Literary Texts and Narrative Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide
Types of Texts
Everyday Texts
Rules, instructions, application letters, forums, etc.
Academic Texts
Abstracts, drawings, reports, explanations of processes, etc.
Media Texts
News, chronicles, etc.
Literary Texts
Literary texts create imaginary worlds through words, born from human imagination.
Functions of Literature
- Provide aesthetic enjoyment and pleasure.
- Entertain and offer escape from reality.
- Model securities or social and political injustices.
- Enable identification with characters.
- Encourage reflection on behavior.
Language Varieties
Humans communicate through verbal language, exchanging information formally and informally.
Linguistic Registers
Language varieties depend on the communicative situation.
Oral and Written Registers
- Oral: Characterized by the physical presence of the interlocutor (except phone calls), lack of message planning, and limited ability to correct after delivery.
- Written: Allows for planning and revision.
Summarizing and Outlining
Summary: A concise, rewritten version of a text’s fundamental concepts in one’s own words.
Outline: A structured organization of a text’s most important information.
Literary Language and Stylistic Devices
Metaphor
Identification of two different realities. Example: Day, round day / light orange, 24 segments.
Simile
Comparison of two realities using “like” or equivalent expressions. Example: The snow crunches like hotcakes.
Personification
Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects. Example: Do you know the winds their names?
Repetition Resources
Alliteration
Repetition of sounds at the beginning of words. Example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Anaphora
Repetition of words at the beginning of successive lines or sentences.
Parallelism
Repetition of syntactic structure. Example: It is absent in your body / remained in his clothes.
Classes of Words
Nouns
Words describing objects, beings, or ideas. Preceded by articles (the, a, an). Variable in gender and number. Types: concrete/abstract, common/proper, individual/collective.
Adjectives
Words conveying qualities or characteristics of nouns. Agree in gender and number with the noun they modify.
Determinative Adjectives
Select the object being referred to.
- Demonstrative: This, that, these, those.
- Possessive: My, mine, your, yours, his, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs.
- Cardinal Numbers: 1, 2, 3, etc.
- Ordinal Numbers: First, second, third, etc.
- Indefinite: A, some, any, several, all, few, etc.
Diacritical Marks
Used to distinguish monosyllables with the same form but different meanings.
Descriptions
Technical Description
Objective and factual.
Literary Description
Subjective and evocative.
Literary Genres
Narrative
Tells a fictional story.
Lyric
Expresses feelings, emotions, or states of mind, often in verse.
Drama
Designed for stage performance.
Verbs
Express actions or states in time (past, present, future).
Verbal Combinations
Verbs are conjugated.
Present Indicative Values
- Present Tense: Actions occurring now.
- Historical Present: Past events described as present.
- Immediate Present: Actions happening shortly.
- Present Value of Future: Future actions.
- Habitual Present: Repeated actions.
- Gnomic Present: Universal truths or definitions.
Accentuation
Diphthongs, Triphthongs, and Hiatuses
Diphthong: Two vowels in one syllable.
Triphthong: Three vowels in one syllable.
Hiatus: Two vowels in separate syllables.
Narrative
A sequence of events.
Literary Narratives
Fictitious events (legends, myths, folktales, fables).
Non-Literary Narratives
Real events (news, biographies).
Elements of Narrative
- Narrator
- Characters (primary and secondary)
- Time (when, duration)
- Space (where)
- Plot (sequence of events)
Narrative Order
- Linear: Chronological order.
- Flashback: Jumping back in time.
- Prolepsis (Flashforward): Jumping forward in time.
Pronouns
Words that replace nouns.
Adverbs
Invariable words expressing place, time, manner, quantity, affirmation, negation.
Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections
Prepositions and Conjunctions: Connect words.
- Copulative Conjunctions: And, or.
- Causal Conjunctions: Because.
- Conditional Conjunctions: If.
- Disjunctive Conjunctions: Or.
- Adversative Conjunctions: But.
- Concessive Conjunctions: Although.
Interjections: Invariable words expressing emotion, always exclamatory.