Literary Genres: Lyrical and Narrative Analysis
Literary Genres: Lyrical and Narrative
Lyrical Genre
Lyric: Lyrical works express the author’s intimate and personal ideas and feelings, making them subjective. Lyrical sentiments often include themes of death, melancholy, sadness, and infatuation.
Features of Lyrical Works
- Extensive use of poetic function.
- Synonymous with poetry, displaying many stylistic figures.
- Strong presence of the expressive function, manifesting feelings, visions, and emotions of the author.
- Concentration and brevity.
- Low presence of narrative elements (space, time, characters).
- Often lacks a plot.
- Emphasizes rhythm and musicality.
- Supports a wide variety of themes, forms, tones, and intentions.
Verse in Lyrical Works
Verse serves as a vehicle of expression, condensing the intimacy of the poet. A line consists of a set of words with a rhythmic structure written on one line. Verses are grouped to form stanzas and often share rhymes and sizes. Verses can range from 2 lines (paired) to 14 (sonnet). Verses are also grouped in strophic series.
Main Lyrical Subgenres
- Elegy: Expresses sorrow at death.
- Eclogue: Expresses feelings of love.
- Ode: Addresses religious, philosophical, or heroic themes.
- Hymn: Honors a person, event, or expresses enthusiasm.
- Satire: Ridicules individual or social behavior.
- Songs: Popular medieval troubadour songs, often about love.
- Haiku: Japanese form developing a theme rooted in nature.
- Sonnet: Commonly used, consisting of two quatrains.
Narrative Genre
Narrative Components:
Narrator and Point of View
- Omniscient Narrator: Knows everything.
- Witness Narrator: Objectively describes events.
- Character Narrator: A character in the story (1st person), potentially the protagonist.
Plot and Narrative Structure
The plot can be real, plausible (believable), or unlikely (impossible). It consists of four parts:
- Introduction (presentation of place, time, and characters).
- Conflict (creates a problem).
- Action (incidents that trigger characters).
- Outcome (story ends by resolving the initial problem; can be closed or open-ended).
The narrative structure can be linear (events listed chronologically) or nonlinear (jumps in time, flash-backs).
Characters
Characters should be analyzed according to their presence:
- Protagonist: Lies at the center of the main action, may be heroic or unheroic; the antagonist is their enemy.
- Collective Protagonist: No single character stands out.
- Secondary: Accompany the protagonist regularly.
Also analyzed according to their description:
- Flat: Do not change their characteristics.
- Round: Features vary throughout the work.
And finally, according to their function:
- Actor Network: Involved in a decisive way.
- Shooting: Companions of low relief.
Dialogue between characters can be direct, indirect, or free indirect.
Time and Space
Time: Considered at two levels: external (hours, days) and internal (narrative rhythm).
Space: Depending on location: closed or open. According to its relationship with reality: real or fictional.
Major Narrative Subgenres
- Epic Poem: Tells in verse the exploits of a hero.
- Story: Short with a didactic purpose.
- Fable: Story featuring animals with a strong educational character.
- Legend: Report of oral or written tradition of a legendary event.
- Biography: The life of a real person.
- Novel: Main narrative subgenre, several characters live events within a frame. Often structured into chapters. Novels include: police, science fiction, horror, historical, adventure, and romance novels.