Categorizing Literature
Back in ancient Greece, literature was
divided into two main categories: tragedy and comedy. Nowadays the list of
possible types and genres of
literature can seem
endless. But it is still possible to narrow down the vast amount of literature
available into a few basic groups.
The five genres of literature students
should be familiar with are Poetry, Drama, Prose, Nonfiction, and Media—each
of which is explained in more detail below. You’ll see some overlap between
genres; for example prose is a broader term that includes both drama and
non-fiction. At the end of this article we’ll also touch on a couple of
narrower but still important literary categories.
Poetry
This is often considered the oldest form
of literature. Before writing was invented, oral stories were commonly put into
some sort of poetic form to make them easier to remember and recite. Poetry
today is usually written down, but is still sometimes performed.
A lot of people think of rhymes and
counting syllables and lines when they think of poetry, and some poems
certainly follow strict forms. But other types of poetry are so free-form that
they lack any rhymes or common patterns. There are even kinds of poetry that cross
genre lines, such as prose poetry. In general, though, a text is a poem when it
has some sort of meter or rhythm,
and when it focuses on the way the syllables, words, and phrases sound when put
together. Poems are heavy in imagery and metaphor, and are often made up of
fragments and phrases rather than complete, grammatically correct sentences.
And poetry is nearly always written in stanzas and lines, creating a unique
look on the page.
Poetry as experienced in the classroom
is usually one of three types. There are the shorter, more modern poems,
spanning anything from a few lines to a few pages. Often these are collected in
books of poems by a single author or by a variety of writers. Edgar Allen Poe’s
“The Raven,"
is one of the most commonly taught poems of this type. Then there are the
classical, formulaic poems of Shakespeare’s time, such as the blank verse and
the sonnet. And finally there are the ancient, epic poems transcribed from oral
stories. These long, complex poems resemble novels, such as Homer’s The
Iliad and The Odyssey.
Prose
Once you know what poetry is, it’s easy
to define prose. Prose can be defined as any kind of written text that isn’t
poetry (which means drama, discussed below, is technically a type of prose).
The most typical varieties of prose are novels and short stories, while other
types include letters, diaries, journals, and non-fiction (also discussed
below). Prose is written in complete sentences and organized in paragraphs.
Instead of focusing on sound, which is what poetry does, prose tends to focus
on plot and characters.
Prose is the type of literature read
most often in English classrooms. Any novel or short story falls into this
category, from Jane Eyre to Twilight and from “A Sound of Thunder"
to “The Crucible." Like poetry, prose is broken down into a large number of other sub-genres.
Some of these genres revolve around the structure of the text, such as
novellas, biographies, and memoirs, and others are based on the subject matter,
like romances, fantasies, and mysteries.
Drama
Any text meant to be performed rather
than read can be considered drama (unless it’s a poem meant to be performed, of
course). In layman’s terms, dramas are usually called plays. When written down
the bulk of a drama is dialogue, with periodic stage directions such as “he
looks away angrily." Of all the genres of literature discussed in this
article, drama is the one given the least time in most classrooms. And often
when drama is taught, it’s only read the same way you might read a novel. Since dramas are meant
to be acted out in front of an audience, it’s hard to fully appreciate them
when looking only at pages of text. Students respond best to dramas, and grasp
their mechanics more fully, when exposed to film or theater versions or
encouraged to read aloud or act out scenes during class.
The dramas most commonly taught in
classrooms are definitely those written by the bard. Shakespeare’s plays are
challenging, but rewarding when approached with a little effort and a critical
mindset. Popular choices from his repertoire include Hamlet, Taming
of the Shrew, and Romeo and Juliet, among others. Older Greek plays are also taught
fairly often, especially Sophocles’ Antigone. And
any good drama unit should include more modern plays for comparison, such as
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
Non-Fiction
Poetry and drama both belong to the
broader category of fiction—texts
that feature events and characters that have been made up. Then there is
non-fiction, a vast category that is a type of prose and includes many
different sub-genres. Non-fiction can be creative, such as the personal essay,
or factual, such as the scientific paper. Sometimes the purpose of non-fiction
is to tell a story (hence the autobiography), but most of the time the purpose
is to pass on information and educate the reader about certain facts, ideas,
and/or issues.
Some genres of non-fiction
include histories, textbooks, travel books, newspapers, self-help books, and
literary criticism. A full list of non-fiction types would be at least as long
as this entire article. But the varieties most often used in the classroom are
textbooks, literary criticism, and essays of various sorts. Most of what
students practice writing in the classroom is the non-fiction essay, from
factual to personal to persuasive. And non-fiction is often used to support and
expand students’ understanding of fiction texts—after reading Hamlet students
might read critical articles about the play and historical information about
the time period and/or the life of Shakespeare.
Media
The newest type of literature that has
been defined as a distinct genre is media. This categorization was created to
encompass the many new and important kinds of texts in our society today, such
as movies and films, websites, commercials, billboards, and radio programs. Any
work that doesn’t exist primarily as a written text can probably be considered
media, particularly if it relies on recently developed technologies. Media
literature can serve a wide variety of purposes—among other things it can
educate, entertain, advertise, and/or persuade.
More and more educators are coming to
recognize the importance of teaching media in the classroom. Students are likely to be exposed to far more of this
type of literature than anything else throughout their lives, so it makes sense
to teach them how to be critical and active consumers of media. Internet
literacy is a growing field, for example, since the skills required to
understand and use online information differ in important ways from the skills
required to analyze printed information. Teaching media literacy is also a
great way for educators to help students become participants in their own
culture, through lessons on creating their own websites or home movies or
commercials.
These are far from the only important
genres of literature. Here are a few more that are sometimes used in
classrooms:
Oral Literature: The oldest type of literature, and the foundation
on which culture was built. Now most oral texts have been written down, of
course, and are usually taught in the form of epic poems or plays or folk
tales.
Folklore/Folk
Tales/Fables: A distinction is often made between regular prose and
folklore. Most folk tales
were originally oral literature, and are short stories meant to pass on a
particular lesson or moral. They often have a timeless quality, dealing with
common human concerns that are just as relevant to us today, while still being
products of a very specific culture and time period.
Graphic Novels and Comic
Books: It used to be that most educators saw comic
books as the lowest form of literature, not suitable or valuable for children.
But times have changed, and many teachers have come to realize that comic books
and the more modern graphic novels are
both appealing to kids and are a valid form of literature in their own right.
※Dramatic structure
Dramatic structure (also called Freytag's pyramid) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a play or film. Many scholars have analyzed dramatic structure, beginning
with Aristotle in his Poetics (c.
335 BCE). This article focuses primarily on Gustav Freytag's analysis of ancient Greek and Shakespearean drama.
※Sonnet
A sonnet is a poem in a specific form which
originated in Italy; Giacomo da Lentini is credited with its invention.
The term sonnet is derived from the Italian word sonetto (from Old Provençal sonet a little poem, from son song, from Latin sonus a sound). By the thirteenth century it
signified a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. Conventions associated with the sonnet
have evolved over its history. Writers of sonnets are sometimes called
"sonneteers", although the term can be used derisively.
※Rhyme Scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at
the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate
which lines rhyme; lines designated
with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
※Lyre
The lyre (Greek: λύρα, lýra) is a string instrument known for
its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods. The lyre is similar in
appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences. The word comes via
Latin from the Greek;the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek
ru-ra-ta-e, meaning "lyrists" and written in the Linear B script. The
lyres of Ur, excavated in ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), date to 2500 BC.The
earliest picture of a lyre with seven strings appears in the famous sarcophagus
of Hagia Triada (a Minoan settlement in Crete). The sarcophagus was used during
the Mycenaean occupation of Crete (1400 BC). The recitations of the Ancient
Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing.
※Muse
The Muses are
the inspirational goddesses of literature, science,
and the arts in Greek mythology. They were considered the source of
the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric songs, and myths that were related orally for centuries in these ancient
cultures. They were later adopted by the Romans as a part of their pantheon.
In current English usage, "muse" can refer in
general to a person who inspires an artist, musician, or writer.
※Iambic Pentameter
Iambic pentameter /aɪˈæmbɪk pɛnˈtæmᵻtər/ is a commonly used type of metrical line in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm that the words establish in
that line, which is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". The word "iambic" refers to the type of
foot that is used, known as the iamb,
which in English is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The
word "pentameter" indicates that a line has five of these
"feet".
Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry;
it is used in many of the major English poetic forms, including blank verse, the heroic couplet, and some of the traditional rhymed stanza forms. William Shakespeare used iambic pentameter in his plays and sonnets.
※Shall I Compare Thee to a summer’s day
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
※Affixes
a-: prefix meaning "not,
without," from Greek a-, an- "not"
(the "alpha privative"), from PIE root *ne "not"
(source also of Latin nil, English un- (q.v.)). In words from Greek, such
as abyssmal, adamant, amethyst; also partly nativized as a prefix of
negation (asexual, amoral, agnostic).
chrono-: before
vowels chron-, word-forming element meaning "time," from
Latinized form of Greek khrono-, comb. form of khronos "time,
a defined time, a lifetime, a season, a while," which is of uncertain
origin, such as chronic, chronicle, chronometer.
dis-: (assimilated as dif- before -f-,
to di- before most voiced consonants), word-forming element
meaning 1. "lack of, not" (as in dishonest);
2. "do the opposite of" (as in disallow);
3. "apart, away" (as in discard), from Old French des- or
directly from Latin dis- "apart, in a different
direction, between," figuratively "not, un-," also
"exceedingly, utterly," from PIE *dis- "apart,
asunder" (source also of Old English te-, Old Saxon ti-,
Old High German ze-, German zer-).
syn-: word-forming
element meaning "together with, jointly; alike; at the same time,"
also sometimes completive or intensive, from Greek syn (prep.)
"with, together with, along with, in the company of," from PIE *ksun- "with"
(source also of Russian so- "with, together," from
Old Russian su(n)-). Assimilated to -l-, reduced
to sy- before -s- and -z-, and
altered to sym- before -b-, -m- and -p-.
Since 1970s also with a sense of "synthetic." For example, synod, syncretism, syncretism.
-pathy: word-forming
element meaning "feeling, suffering, emotion; disorder, disease,"
from Latin -pathia, from Greek -patheia "act
of suffering, feeling" (see pathos).
Meaning "system of treatment of disease" is abstracted from homeopathy (q.v.).
※Definition
Chromic
disease: A
chronic condition is a human health condition or disease that is persistent or
otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The
term chronic is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more
than three months. Common chronic diseases include arthritis, asthma, cancer,
COPD, diabetes and viral diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS.
Acute
disease: In
medicine, describing a disease as acute denotes that it is of short duration
and, as a corollary of that, of recent onset. The quantitation of how much time
constitutes "short" and "recent" varies by disease and by
context, but the core denotation of "acute" is always qualitatively
in contrast with "chronic", which denotes long-lasting disease (for
example, in acute leukemia and chronic leukemia). In addition,
"acute" also often connotes two other meanings: sudden onset and
severity, such as in acute myocardial infarction (AMI), where suddenness and
severity are both established aspects of the meaning. It thus often connotes
that the condition is fulminant (as in the AMI example), but not always (as in
acute rhinitis, which is usually synonymous with the common cold). The one
thing that acute MI and acute rhinitis have in common is that they are not
chronic. They can happen again (as in recurrent pneumonia, that is, multiple
acute pneumonia episodes), but they are not the same case ongoing for months or
years (unlike chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is).
theocracy: Theocracy is a form of government in which a deity is the source from which all authority derives. The Oxford English Dictionary has this definition:
bureaucracy: Bureaucrac is a term that refers to
both a body of non-elective government officials and an administrative
policy-making group.Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials.Today, bureaucracy is the administrative system governing any
large institution. The public administration in many countries is an example of a bureaucracy.
democracy: Democracy (Greek: δημοκρατία, Dēmoskrátos literally "rule of
the people"), in modern usage, is a system of government in which the
citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves
to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as "rule of the
majority".Western democracy, as distinct from that which existed in
pre-civilized societies, is generally considered to have originated in city
states such as Classical Athens and the Roman Republic,
where various schemes and degrees of enfranchisement of the free male
population were observed before the form disappeared in the West at the
beginning of late antiquity.
The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle
French and Middle Latin equivalents.
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