Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic Genres: A Comprehensive Look
Narrative Genre
Historically, the first signs of writing were in verse, and etopeyas were built as songs of chivalry. In modern times, the narrative genre par excellence is the novel. There are subgenres such as picaresque, chivalry, science fiction, and detective. Types include:
- Short story (less complex)
- Story (popular (oral tradition) or literary (written tradition))
- Fable (starring animals, with a moral)
Elements of the Narrative
- Narrator: Protagonist in the first person (subjective narrator), or a third-person narrator who can be omniscient or objective.
- Plot/Subject:
- Plot: Set of actions that make up the story.
- Theme: The way the author conveys the focus.
- Structure: The way events are ordered: exposition, knot, and end.
- Characters:
- Main: The action focuses on them.
- Secondary: Less important.
- Flat: Stereotypical (bad, good, greedy, etc.), often set in classical antiquity.
- Round: With psychological depth, they evolve.
- Space: Real or imaginary place where the action develops, presented through description.
- Time:
- Historical time: The era in which the events occur.
- Narrative time: The duration of the action.
- Tense: The time used in the story (past/present). It can be linear (chronological order) or fragmented (flashback).
Lyric Genre
The lyric is the genre of subjective expression of sentiment. It is written in verses and stanzas with a requirement for rhythm.
Subgenres
- Ode: A composition of a formal and elevated tone that normally commends someone or something.
- Elegy: A composition that expresses sadness and grief over the death of someone.
- Eclogue: A bucolic-pastoral composition where, in a framework of idealized nature, two shepherds engage in a dialogue about love.
- Satire: A composition that censors everyday reality.
- Epigram: A brief satirical composition written with wit.
Dramatic Genre (Theater)
Theater is the genre of dialogue. The theatrical text is composed of dialogues and stage directions. The play can be divided into acts, each of which can be formed by a series of scenes or frames.
- Scene: A unit marked by the intervention of the same characters.
- Frame: Characterized by a change of scene.
Basic Dramatic Genres
- Tragedy: Represents a conflict between a character (hero) and a force greater than them that will eventually destroy them. It usually involves a lopsided fight against an adverse fate that cannot be overcome. Aristotle describes tragedy as a story in which a noble character, living a happy life, suffers a major setback that disrupts their life.
- Comedy: The opposite of tragedy, it aims to provoke laughter from the audience. Often, the characters are ridiculed, and everything ends happily. The older forms of comedy, like those of Aristophanes, are different, resembling vaudeville and operetta, with verse, music, and sung recitatives. A century later, we find a type of comedy like that of Menander: a comedy with more realistic characters, intended to satirize customs and certain human types. This comedy gave rise to modern comedy, seen in the works of Shakespeare, Molière, and others.
- Drama:
- General sense: Any piece composed for the theater.
- Specific sense: A particular theatrical genre that aims to be a mixture of tragedy and comedy. The characters are everyday people with everyday problems, and the ending is usually happy. With the advent of Romanticism, what is now known as drama was created: a theatrical or dramatic action that is neither comedy nor tragedy because it has elements of both.
Other Theatrical Forms
- Auto Sacramental: A short play in one act, written in verse, with a religious theme.
- Melodrama: Everything is reduced to a simple schematic, and the characters are divided into good and bad, without any qualification.
- Farce: A kind of grotesque comedy, brief, with created characters and ridiculous situations that distort reality through mockery, irony, and humor.
- Sketches and Entremés: Short plays constantly seeking a comic effect and ridicule of characters and situations.