A Guide to Literary Genres, Forms, and Figures

Posted on Sep 23, 2024 in Latin

Prose and Verse

Prose is the form of expression most literary works use. It resembles everyday speech in its distribution.

Verse is characterized by its musicality. This musicality is achieved by:

  • Accents
  • Rhyme
  • Syllable count

Figures of Repetition

  • Alliteration: Repetition of one or more phonemes in a verse to imitate a sound.
  • Anaphora: Repetition of a word at the beginning of a verse or phrase.
  • Parallelism: Repetition of similar syntactic structures.
  • Pleonasm: Use of unnecessary words in the verse for emphasis and expressiveness.
  • Polysyndeton: Continuous repetition of conjunctions.

Figures of Significance

  • Allegory: The global sense of the text is transformed to express a distinct idea using an extended metaphor.
  • Antithesis: Confronting words or sentences with opposite meanings.
  • Apostrophe: An exclamation used to address someone or something.
  • Hyperbole: Exaggeration.
  • Metaphor: Identifying a real term with an imaginary one, based on similarity.
  • Metonymy: Designating a thing with the name of another, based on a relationship of meaning.
  • Simile: Comparing two objects or realities through a link.
  • Synesthesia: Sensations of different senses are united.

Figures of Suppression

  • Asyndeton: Removal of conjunctions in a verse for a more vivid effect.
  • Ellipsis: Removal of one or more words that are obvious from the context.

Figures of Order

  • Hyperbaton: Altering the logical or normal order of words in a sentence.
  • Chiasmus: Placing two equivalent members in a sentence in reverse order.

Literary Genres

Lyric

Expresses subjective sensations, experiences, or thoughts. Its common form of expression is verse.

Narrative

Presents a story told by a narrator. It is characterized by narrative action.

Dramatic

Texts written to be directly represented on stage. They include dialogue, stage directions, and asides.

Poetic Forms

  • Elegy: Expresses feelings of grief over the death of a loved one.
  • Eclogue: Dialogue between shepherds about love affairs within an idealized framework.
  • Ode: Addresses various issues in an elevated tone.
  • Song: Typically about love, although it can express other feelings.
  • Satire: Humorous and brief presentation of individual and social defects.

Subgenres of Narrative in Verse

Epic

Praises the exploits of a prodigious hero.

Chanson de Geste

Epic creation and dissemination of oral tradition, designed to extol the exploits of a hero, written in verse between 14-16 syllables divided into hemistichs.

Romance

Short poem of oral creation and dissemination. From the 15th century onwards, they became individual genres with diverse themes. They are written in verses of 8 syllables with assonance rhyme in pairs of verses.

Subgenres of Narrative in Prose

  • Novel: Develops an extensive fictional story in a determined space and time.
  • Short Story: A brief narrative with a condensed plot.
  • Legend: Fictional story that has its origin in a historical event or events. They often blend historical and fantastical elements.
  • Apologue: Tells a story that transmits moral codes and standards.
  • Epistle: A letter, often doctrinal, philosophical, moral, or satirical, addressed to a specific recipient.
  • Fable: Short anecdotes that use personified animals as protagonists and always convey a moral.
  • Essay: Text through which the author addresses a wide audience to explain their perspective on a topic.

Mozarabic Lyric

Mozarabic was the language of Christians living in Muslim territory. The most important examples are the jarchas, short compositions appended to the end of some Arabic or Hebrew poems called moaxajas. The main theme is love, and they are written from the perspective of a woman lamenting the absence of her lover. They abound in exclamations, interrogative sentences, and expressive language.

Galician-Portuguese Lyric

Characterized by a parallelistic structure that repeats the same verse throughout the poem. The main types are:

  • Cantigas de Amor: Love songs sung by a man, developing the theme of courtly love.
  • Cantigas de Amigo: Put into the mouth of a woman who laments the absence of her lover.
  • Cantigas de Escárnio e Maldizer: Satirical songs that mock vices, defects, or individuals.

Castilian Lyric

Includes songs derived from pagan floral rituals, seafaring songs, and rustic songs. However, the most representative are the carols and serranillas.

  • Carol: Strophic poems composed of a chorus and a gloss. The chorus develops the content, often centered around the theme of love.
  • Serranilla: Pastoral poems derived from Provençal literature, although they present more realistic descriptive features.

Characteristics of Epic Poetry

  • Historicist Character: The hero often appears as a larger-than-life figure whose deeds ensure the fate of their society.
  • Triumphal Return of the Hero: The hero embodies the destiny of their people and spreads the ideals of their social class, often feudal.
  • Structure: Formed by long verse sets, typically between 14 and 16 syllables, divided into hemistichs separated by a caesura. Assonance and rhyme are repeated in a variable number of verses.

Epic Poetry in Castile

Only three poems are considered to be part of the Castilian epic tradition:

  • Song of Roncesvalles
  • Mocedades de Rodrigo
  • Cantar de Mio Cid

Cantar de Mio Cid

The author focuses on specific aspects of the Cid’s life, such as:

  • Loyalty to the king
  • Honor
  • Consideration and effort
  • Faith in God

Structure

  • Song of Exile: The Cid is exiled by King Alfonso VI of Castile and leaves Vivar. He entrusts his family to the monastery of San Pedro de Cardena and embarks on a journey marked by battles in foreign lands. He sends tokens of submission and vassalage to the king in hopes of obtaining a pardon.
  • Song of the Wedding: Narrates the conquest of Valencia and the Cid sending a new embassy to King Alfonso VI. The gifts he sends arouse the greed of the Infantes of Carrión, who ask for the Cid’s daughters in marriage. The king intervenes and publicly forgives the Cid. The song ends with the marriage of the Cid’s daughters to the Infantes.
  • Song of the Shame of Corpes: The Infantes of Carrión reveal their cowardice and plot their revenge. They ask the Cid’s permission to take their wives to Carrión, but abandon them at the oaks of Corpes. The Cid demands justice from the king in Toledo. A trial is held, and the Infantes are defeated in a duel.

Style

  • Epic Epithets: Characterized by the use of adjectives to highlight the hero’s qualities.
  • Pleonasms: Used to add expressiveness to the text.
  • Appeals to the Public: The narrator often addresses the audience directly.