Rhetorical & Narrative Text: Structure, Characters & Types

Posted on Sep 18, 2024 in Language

Rhetorical Text

Definition: Rhetorical text uses language to create beauty or achieve effects like musicality. It prioritizes form over substance. Examples include poems, riddles, proverbs, and tongue twisters.

Purpose: Poems aim to evoke feelings rather than convince. Authors use stylistic devices to achieve this.

Characteristics:

  1. Emphasis on form: Structure, rhythm, and rhyme are crucial.
  2. Connotative meaning: Words suggest subjective meanings, enriching the text.
  3. Transgression of language rules: Using figures of speech like intensifications and diversions.

Examples of Rhetorical Figures:

  • Phonic: Alliteration (repetition of a sound).
  • Syntactic: Anaphora (repetition of words at the beginning of phrases).
  • Semantic: Personification (giving human traits to non-human entities).

Narrative Text

Definition: Tells real or imagined events in a specific time, featuring characters and a sequence of events. Often blends with descriptive and conversational texts.

Linguistic Features:

  • Use of temporal connectors.
  • Abundance of action verbs in a coherent system.
  • Predominance of past tense verb forms.

Examples: Movies, anecdotes, jokes, stories, novels, fables, chronicles, and comics.

Main Elements of Novels:

1. Structure:

  • Introduction: Sets the scene, introduces characters, and establishes initial circumstances.
  • Rising Action: An event disrupts the initial situation, developing the conflict and building suspense.
  • Climax: The conflict reaches its peak and the plot is resolved.

Variations in Chronology:

  • In medias res: Starting the story in the middle of the action.
  • Flashback: Recalling past events.
  • Prolepsis: Revealing the ending before narrating the events leading to it.

2. Characters:

  • Protagonist: The main character driving the action to achieve a goal.
  • Antagonist: Characters opposing the protagonist’s goals.
  • Secondary Characters: Play supporting roles.
  • Static Characters: Remain unchanged throughout the story.
  • Dynamic Characters: Evolve and change due to events.

3. Narrator:

4. Time:

  • Story Time: Duration and order of events in the story.
  • Narrative Time: How the narrator manipulates time through order (flashback, prolepsis) or duration (acceleration, deceleration).
  • Historical Time: The historical period in which the story takes place.

5. Space:

The setting where events occur and characters move. Includes interior/exterior, urban/rural, day/night settings.

The Short Story:

Definition: A brief narrative aiming to convey a universal message. Characters are quickly introduced into a conflict, leading to a swift conclusion.

Focus: Emphasis on the beginning, ending, and character psychology rather than detailed descriptions.

The Fable:

Definition: A short story, often with personified animals or objects, illustrating a moral lesson about human nature.

Structure: Presents a conflict, reaches a quick conclusion, and often includes a moral at the end.

Themes: Explores universal human flaws and behaviors like laziness, envy, greed, and arrogance.

Examples: Works by Aesop, Thomas Iriarte, and Félix María Samaniego.