Theatrical and Literary Genres: An Analysis
Theatrical Genres
Theatrical genre: Writings are intended to be performed, not read. They often lack direct dialogue and can be written in prose. Key elements include:
- Stage directions indicating character movements and feelings.
- Excerpts to convey characters’ thoughts, aiding reader comprehension.
Major Theatrical Subgenres
- Tragedy: Characters of high social class struggle against fate. Written in verse, often featuring mythological heroes.
- Comedy: Depicts everyday life with comic situations and happy endings.
- Drama: Shares traits with tragedy and comedy, presenting painful conflicts with occasional comic scenes.
- Tragicomedy: A blend of tragedy, comedy, and drama.
Other Theatrical Subgenres
- Auto Sacramental: Short religious piece culminating in Eucharistic exaltation.
- Interlude: Short work performed between acts of a longer play, often a farce.
- Short Piece: Features popular characters in a comedy of manners.
Cultured primitive lyric
Troubadour poetry of Provence was cultivated by minstrels, incorporating narrative elements and adhering to strict rules of rhyme. Provencal poets developed two main forms:
- Tired: A love poem expressing a vassal-like relationship between a lover and their beloved, often a married woman, reflecting courtly love.
- Sirventes: Used to express anger or personal attacks, often set to the melody of a tired.
Literary Genres
Lyric Genre
Lyric: Conveys subjective feelings, experiences, or thoughts, typically in verse. Includes subjective poems, moral poems, and prose poetry.
Lyric Subgenres
- Elegy: Expresses grief over the death of a loved one.
- Eclogue: Dialogue between shepherds in an idealized setting, often about love.
- Ode: A longer poem addressing diverse and elevated topics.
- Song: Usually about love but can express other feelings; satire humorously presents individual or social flaws.
Narrative Genre
Narrative genre: Presents a story told by a narrator, focusing on narration, the order of events, and characters.
Narrative Subgenres in Verse
- Epic: A long poem praising the exploits of a hero.
- Epic Poem: An oral epic extolling the deeds of a local hero.
- Romance: A short poem with themes of love and chivalry.
Narrative Subgenres in Prose
- Novel: A long story developing a plot in a specific time and place.
- Short Story: A brief fictional narrative.
- Legend: A fictional story rooted in historical events, often involving the fantastic.
- Apologue: A story conveying moral codes, ending with a lesson.
- Epistle: A letter addressing a doctrinal or satirical issue.
- Fable: Anecdotes featuring animals as protagonists, conveying a moral.
- Essay: A text where the author explains and defends their viewpoint to a broad audience.