Understanding Literary Genres and Forms of Discourse

Literature is the art that uses words as its instrument. It refers to all productions created by a nation, a period, or a genre, and the whole of literature relating to art or a science. Authors use literary language to tell stories or to communicate impressions, feelings, or emotions. Literature is distinguished by making special use of language, which we call literary language. One feature that identifies the language of literature is the use of stylistic devices such as simile, metaphor, antithesis, and parallelism. The successful use of these resources beautifies the expression and gives expressiveness to the message.

Literary Genres

Literary works have some features that allow us to classify them into large groups, which we call genres. Traditionally, three major genres have been distinguished: poetry, epic, and drama. Within each genre, variants and subgenres can be identified.

  • Lyric Poetry: The author expresses their feelings, ideas, and beliefs using their own voice, in the first person. Lyrics are usually composed in verse, in very elaborate language, and are rich in expressiveness. Rhythm and musicality characterize them.
  • Epic or Narrative: The author uses the voice of a narrator to tell a story. The narrator is a central figure in narrative works. They tell the story, place the facts in space and time, describe places and people, introduce dialogues, and weave the plot or argument. Formerly, narrative works were composed in verse; today, in contrast, prose is preferred. The epic has many subgenres, including the epic, epic poem, and romance in verse, and the novel, the story, and the legend in prose.
  • Drama: Works in the form of dialogue that are created to be represented.

In every drama, there are two aspects: the text and the representation. The author generally provides staging and enters information on sets, lights, movements, and gestures of the characters. These instructions are called dimensions. The fundamental dramatic forms are tragedy, comedy, drama, and tragicomedy. They are compounded by other forms of theater, such as farce, interlude, or farce.

Forms of Discourse

The forms of discourse are different modes of expression that the message can take in a text. We distinguish five forms of discourse: narration, description, dialogue, exposition, and argumentation. In every text, there is a dominant form of discourse, and we often appreciate parts of the text that correspond to different forms of discourse. Each of these parties is a textual sequence. Sequences include narrative sequence, descriptive sequence, and dialogue sequence.

Narration

Narration is telling facts, real or imaginary, featuring characters. Stories and novels are narrative texts.

The main elements of the story are:

  • Narrator: The one who tells the facts. When the narrator is a character, they are expressed in the first person (internal narrator). If not involved in the events, they are often expressed in the third person (external narrator).
  • Storyline: This consists of a set of facts, real or imagined, that are presented as if they had happened. Verb forms in the past and time markers are used to indicate the chronological order of events and to advance the action.
  • Characters: Those who carry out the action. They can be major characters or minor characters, depending on the relevance they have in the narrative plot.

Description

Description is presenting the characteristics of people, objects, places, or events so that the receiver forms a true picture of them. Descriptions can be objective (technical or scientific) or subjective (literary or informational).

In descriptions, adjectives, similes, and metaphors are used to represent the written, and spatial markers are used to place the elements in space.

Dialogue

Dialogue is the exchange of information between two or more actors who alternate in the use of the word. Dialogues can be spontaneous (conversation) or planned (debate, interview).

In narratives, the narrator normally introduces dialogues with verbs of speech (he said, wondered, said) that are the interventions of the characters.