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Lesson 4.1
Literary Genres, Elements, and Techniques
Some of the selections that you will encounter on reading tests may be works of literature. At
this level in your schooling, you have probably already studied literature for many years.
Therefore, much of what you will read about in this chapter will be review.
Genres of Literature
One way to understand something is to categorize it. Dividing literature into categories allows
us to examine similarities and differences among literary works and gives us a vocabulary
with which to discuss it. The different categories into which literature can be divided are
called genres. A genre is simply a type of literary work. Genre has to do with the form a
literary work takes (novel, drama, poem); with its subject matter (mystery, romance,
science fiction); and with its purpose (parody, rebuttal speech, satire).
On the reading tests in this book, you will be asked to write about a number of literary
selections. You will be given at least one prose passage and one poem to read. You might
also encounter a selection from a drama, or play. The prose passage will most likely be a
portion of some narrative, a piece of writing that tells a story. Narratives can be fiction or
nonfiction. A work of fiction tells about imaginary people and characters. A work of
nonfiction, such as a memoir or biography, tells about real people and characters. Make
sure that you are familiar with the types, or genres, of narratives, poems, and plays
described in the chart on the following pages.
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Classifying Literary Works
Genres of Prose Narrative, Drama, and Poetry
Prose Narratives
Short Story. A short story is a brief work of fiction. The passage from “The Death of Ivan
Illych” in the Pretest is part of a short story by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
Novel. A novel is a long piece of fictional prose. Within the category “novel” are many genres
by subject matter, such as comedy of manners, Gothic novel, mystery, picaresque,
romance, and science fiction, An elaborate plot and many characters are usually elements
of a novel.
Narrative Essay. An essay is a short piece of nonfiction writing that explores a single subject
from the author’s point of view. A narrative essay is one that tells a story. In an
autobiographical essay or memoir, a writer tells a true story from his or her own life. In a
biographical essay, a writer tells a true story from someone else’s life. A narrative personal
essay is written to make a specific point and uses a true autobiographical or biographical
story to illustrate the point.
Journal or Diary. A journal or diary is a day-to-day account and may be true (as in the case of
The Diary of Anne Frank) or fictional (as in the case of The Diary of Adrian Mole, by Sue
Townsend, or The Diary of Adam and Eve, by Mark Twain).
Myth. A myth is a story dealing with a god or goddess. Often myths explain the origins of
natural phenomena. For example, the Greek myth of Arachne explains the origin of
spiders.
Legend. A legend is a story, which may be partially or wholly true, about a hero or heroine.
The stories of King Arthur are legends but are almost entirely fictional.
Tall Tale. A tall tale is a story with wildly exaggerated characters and events. The American
stories about Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan are examples of tall tales.
Fable. A fable is a short tale, usually with animal characters, told to illustrate a moral, or point
about how ~people should behave.
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Folk Tale. A folk tale is a short story that was originally passed down orally from generation to
generation. Such tales, which were not originally written down, are part of what is known
as the oral tradition. Folk tales developed as they were passed on, rather than being created
at one time by an individual author.
Anecdote. An anecdote, often true, is a very brief story told to make a point.
Drama
Comedy. A play in which the main character or characters meet a happy fate is called a
comedy. Note that the term comedy is sometimes used of other types of work, such as long
narrative poems, with happy endings. The term comedy is also frequently used to refer to
works in which humorous elements predominate.
Tragedy. A drama in which the main character suffers an unhappy fate, generally because of a
flaw in his or her own character, is called a tragedy.
Poetry
Narrative Poem. A narrative poem is a verse that tells a story. Narrative poems may be short,
like ballads, or long, like epics. A ballad is a rhymed narrative poem, generally written in
four-line or six-line stanzas. An epic is a long story, usually in verse, told on a grand scale.
It relates the adventures of heroes, gods, and monsters and incorporates myths and legends.
Dramatic Poem. A dramatic poem is a verse that presents the speech of one or more characters
in a dramatic situation. In a dramatic monologue, one character speaks, usually to another
character who is silent. In a dramatic dialogue, two characters speak.
Lyric Poem. A lyric poem is a short, highly musical verse that expresses the thoughts and
emotions of a speaker.
Elegy. An elegy is a long poem mourning someone’s death.
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The chart on the preceding pages is far from complete. In addition to the genres listed, there
are, for example, many genres of nonnarrative prose, prose works that do not tell stories.
Some of these include the persuasive essay, in which a writer attempts to persuade readers
to adopt an opinion or to take a course of action; the informative essay, in which a writer
provides information about a subject; the descriptive essay, in which a writer paints a
portrait, in words, of a subject; and satire (which can appear in prose, drama, or poetry), in
which a writer pokes fun at or puts down someone or something.
Literary Elements and Techniques
If you are asked to analyze a literary passage, the directions may tell you to refer in your
answer to the literary elements and techniques used by the author. Literary elements are the
building blocks, or parts, of a work. Literary techniques are special ways of using
language to communicate ideas or to achieve particular effects. Suspense might be an
element of a story and foreshadowing the technique the author used to achieve it. It is
important for you to know what the major literary elements and techniques are and to be
able to recognize them in works of literature. The charts below and on the following pages
explain the major literary elements and techniques.
Literary Elements and Techniques
Found in All Genres of Literature
1.
Image. An image is a word or phrase that names something that can be seen, heard,
touched, tasted, or smelled. The collection or group of images in a work is called its
imagery. Example: “Ice covered the ground, and a cold wind whistled through the tree
limbs.”
2.
Setting. The setting is the time and place in which the action of a literary work occurs.
Setting is created by details that suggest a particular time and/or place.
3.
Mood. The mood is the emotional quality evoked by a literary work. Mood is created by
imagery, word choice, events, and other literary elements. Examples of moods include
gloomy, sad, joyful, reflective, suspenseful, and frightening.
4.
Subject. The subject is the matter that a work is about. Common subjects of literary works
include childhood, diversity, wonder, aging, nature, individuality, love, discrimination,
struggle, death, courage, hope, and freedom.
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5.
Theme. A theme is a main idea in a literary work. For example, a work on the subject of
aging might have as its theme the idea that older people can still be young and fresh in
their thinking.
6.
Character. A character is a being who takes part in the action of a literary work.
7.
Suspense. Suspense is a feeling of curiosity or expectation, often tinged with anxiety,
created by questions about what the outcome will be in a literary work.
8.
Tone. Tone is the attitude adopted by the author, speaker, or narrator of a literary work
toward the subject and reader of the work; it may also be the attitude of a speaker, narrator,
or character in the work toward other characters.
9.
Voice, or Style. A writer’s voice, or style, is the sum of all the characteristics that make his
or her work sound unique. Hemingway is famous for a style that makes use of short,
simple sentences with few embellishments. Faulkner is famous for a style that makes use
of long, complicated sentences full of fancy flourishes.
10. Flashbacks and Foreshadowing. A flashback takes the reader to an earlier part of the story.
Foreshadowing hints about events to come.
Figurative Language, or Figures of Speech
(expressions with a meaning other than or beyond the literal)
11. Hyperbole. A hyperbole is an exaggeration for effect. Example: “I’m so hungry, I could
eat a horse!”
12. Irony. Irony is a contradiction, such as a difference between appearance and reality or a
difference between what is said and what is meant. In the selection from “The Death of
Ivan Illych” in the Pretest, it is ironic that Illych should believe that all people must die but
not be willing to believe that he himself must eventually die.
13. Metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is described as if it were
another. Example: “My love is a red, red rose.”
14. Simile. A simile is a type of metaphor, a comparison using like or as. Example: “My love
is like a red, red rose.”
15. Personification. Personification is a figure of speech in which a nonhuman thing is
described as though it were human. Example: “The old car coughed, cried out once, and
then gave up the ghost.” Personification can appear in apostrophe, if a speaker or character
directly addresses an inanimate object. Example: “0 wild West Wind, thou breath of
Autumn’s being!”
16. Symbol. A symbol is something that stands both for itself and for something beyond itself.
Roses are traditional symbols of love and beauty. A dove is a traditional symbol of peace.
(continued)
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17. Synesthesia. Synesthesia is a figure of speech in which two different senses are combined.
Example: “Jack wore a noisy red sweater.”
18. Understatement. An understatement is an ironic expression in which something of
importance is emphasized by being spoken of as though it were not important. Example:
“The Emperor was dealing with a few minor matters like war on his borders and food riots
in the streets of his cities.”
Techniques Involving Sound
(commonly, but not exclusively, found in poetry)
19. Alliteration. Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds. Example:
“.
. . the kass boat, hobbing heautifully”
20. Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is the use of words or phrases that sound like the things
that they describe. Examples: buzz, chop, clatter, mumble, clank, meow.
21. Rhythm. Rhythm is the pattern of beats, or stressed and unstressed syllables, in a line. The
following line is made up of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables:
Is this the face that launched a thousand ships?
Oh, just a few minor matters, like war on my borders and food riots in the streets of my
cities.
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Literary Elements and Techniques
Peculiar to Poetry
Rhyme Scheme (the pattern of rhymes in a poem)
1.
Rhymed verse is poetry with a regular rhyme scheme.
2.
End rhyme is rhyming at the ends of lines, as in
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
3.
Internal rhyme is rhyming within lines, as in “I see a bumblebee.”
4.
Slant rhyme is a near rhyme, as in “What did the wind/ See to find?
Meter (the rhythmical pattern in a poem)
5.
Free verse is poetry that does not have a set pattern of rhythm or rhyme.
6.
Metrical verse is poetry with a regular rhythmical pattern.
Stanza Form
7.
A stanza is a group of lines in a poem.
8.
A couplet is a two-line stanza.
9.
A triplet, or tercet, is a three-line stanza.
10. A quatrain is a four-line stanza.
11. A quintain is a five-line stanza.
12. A sestet is a six-line stanza.
13. A heptastich is a seven-line stanza.
14. An octave is an eight-line stanza.
15. A sonnet is a poem with fourteen lines having any of a number of different standard rhyme
schemes.
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Your Turn
A. Read the poems on the following page: John Donne’s “Death, Be Not Proud,” which you
saw in the Pretest, and Christina Rossetti’s “A Birthday.” Then do the following.
1.
Find an example of apostrophe in “Death, Be Not Proud.”
2.
Explain why “Death, Be Not Proud” can be called a sonnet.
3.
Tell what kind of poem “Death, Be Not Proud” and “A Birthday” are— narrative,
dramatic, or lyric—and explain why.
4.
Find three similes in “A Birthday.”
5.
Find an example of personification in “Death, Be Not Proud.”
6.
Answer these questions: Is “A Birthday” free verse? rhymed verse? metrical verse?
7.
Find two examples of metaphor in “Death, Be Not Proud.”
8.
Find one example of irony in “Death, Be Not Proud.”
9.
Find examples of repetition in “A Birthday.”
10. Find one example of alliteration in “Death, Be Not Proud” and one example in “A
Birthday.”
11. Explain the tone of the speaker in each of these poems.
12. What is the stanza form of “A Birthday ?“
13. In line 4 of “A Birthday,” the speaker mentions fruit. Of what might this fruit be a symbol?
14. What is the theme of “A Birthday?” Of “Death, Be Not Proud”?
B. Work with other students in a small group to find in literary anthologies and other sources
one example of each of the genres defined in this lesson. Create a chart listing each genre
and the title and author(s) of the work that is an example of each one.
Example:
Genre Short Story
Work “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” by Stephen Vincent Benét
C. Work with other students in a small group to find in literary anthologies and other sources
one example of each of the figures of speech, rhetorical techniques, and techniques
involving sound defined in this lesson. Create a chart listing each technique and an
example of it.
Example:
Technique Hyperbole
Example “And I will love you still, my dear, When all the seas run dry.”
—Robert Burns
“To a Red, Red Rose”
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Be Not Proud
by John Donne
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.
A Birthday
by Christina Rossetti
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work in it gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
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