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Literary Genres

In the last posts we made the following definitions:

Now we will address literary genres and literary schools. It is very important not to confuse these three terms.

Textual genre encompasses all types of text, except literary ones. Literary genre is classified according to its form, and can be of the epic or narrative, lyrical and dramatic genres. The concept covers only literary texts. For example, a cooking recipe is a textual genre, but it is not a literary genre.

Text is man's way of expressing himself, not just in writing. Everything that expresses a feeling, an order, and an action is a text, even if it is not written. For example, a movie, a play or even a traffic light.

That is right, a traffic light. When the traffic light is red, the driver stops the car (or should stop). When the headlight turns green, it starts. Realize that there was communication, and if there was communication that is a text.

Aristotle and the Literary Genres

Literary genres are categories established for all types of literary texts, according to common formal characteristics. These texts are grouped according to structural, contextual and semantic criteria. Aristotle defined the following three literary genres:

Narrative or epic genre;

Lyrical genre;

Dramatic Genre.

The classification of literary genres has undergone some changes over the years. Today it is more flexible, being possible to mix genres and subdivision into several subgenres. Despite the division into lyrical, narrative and dramatic, there is a common characteristic to the three genres: Literature.

These genres have common aspects that define Literature as an artistic expression that has recreational, social and critical functions. Therefore, in addition to the expression of feelings and the invention of stories by the author, there is also social, political and historical criticism.

The literary text conveys the author's artistic notion by using the connotative and poetic function of language, in prose or verse. He also respects structures in style and form, such as meter and rhyme.

Narrative epic genre

Defined as the “epic genre” by Aristotle, it included epics, historical-literary narratives of great events. The Greek poet Homer (9th or 8th century BC) was the founder of epic poetry, to whom the masterpieces “Iliad” and “Odyssey” are attributed. Another great example of epic is the work “Os Lusíadas” by the Portuguese writer Luís de Camões. In Brazil, the epic poems “Caramuru”, by Santa Rita Durão (1722-1784), and “O Uruguai” by Basílio da Gama (1741-1795), both writers belonging to Arcadianism in Brazil, deserve to be highlighted.

With the passage of time, these poetic narrations fell into disuse and the term epic gave way to the term narrative. It is a modern literary genre in prose, which aims to narrate a story with real or imaginary events. To be considered narrative, a text needs the following elements:

Plot – story that narrates a succession of events, with an introduction, development and conclusion;

Narrator – one who narrates the story. Uses direct, indirect and/or free indirect speech.

Characters – people who are present in the story.

Time – the period in which the story takes place.

Space – where the story takes place.

Lyrical genre

It got its name from the reference to the lyre, a musical instrument that accompanied the recitation of poetry in antiquity. It includes poetic texts of a sentimental character that reveal the author's emotions. It is characterized by the poetic function of language and the use of words in their connotative sense with a predominance of the first person.

They are brief texts because they do not present a plot, but rather the externalization of the poet's inner world (lyrical self). The lyrical self, also called "lyrical subject" or "poetic self", does not refer to the author of the text (real person) because it is a fictitious entity (female or male), a creation of the poet, who plays the role of narrator or enunciator of the poem. In other words, the lyrical self represents the "voice of poetry".

The poems have a subjective character and musicality. They are always divided into lines and stanzas. Verses are lines of text; stanzas are sets of lines. The scansion is a syllabic division of verses that can be termed as major redondilha (roundness), with seven syllables or more and minor redondilha (roundness), with six syllables or less.

Dramatic genre

Since antiquity, the dramatic genre, originating in Greece, were theatrical texts essentially staged as a worship of the gods, which were represented in religious festivals. Among the main authors of the dramatic genre (tragedy and comedy) in ancient Greece are Sophocles (496-406 BC), Euripides (480-406 BC) and Aeschylus (524-456 BC). The staging of dramatic genre texts aimed to arouse emotions in the audience, a phenomenon called catharsis.

Its main feature is that it is made to be staged. There is no narrator who tells the action, the plot being presented through the speeches of the characters, represented by actors who experience the events. Therefore, dialogues and monologues are of crucial importance.

The playwrights (authors of this type of text) and the actors (who stage the text) are the transmitters. The receivers are the audience that watches the play. In addition to being made up of characters (protagonists, secondary characters or extras), they are made up of the scenic space (theatrical stage and sets) and time.

Dramatic texts are subdivided into acts – when the actions take place in the same space – and scenes – when there is a change of location and characters – and present the name of the character who dialogues before his speech, thus marking his entry into the scene. Generally, texts intended for theater have the following basic internal structure:

Presentation – both the characters and the action to be developed are exposed.

Conflict – the moment when the shenanigans of dramatic action arise.

Denouement – moment of conclusion, closure or denouement of the dramatic action.

In addition to the internal structure inherent to the dramatic text, there is the external structure of the dramatic genre, such as the acts (change of scenarios necessary for the representation) and scenes (entry or exit) of the characters. Note that each scene corresponds to a unit of dramatic action.

The structure of the dramatic text, in verse or in prose, acts as a facilitator of dramatization as it provides elements that help the representation, such as indications of the scenario, music, lighting, costumes and other scenic indications, called rubrics or didascalies, which guide the actor during the play.

In ancient Greece, didascalia (from the Greek didaskália = instruction, teaching) were the instructions that dramatic poets gave to actors for the scenic representation; sometimes they referred to theatrical performances or tragic festivals themselves. Thus, a text of the dramatic genre presents these two types of content: the direct speech of the characters and the scenic indications.

Literary schools

Literature is traditionally divided into Literary Schools. This division may also be known as Literary Movements or Period Styles. In this way, the subject becomes more didactic for the students.

This systematization aims to facilitate the study of the discipline, as well as its teaching, since it groups writers according to their stylistic and thematic characteristics, among other aspects, according to the historical context in which they are inserted. It would be impossible to dissociate Literature from History: these two areas of human knowledge go hand in hand, and the influence of historical facts on the literary work of each period is unquestionable.

The table above shows all literary schools in Europe and Brazil. We will address this issue in the next post. After defining all the literary types, we will then begin the literary journey to the present day.