Understanding Literary Fiction: Essence and Form
Fiction: A Reflection of Reality
Fiction establishes a unique literary relationship with reality. Literature imitates the real world, not as a direct copy, but as a representation constructed from the author’s imagination.
Aesthetic Use of Language in Literature
In literary works, language is used deliberately for aesthetic purposes, seeking to create impressions and emotions in the reader. This deliberate crafting of language doesn’t necessarily make the text obscure, but rather indicates a conscious effort by the author to evoke a particular reaction from the reader.
Functions and Genres of Literature
The functions of literature are complex and varied. Literature serves as a source of amusement and entertainment, with reading being a common pastime. It has also served as a means of transmitting ideas. Literary works can be classified into broad groups called genres.
Imitation and Fiction in Literature
The relationship with reality is a defining characteristic of literature. Aristotle’s Poetics, one of the earliest texts on literature, defined poetry as imitation through words. Literature imitates reality, drawing inspiration from the real world. However, it is not an exact copy; the writer uses reality to recreate a world we call literary fiction.
Readers accept the fictional world created by the author as a convention of literature itself, leading them to consider the represented facts as credible. Therefore, a work cannot be analyzed in terms of truth or falsity, but of verisimilitude, a term referring to the illusion of reality that the work creates in the reader.
Literary Reception and Communication
Every literary work constitutes an act of communication. The author is the sender, and the reader is the receiver. It is a delayed act of communication because the author communicates through writing, and the reader receives the message through reading. In this particular act of communication, context is especially important for understanding the literary work, as the situation in which it was written is often different from that in which reading occurs.
Literature and Tradition
The evolving notion of literature is the premise that enables the evolution of literary forms themselves. Each generation of writers builds upon the works of previous generations, adapting and revising them, giving rise to new and different expressive channels.
Literary Language
Literary language is characterized by a series of features that distinguish it from everyday language. The author’s aim is to draw the reader’s attention to the text. Authors use verse or prose as formal channels for the text.
- Verse: Writing in verse means the text is structured in small units with a special rhythm, determined by the measure of syllables, the repetitive distribution of accents, and, often, the use of rhyme.
- Prose: In contrast to verse, prose does not employ a fixed rhyme scheme and occupies the entire line, although the text is still divided into smaller units.
A frequent characteristic of literary language is the use of stylistic devices, which are expressive procedures that deviate from the common use of language with an aesthetic intention.