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,
to thee.

Narrative Poetry Narrative Poetry

 a form of poetry that tells a story, often making  Metrical Tale - A Narrative, which is written in
use of the voices of a narrator and characters verse and can be classified either as a ballad or
as well; the entire story is usually written in as a metrical romance.
metered verse.
 Ballad - a poem or song narrating a story in short
 It has 3 kinds: stanzas. Traditional ballads are typically of
 Epics - A long narrative poem written in unknown authorship, having been passed on
elevated style, in which heroes of great orally from one generation to the next as part of
historical or legendary importance perform the folk culture. (The Second Coming William
valorous deeds. (e.g. Beowulf)
Butler Yeats (1865-1939)

Descriptive and Didactic Poetry Descriptive Poetry

Smoke
 Both lyric and narrative poetry can Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird, Melting

contain lengthy and detailed thy pinions in thy upward flight,

Lark without song, and messenger of dawn,
descriptions (descriptive poetry) or Circling above the hamlets as thy nest;
scenes in direct speech (dramatic Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form
Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts;
poetry). By night star-veiling, and by day
Darkening the light and blotting out the sun;
 The purpose of a didactic poem is Go thou my incense upward from this hearth,
primarily to teach something. And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.

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Didactic Poetry
'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill
Appear in Writing or in Judging ill,

Prose
But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' Offence,
To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense: Some few in
that, but Numbers err in this, Ten Censure wrong for one
who Writes amiss; A Fool might once himself alone expose, Genre of Literature
Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose.

An excerpt from An Essay on Criticism by

Alexander Pope

Prose
There are 2 kinds of Prose:
written or spoken language in its ordinary form,
without metrical structure.
e.g. Fiction
“The woods look lovely against the setting darkness Non - Fiction
and as I gaze into the mysterious depths of the
forest, I feel like lingering here longer. However, I
have pending appointments to keep and much
distance to cover before I settle in for the night or
else I will be late for all of them.”

Fiction
 Literature in the form of prose, especially short stories
and novels, that describes imaginary events and people.
 There are 2 kinds of Fiction literature:
Fiction  Realistic Fiction - is a genre consisting of stories that
could have actually occurred to people or animals in a
believable setting.
 Fantastic Fiction -a type of fiction that ideologically
and aesthetically subordinates reality to imagination
by depicting a world of marvels that is contrasted to
everyday reality and to accepted views of what is
credible.

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Prose Prose
 LEGENDS
 NOVEL – These are fictitious narratives, usually about origins.
– This is long narrative divided into chapters. The events are
 FABLES
taken from to life stories…and spam long period of time.
– These are also fictitious, they deal animals and imitate
 SHORT STORY things that speak and act like people, and their purpose is
- It is a narrative involving one or more characters, one plot to enlighten the minds of children to events that can mold
and one single impression. their ways and attitudes.
 PLAYS  ANECDOTES
- This is presented on stage, is divided into acts and has many – A merely product of the writer’s imagination and the main
scenes. aim is to bring out lessons to the readers and attitudes.

Non – Fiction
 Prose writing that is based on facts, real events, and
real people, such as biography or history.
 There are 4 kinds of Non – fiction literature:
 Biographies - is a detailed description of a person's
life. It involves more than just the basic facts like

Non – Fiction education, work, relationships, and death, but also

portrays a subject's experience of these life events.
 Autobiographies - is a written account of the life of
a person written by that person.

Non – Fiction
 Essays - is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the
author's own argument — but the definition is vague,
overlapping with those of an article, a pamphlet, and a
short story. Drama
 Articles- a piece of writing included with
others in a newspaper, magazine, or other
publication.
Genre of Literature
 Humour - situations, speech, or writings that are
thought to be
humorous

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Drama There are 6 kinds of Drama:

 a piece of writing that tells a story and is performed on a
stage.
e.g  Comedy;
Miranda Priestly: Do you know why I hired you? I always hire
 Tragedy;
the same girl- stylish, slender, of course... worships the
magazine. But so often, they turn out to be- I don't know-  Farce;
disappointing and, um... stupid. So you, with that impressive
résumé and the big speech about your so-called work ethic- I,  Melodrama;
um- I thought you would be different. I said to myself, go
ahead. Take a chance. Hire the smart, fat girl. I had hope. My  Fantasy; and
God. I live on it. Anyway, you ended up disappointing me more  Musical.
than, um- more than any of the other silly girls.
- Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada, 2006)

Comedy Tragedy
 Comedies are lighter in tone than  Tragic dramas use darker
ordinary writers, and provide a happy
conclusion. The intention of
themes such as disaster, pain
dramatists in comedies is to make and death. Protagonists often
their audience laugh. Hence, they have a tragic flaw—a
use quaint circumstances, unusual characteristic that leads them
characters and witty remarks. to their downfall.

Farce Melodrama
 Generally, a farce is a  Melodrama is an exaggerated
nonsensical genreof drama, drama, which is sensational and
whichoften overacts or engages appeals directly to the senses of
slapstick humor. audience. Just like the farce, the
 It’s basically, what you call a characters are of single dimension
“Parody” and simple, or may be stereotyped.

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Fantasy Musical
 In musical drama, the dramatists not
 It is a complete fictional work where
only tell their story through acting
characters virtually display supernatural
and dialogue, nevertheless through
skills. It is more appealing to children as fairies,
dance as well as music. Often the
angels, superheroes, etc., are embedded in the
story may be comedic, though it
plot. Use of magic, pseudo science, horror, and
may also involve serious subjects.
spooky themes through various kinds of technical
devices create a perfect world of fantasy. The
modern version of drama incorporates a great
deal of special effects.