Exploring Literary Texts and Genres
Literary Texts
Literature and the Literary
Literature is a unique form of communication characterized by a universal audience, absence of immediate practical purpose, creative function, enduring and unchanging nature, reflection of the author’s perspective, and open interpretation.
Literary Genres
The concept of genre has been a source of ongoing debate, giving rise to two main perspectives: classical and romantic. The classical view adheres to established genre boundaries and models, while the romantic perspective champions authorial freedom, originality, and genre blending. Interestingly, both perspectives rely on the concept of genre as a set of predefined norms.
Archigéneros, or generic categories (fundamental models of structuring within the Western literary tradition), encompass lyrical, epic, and dramatic forms. Literary genres and subgenres are concrete manifestations of these categories, each with a specific structure.
The distinction between generic categories or archigéneros is based on the author’s approach to the content:
- Lyrical: Expresses a subjective viewpoint, emphasizing the author’s emotions and self-expression. Typically written in verse, with subgenres like ode, song, story, elegy, and eclogue.
- Epic: Narrates events, either recounted by a narrator or experienced by the narrator. The world presented is a fictional reality, a product of the author’s imagination, though sometimes based on real events. The corresponding discourse is narrative, presented in prose genres and subgenres.
- Dramatic: Eliminates the author’s ego, presenting a direct representation of events through dialogue between characters. The primary form of speech is dialogue. Prominent theatrical genres (or subgenres) include:
- Tragedy: A character confronts an unchangeable tragic destiny, leading to a devastating end.
- Drama: Characters face adversity, with an uncertain outcome.
- Comedy: Presents superficial conflicts of everyday life, often with humor, and typically has a happy ending.
- Tragicomedy: Blends elements of tragedy and comedy.
Linguistic Aspects
Literariness is what defines a literary text.
Literary Language
Jakobson’s poetic function, a communicative function, focuses on the message itself. Carreter suggests that the defining characteristic of literary language is its intentionality.
Various approaches explain the mechanisms of the poetic function:
- Automatization: Everyday language use can lead to worn-out expressions. Literary language consciously avoids this, seeking new connections between signifier and signified.
- Estrangement: To capture the reader’s attention, literary language must surprise and disrupt expectations.
Linguistic Elements and Poetic Resources
Elements that shape literary style can be categorized as:
a) Elements common to language, but with heightened significance in literary expression:
- Connotation: Enriches the text with emotional and evocative meanings, prompting deeper interpretation.
- Multiple Meanings: Polysemy extends beyond individual words to the entire text, allowing for diverse readings.
b) Elements exclusive to literary texts: The focus is on the form of the message, how language is used to create an effect distinct from everyday communication.