MODULE II

DIVISION AND GENRES OF LITERATURE

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of this module you MUST be able to:
1. Identify the division and genres of literature.
2. Explore the different examples of genres of literature.
3. Determine the subdivision and subgenres of literature.

LEARNING OUTCOME # 1 IDENTIFY THE DIVISION AND GENRES OF LITERATURE

CONTENTS:
● Two main division of Literature
● Literary Genres.
Learning Objectives
After reading this information sheet, you must be able to:
1. Identify the division and genres of literature.
2. Explore the different examples genres of literature.
3. Determine the subdivision and subgenres of literature.

DIVISIONS OF LITERATURE

● Poetry may or may not use rhyme, as ordinarily it does not in blank and free verse.
● Prose does not make use of rhyme at all.
● Both prose and poetry can stir thee motion as well as the intellect.
● Both can convey information as well as pleasure.

Prose

● It is generally concerned with the presentation of an idea, concept or point of view in

a more ordinary and leisurely manner.
● The purpose of prose is to furnish information, instruction, or
enlightenment.
● It appeals to the intellect.
 Types of Prose

● Prose Drama – a drama in prose form. It consists entirely dialogues in prose, and is
meant to be act on stage.
● Essay – a short literary composition which is expository in nature. The author shares
his thoughts feelings, experiences, or observations on some aspects of life that has
interested him.
● Prose Fiction – something invented, imagined, or feigned to be true)
● Novel – a long fiction narrative with a complicated plot. It may have one main plot and
one or more sub plots that develop with the main plot. It is made up of chapters.
● Short Story – a fictitious narrative compressed into one unit of time, place and action.
It deals with single character interest, a single emotion or series of emotions called
forth by a single. It is distinguished from the novel by its compression.
● Biography and Autobiography
o Biography – a story of a certain person’s life written by another who knows the
subject well.
o Autobiography – a written account of man’s life written by himself.
o Letter – a written message which displays aspects of an author’s physiological
make-up not immediately apparent in his more public writings. It is a prose form
which by the force of its style and the importance of its statements becomes an
object of interest in its own right.
o Diary – a daily written record of account of the writer’s own experiences,
thoughts, activities or observations.
o Journal – a magazine or periodical especially of serious or learned nature. It is
the reflection, opinion of a read material.

POETRY

● Poetry may be described as rhythmic imaginative language expressing invention,

thought, imagination, taste, passion, and insight of the human soul.
● Its purpose is <enthrallment.=
● It expresses a strong emotion or a lofty thought compressed and intense
utterance.
● The main purpose of poetry is to provide pleasure and delight.
● It appeals to thee motion and imagination.

William Wordsworth describes it as <the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.=

Characteristics of Poetry

A. RHYTHM

● Rhythm is the regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed, long and short, or high-
pitched and low-pitched syllables creating a pattern in the lines of a poem.
● This gives the poem its melodious quality and makes it grand, solemn and majestic;
sonorous and full; slow and mournful; rapid and light, etc.

1. Meter (Organized Rhythm)

● Meter is the measured pattern or grouping of syllables, called metric foot,
according to accent and length.
● A group of metric feet forms a poetic line or verse.
● A group of poetic lines or verses is called stanza.
According to the placement of accent, there is a variety of patterns or feet of which the four
basics are.

● The Iamb (Iambic foot)

● The Anapest (Anapestic foot)
● The Trochus (Trochaic foot)
● The Dactyl (Dactylic foot)

● According to the number of feet in a poetic line, the principal verse lengths are:
monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter,
octameter, and nonameter.
● Scansion is the system by which a poem is described according to its metrical
structure by identifying its accents and verse lengths.
● Free verse is the natural flow of cadenced rhythms as created by the poet
● Blank verse is unrhymed verse

2. Rhyme and other <sound devices=

● Rhyme is the regular recurrence of similar sounds usually at the end of lines or also
within one line.
● The pattern or sequence in which the rhyme words occur in a stanza or poem is
called the rhyme scheme.
● To find the rhyme scheme, the same letter of the alphabet is usually assigned to each
similar sound in a stanza.

B. Imagery

● Imagery refers to expressions evocative of objects of sensuous appeal. It may be in

the form of direct description or may be figurative, which latter involves the use of
figures of speech and symbols.

C. Sense or Meaning
 ● A poem must say something.
● It must enlighten, reveal a truth, open new vistas, give new perceptions, enable to
understand the world around us more deeply, and see things beyond the physical
senses.

How do we try to understand a poem?

● When reading a poem, it would help much to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words;
to keep in mind that a poem is never purely literal; and to remember that the poet
means and feels more than what he actually says.
● Imagine yourself in the situation of the poet and try to see and feel as he does, given
free rein to your imagination and feelings, and use all of your life experience to
enlighten you so that the poem can acquire meaning for you.
Kinds of

Poetry Lyric Poetry

● It is the <utterance of the human heart in poetic form.= It is described as <brief and
subjective, marked by imagination, melody and emotion, and creating a single unified
expression

Popular types of lyric poetry:

2. Simple lyric
3. Song
4. Sonnet
5. Elegy
6. Ode
● Simple lyric includes those lyrical poems that do not properly belong under any of the
other types of lyrics.
● Song is a short lyric poem which has a particularly melodious quality and is intended
primarily to be sung, or can easily be set to music.
● Sonnet is a lyric of fourteen lines with a formal rhyme scheme or pattern.

o Types:

Italian or Petrarchan, named after Italian poet Francesco Petrarch, consists of an octave
which develops the theme, followed by a sextet which recapitulates the idea. The octave has
a rhyme scheme of abba abba and the sextet, cde cde orcdcdcd, or some other combination.

Sonnet 5 (Francesco Petrarch)

I find no peace, and all my war is done;

I fear and hope, I burn and freeze likewise; I fly above
the wind, yet cannot rise;
And nought I have, yet all the world I seize on; That looseth,
nor locketh, holdeth me in prison, And holds me not, yet can
I’scape no wise; Nor lets me live, nor die, at my devise.
And yet of death it giveth none occasion.
Without eyes I see, and without tongue I plain: I wish to
perish, yet I ask for health;
I love another, and yet I hate myself;
 I feed in sorrow, and laugh in all my pain; Lo, thus
displeaseth me both death and life, And my delight is
causer of my grief.

English, Elizabethan or Shakespearean Sonnet, named after William Shakespeare and

Queen Elizabeth I, is divided into three quatrains plus a couplet with a rhyme scheme of abab
cdcd efef gg. The idea is developed in the three quatrains, and is summarized and reinforced
in the closing couplet.

Sonnet XXIX (William Shakespeare)

When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone

beweep my outcast state.
And trouble deaf Heaven with my bootless cries And look
upon myself, and curse my fate.
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featur’d like him,
like him with friends possest, Desiring this man’s art and that
man’s scope With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising Haply I think on
thee, and then my state (Like to the lark at break of day
arising
From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven’s gate; For thy sweet
love remembered such wealth brings That then I scorn to change
my state with kings.

Spenserian Sonnet, named after the English poet Edmund Spenser, is divided into three
quatrains and a closing couplet with a rhyme scheme of abab bcbc cdcd ee.

● Elegy is a lamentation or an expression of mourning for the dead. By its very nature,
the poem’s mood is solemn and sorrowful, yet it usually contains suggestions of hope
and faith to allay the sorrow.
● Ode is the most majestic type of lyric poetry. It is exalted in tone and expresses lofty
praise for some person, event, object or idea. It is elaborately designed and is formal in
structure and content.

Narrative Poetry

● It tells a story following a chronology of events.

● Types:

1. Ballad is a short simple narrative poem composed to be sung, and altered as it was orally
transmitted from generation to generation until it was written down much later.
2. Metrical Tale relates real or imaginary events in simple straightforward language. It
can choose from a wide range of subjects, characters, life experiences, emotional situations,
and may project a mood that is serious or light. It is usually concerned with ordinary events.

3. Metrical Romance is a long rambling love story in verse revolving around the
adventures of knights and lords and their highborn ladies during the age of chivalry. Heavily
flavored with romance, fantastic events, supernatural occurrences, magic and the ideals of
the medieval period such as honor, truth, courage, justice, and reverence for woman, the
story is often rich in allegory and permits a great play of fancy and the conflict between the
forces of good and of evil.

4. Epic is a long majestic narrative poem which tells of the exploits of a traditional hero
and the development of a nation.
 Characteristics of an epic:

● the story is broad in scope and theme; its subject matter is often a mixture of legend,
history, myth, religion, and tradition
● the action is grand and on a huge scale, the supernatural element is highly
pronounced and the characters are larger-than-life (gods, demi- gods and highborn
mortals)-the source of conflict involves elemental passions; the events center on a
prodigious struggle or effort to achieve a great purpose or carry out a great task
against powerful forces
● the plot consists of numerous episodes and sub
● plots peopled by numerous characters
● the plot often begins in media res and the story is completed by a series of
flashbacks
● the style is solemn and majestic in keeping with the grandeur of the subject
matter

Dramatic Poetry

● It has elements that closely relate it to drama, either because it is written in some
kind of dramatic form, or uses a dramatic technique. It may also suggest a story, but
there is more emphasis on character rather than on the narrative.

Forms of dramatic poetry:

● Dramatic Monologue presents the speech of a single character who addresses one
or more persons who are present and who are listening to the speaker, but remain
silent.
● Soliloquy is a passage spoken by a speaker in a poem or by a character in a play,
except that there is no one present to hear him.
● Character Sketch is a poem in which <the writer is concerned less with matters of
story, complete or implied, than he is with arousing sympathy, antagonism, or merely
interest for an individual.=

LITERARY GENRES

● Genre is any category of literature, music, or other forms of art or entertainment,

whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria.
● Genres form by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented and
the use of old ones is discontinued.
● Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these
conventions.
● Genre began as an absolute classification system for ancient Greek literature. Poetry,
prose, and performance each had a specific and calculated style that related to the
theme of the story.

1. POETRY
● Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of
language.

Example:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more

lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And
summer's lease hath all too short a date:
 Different Kinds of Poetry Lyric Poetry

● A comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker presents a state

of mind or an emotional state.
● It has 4 kinds:
o Elegy - a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead.
o Ode - a poem in which a person expresses a strong feeling of love or respect
for someone or something.
o Sonnet - a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter, which employ one
of several rhyme schemes and adhere to a tightly structured thematic
organization.
o Dramatic Monologue - a poem in the form of a speech or narrative by an
imagined person, in which the speaker inadvertently reveals aspects of their
character while describing a particular situation or series of events.

Examples of Lyric Poetry

Elegy O Captain! My Captain!

Ode
 My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel
my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip, the
victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful
tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and
dead
.

Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William

Wordsworth.

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth,
and every common sight
To me did seem Apparelled in celestial
light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now
as it hath been of yore;-- Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

Sonnet (Sonnet Number 18 by William Shakespeare)

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more
lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And
summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot
the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion
dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: But thy eternal
summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death
brag thou wander'st in his shade,
 When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, So long as men
can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this
gives life to thee.

Melodic Drama (T.S. Eliot's The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,)

And indeed there will be time To wonder, 'Do

I dare?' and, 'Do I dare?'
Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot
in the middle of my hair— (They will say: 'How his hair is
growing thin!')
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin— (They will
say: 'But how his arms and legs are thin!')
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.'

Narrative Poetry

● a form of poetry that tells a story, often making use of the voices of a narrator and
characters as well; the entire story is usually written in metered verse.
● It has 3 kinds:
o Epics - A long narrative poem written in elevated style, in which heroes of great
historical or legendary importance perform valorous deeds. (e.g. Beowulf)
o Mock-epic - are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical
stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. (e.g Alexander Pope's The Rape of
the Lock)
o Ballad - a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. Traditional ballads
are typically of unknown authorship, having been passed on orally from one
generation to the next as part of the folk culture. (The Second Coming William
Butler Yeats (1865-1939))
Descriptive and Didactic Poetry

● Both lyric and narrative poetry can contain lengthy and detailed descriptions
(descriptive poetry) or scenes in direct speech (dramatic poetry).
● The purpose of a didactic poem is primarily to teach something.
Descriptive Poetry

Smoke

Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird, Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight,
Lark without song, and messenger of dawn, Circling above the hamlets as thy
nest;
Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form Of midnight vision, gathering up
thy skirts; By night star-veiling, and by day
Darkening the light and blotting out the sun; Go thou my incense upward from
this hearth, And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.
Didactic Poetry (An excerpt from An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope)
'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill Appear in Writing
or in Judging ill,
But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' Offence, To tire our
Patience, than mis-lead our Sense: Some few in that, but
Numbers err in this,
Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss; A Fool might
once himself alone expose,
Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose.

PROSE

Prose

● Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

● e.g.
<The woods look lovely against the setting darkness and as I gaze into the mysterious
depths of the forest, I feel like lingering here longer. However, I have pending
appointments to keep and much distance to cover before I settle in for the night or
else I will be late for all of them.”

Kinds of Prose Fiction

● Literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes
imaginary events and people.
● There are 2 kinds of Fiction literature:
o Realistic Fiction - is a genre consisting of stories that could have actually
occurred to people or animals in a believable setting.
o Fantastic Fiction -a type of fiction that ideologically and aesthetically
subordinates reality to imagination by depicting a world of marvels that is
contrasted to everyday reality and to accepted views of what is credible.

Non – Fiction

● Prose writing that is based on facts, real events, and real people, such as biography
or history.
● There are 4 kinds of Non – fiction literature:
o Biographies - is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more
than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death, but
also portrays a subject's experience of these life events.
o Autobiographies - is a written account of the life of a person written by
that person.
o Essays - is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own
argument 4 but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of an article, a
pamphlet, and a short story.
o Articles - a piece of writing included with others in a newspaper, magazine, or
other publication.
o Humor - situations, speech, or writings that are thought to be humorous
 Drama

● A piece of writing that tells a story and is performed on a stage.

● e.g
Miranda Priestly: Do you know why I hired you? I always hire the same girl- stylish,
slender, of course... worships the magazine. But so often, they turn out to be- I don't
know- disappointing and, um... stupid. So you, with that impressive résumé and the
big speech about your so- called work ethic- I, um- I thought you would be different. I
said to myself, go ahead. Take a chance. Hire the smart, fat girl. I had hope. My God. I
live on it. Anyway, you ended up disappointing me more than, um- more than any of
the other silly girls. - Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada, 2006)

Kinds of Drama Comedy

● Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary writers, and provide a happy conclusion.
The intention of dramatists in comedies is to make their audience laugh. Hence, they
use quaint circumstances, unusual characters and witty remarks.

Tragedy

● Tragic dramas use darker themes such as disaster, pain and death. Protagonists often
have a tragic flaw4a characteristic that leads them to their downfall.

Farce

● Generally, a farce is a nonsensical genre of drama, which often overacts or engages

slapstick humor.
● It’s basically, what you call a <Parody=

Melodrama

Melodrama is an exaggerated drama, which is sensational and appeals directly to the senses
of audience. Just like the farce, the characters are of single dimension and simple, or may be
stereotyped.

Fantasy

● It is a complete fictional work where characters virtually display supernatural skills. It is

more appealing to children as fairies, angels, superheroes, etc., are embedded in the
plot. Use of magic, pseudo- science, horror, and spooky themes through various kinds
of technical devices create a perfect world of fantasy. The modern version of drama
incorporates a great deal of special effects.

Musical

● In musical drama, the dramatists not only tell their story through acting and dialogue,
nevertheless through dance as well as music. Often the story may be comedic, though
it may also involve serious subjects.