Literary Works Across Centuries: Genres, Authors, and Themes
1. The Song of Songs
Author: Anonymous
Genre: Lyric Poetry
Literary Characteristics: Oral Transmission, Part of the Old Testament (Poetic Books – Psalms and Lamentations), 6th Century BC, Song of Celebration, Wedding Song (Reference to Solomon), Use of Metaphors, Allegories, Synesthesia.
Themes: Love (Before Human Love, After – Man and God, God and His People)
Structure: Short, Wedding Song, No Logical Connection of Verbs.
2. Ausiàs March
15th Century
Genre: Love Poetry
Language: Catalan
Themes: Love Songs, Moral, Spiritual, and Predominantly Death. Sings about love, but from a perspective of moral doubt and reflection (physical, spiritual).
Influences: Troubadour Poetry (Reflecting Feudal Society) but not a Troubadour, as he introduces more thematic chords reflecting modern concerns and values.
3. The Odyssey
Author: Homer
Genre: Greek Epic Poetry
Period: 8th Century BC
Style: Narrative Poetry, Recounts Heroic Deeds. More suited to be heard than read.
Structure: Long Poem that tells the adventures of Greek men.
Influence: Significant influence on Greek thought and culture.
Themes: Odysseus’ long and difficult journey to Ithaca as a metaphor of life as a return journey full of dangers and obstacles to overcome. Focus on adventure, can be interpreted metaphorically, and presents a mythical world.
4. Oedipus Rex
Author: Sophocles
Genre: Greek Tragedy
Period: 5th Century BC
Themes: Explores universal customs and taboos (incest, patricide, suicide). The inability to escape fate.
Characters: Oedipus, Jocasta, Creon, Tiresias, the Chorus, the Servant, the Priest, the Messenger.
5. Tirant lo Blanc
Author: Joanot Martorell
Genre: Chivalric Novel
Period: 15th Century
Themes: Tells of arms and love adventures of its protagonist. Considered a complete novel (chivalry, court, military, erotic, and psychological).
Characters: Realistic and believable characters.
Style: Credible and realistic novel with few fantastic episodes. Incorporates humor and sensuality.
6. Don Quixote
Author: Miguel de Cervantes
Genre: Novel
Period: 17th Century (Two Parts: 1605 and 1615)
Style: Modern Novel, taking chivalric novels as a model, critical of this genre.
Characters: Many characters, influenced by chivalric, pastoral, and picaresque novels.
Themes: Don Quixote, a model of ethical and aesthetic ideal of life, becomes a knight to defend justice. Represents a synthesis of life and literature, lived life and dream life (realism and fantasy), complex human relationships.
7. Hamlet
Author: William Shakespeare
Genre: Tragedy
Period: 16th and 17th Centuries
Style: Uses elements of tragedy, characters embody human dilemmas and cannot escape tragic fate. Incorporates formal scenic innovations and rich poetry.
Themes: Value and meaning of life (famous monologue), the worth of enduring suffering. The value of life and death, revenge, madness, determination, indecision, the repugnance of a dirty world.
8. Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
Genre: Science Fiction
Period: 19th Century
Structure: Composed of three concentric narratives (Robert Walton and his sister’s letters, Victor Frankenstein’s narrative, the monster’s narrative).
Themes: The monster (“that being, creature, demon, horrendous host”) born innocent, becomes brutal due to loneliness, horror, and contempt. Rejection by its creator. Principle of life and myth of creation, freedom and responsibility, thirst for knowledge, imagination and reason, the lack of neutrality in science, conflict between creator and creature (father and son), exaltation of friendship.
9. The Metamorphosis
Author: Franz Kafka
Genre: Narrative Fiction
Period: 20th Century
Themes: Authoritarian society (father), solitude (broken relationships). Allegory for irreversible disease, human selfishness towards the welfare of others.
Characters: Gregor, his father, his sister Greta, his mother, and his boss.
Setting: The dining room and bedroom.
10. Anna Akhmatova
Pseudonym of Anna Andreyevna Gorenko
Genre: Poetry
Period: 20th Century
Style: Acmeist poetry (art movement advocating for precise language). Early works: lyric poetry using images to present specific details. Later works: introduced intimate and patriotic themes.
Famous Work: “Requiem”, an elegy to prisoners of Stalin.
Themes: Time and memory, the fate of creative women, the difficulties of living and writing under the Stalin regime.