A Comprehensive Guide to Literature: Genres, Styles, and History
Definition of Literature
Literature encompasses several dimensions:
- Individual aesthetic creation
- Communication of values and feelings
- Reflection of a particular worldview
The term “literature” originates from Latin.
Characteristics of Literature
- Style: Seeks to transcend the everyday with a more cultured, refined, or experimental form of expression.
- Authorial Intent: Driven by aesthetic purpose.
- Reader Impact: The author aims to affect the reader, listener, or viewer.
- Boundless Plausibility: Literary texts are not limited by historical accuracy; authors have creative freedom.
Analyzing Literature
We analyze literature as:
- An aesthetic phenomenon
- A communicative phenomenon
- A social phenomenon
Literary Genres
Literary works can be categorized based on their characteristics.
Lyric
Lyrical works are expressions of the poet’s feelings, typically in verse (poetry), sometimes in prose (poetic prose).
- Ode: Expressive poems conveying feelings or ideas in a leisurely manner.
- Hymn: Solemn songs expressing patriotic or religious feelings.
- Elegy: Extensive poems expressing grief for individual or collective misfortune.
- Song: Poems commonly expressing love, but can explore other themes.
- Eclogue: Poems expressing love and nature’s exaltation, often featuring pastoral characters.
- Satire: Poems using humor to criticize or ridicule.
Narrative Genres (Including Narrative Verse)
Narrative texts develop a story, either invented or imagined, told by a narrator, typically in prose, but sometimes in verse.
- Epic Poem: Long narrative poems celebrating a hero’s exploits.
- Epistle: Composition in letter form addressing philosophical or moral issues.
- Fable: Short stories with animal characters representing human conditions, conveying a moral lesson.
Narrative Subgenres in Prose
- Novel: Extensive stories developing a plot in a specific time and place, exploring characters’ behaviors and feelings.
- Short Story: Brief narratives of a simple, fictitious action with few characters and condensed storytelling.
- Novella: Works presenting a single event, shorter than a novel, with condensed action, time, and space.
- Legend: Fictional stories rooted in historical fact, often featuring fantastical elements.
- Fable (Prose): Tales transmitting moral codes and lessons, concluding with a moral.
Drama
Dramatic texts present actions through character dialogue, intended for public performance. The story unfolds through dialogue, requiring costumes and scenery.
Subgenres of Drama
- Tragedy: High-ranking characters struggle against fate.
- Comedy: Everyday life situations presented humorously with a happy ending.
- Spanish Baroque Comedy: Comedies from 16th- and 17th-century Spain, not solely focused on laughter.
- Dramatic Sonata (3 Acts): Imitates human actions and entertains the public.
- Drama (Genre): Blends elements of tragedy and comedy, featuring conflict and occasional humor. Social drama addresses collective or social conflicts.
- Farce: Comic drama using ridiculous situations and characters to provoke thought.
- Sainete: Short, comical pieces with popular characters.
Essay
Essays explain and defend the author’s perspective on a particular issue, using original ideas and clear language.
Socio-Cultural Context of the Middle Ages
Medieval literature refers to Castilian works written between the early 12th and late 15th centuries.
- Key works include The Poem of Mio Cid and La Celestina.
- Political instability characterized the Iberian Peninsula due to the Reconquista and shifting kingdom borders.
- Society comprised three levels: nobility (warriors), clergy, and commoners (peasants and artisans).
- Three communities coexisted: Christian, Mudejar, and Jewish.
- Modern copyright concepts didn’t exist; authority stemmed from tradition, not originality, leading authors to omit signatures.
- Latin remained the language of knowledge transmission.
- Medieval culture was religious and theocentric due to Church influence.
- Monks copied books in monasteries, preserving important works.
- Literature was primarily oral, with music aiding memorization.
- Prose was often read aloud.
- Minstrels, royal courts, and pilgrimages contributed to literary dissemination.
- Medieval Castilian differed significantly from modern Castilian.
- Early written Castilian appeared in 10th-century legal documents.
- Linguistic legislation standardized Castilian.
- Antonio de Nebrija wrote the first Spanish grammar.