literary forms

 

LITERARY FORMS

LITERARY GENRES 

 

A)POETRY

Poetry is a type of literature based on the interplay of words and rhythm. It often employs rhyme and meter. It is probably the oldest form of literature.

Quotes:

• Rhythmic creation of Beauty is poetry- Edgar Allan Poe

• Tale is Superior to poem -Edgar Allan Poe

• “Poetry is a speaking picture”- Sidney in An Apology for Poetry

• Poetry, therefore, we will call Musical Thought. - quote by Thomas Carlyle

• Poetry is a sort of inspired mathematics - Ezra pound

• Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility- William Wordsworth.

• Prose = words in their best order; poetry = the best words in their best order -Coleridge in ‘Table Talk’

• “Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds” ― Percy Bysshe Shelley

• “Poetry is simply the most delightful and perfect form of utterance that human words can reach.” – Mathew Arnold

• Poetry is criticism of life- Mathew Arnold in ‘The Study of Poetry’

• Poetry is a vehicle for morality, truth and beauty. – Northrop Fyre in ‘Anatomy of Criticism’

Poetry is two kinds: 

1. Subjective Poetry: centered on poet’s own thoughts and feelings (internal). Values the experience of the mind, rather than eye and ear. Ex: Lyric and Elegy

2. Objective Poetry:  centered on deeds, events and things around us(external). Values the experiences of eye and ear, rather than mind. Ex: Ballad, Epic, Drama

(This division is more theoretical than practical, as it is almost impossible to categorize them.)

Poetical forms:

1. Lyric: In its original Greek meaning a song sung to the accompaniment of the lyre or harp. 

Lyrikos (Greek term) = a short poem. Lyric is a subjective poem. It deals with a single emotion.  In its present use it is any short poem which expresses the poet’s thoughts and feelings. The ode, the elegy and the sonnet are special forms of the lyric. Edgar Allan Poe says, “A long lyric was not possible”

2. Ode: An ode is a long lyric poem serious in subjects, elevated in style and elaborate in stanzaic structure and usually taking the form of address.  Oide (Greek term) = song. Pindar is known as “Father of Ode”

Ex: Shelly’s Ode to Liberty; Keats’ Ode to Nightingale, Ode to a Grecian Urn, Ode to Psyche.

Types:

1. Pindar Ode or Dorian (Choric): This ode was named after an ancient Greek poet, Pindar (5th-6th century BC), who began writing choral poems that were meant to be sung at public events, in celebrations of victories of athletes in Olympic Games. It contains three triads; 

1. strophe (moving from right to left), 

2. antistrophe (left to right), and 

3. final stanza as epode (stand still), 

with irregular rhyme patterns and lengths of lines. Ex: Wordsworth’s Intimations Ode.; Shelly’s Ode to West Wind

2. Horatian Ode or Lesbian (Non-Choric): The name of this ode was taken from the Latin poet, Horace. Unlike heroic odes of Pindar, Horatian ode is simple, informal, meditative and intimate. These odes dwelled upon interesting subject matters that were simple and were pleasing to the senses. Since Horatian odes are informal in tone, they are devoid of any strict rules.

Ex: Keat’s Ode to Autumn

3. Irregular Ode: Introduced by Abraham Cowley. This type of ode is without any formal rhyme scheme, and structure such as the Pindaric ode. Hence, the poet has great freedom and flexibility to try any types of concepts and moods. William Wordsworth and John Keats were such poets who extensively wrote irregular odes, taking advantage of this form. Ex: Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode.

3. Sonnet: Sonnetto (Italian word) = a small sound. Lyrical poem of 14 Iambic Pentameter lines. Two types are:  

a)  Petrarchan or Italian (having an Octave and a Sestet,). Rhyming scheme: abbaabba cdecde or cdccdc (8+6), named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch. Octave raises a problem or argument, there is a Caesura at the end of the octave. Sestet gives resolution. The 9th line is called Volta (Turn in the thought).

4. Shakespeareanor English (Having three quatrains and a couplet).  

Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced sonnet in English first in 16th century. He divided sestet into a quatrain and couplet as cddc ee (8+4+2). 

Earl of Surrey (Thomas Howard) divided octane into two quatrains (4+4+4+2) and beautified them with rhyming meter.

Shakespeare made it perfect. He wrote 154 sonnets (1-126 were addressed to Mr.W.H, 127-154 were addressed to Dark Lady. Rhyming scheme: abab cdcd efef gg (4+4+4+2). Spencer interlinked each quatrain to another. His rhyming scheme was abab/bcbc/cdcd/ee (3 quatrain+ 1rhyming couplet)

Famous sonnets: John Milton, “When I Consider How My Life Is Spent”; Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty”; Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The House of Life; William Wordsworth, “The World Is Too Much With Us”; Sir Thomas Wyatt, “I Find No Peace”

Sonnet-18 by Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? A

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; B

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; D

And every fair from fair sometime declines, C

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd; D

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, E

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; F

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, E

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st: F

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, G

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. G

Important sonnet series:

Astrophel and Stella (1580)- Philip Sydney- Astrophel=aster=star, Phil=lover, Stella=star; Sydney wrote these 108 sonnets and 11 songs for his Penelope.

Amoretti (1594)- Spencer- For his love Elizabeth Boyle; 88 sonnets.

Delia (1592)- Samuel Daniel- 50 sonnets.

Idea Mirror (1594) -Drayton- 44 sonnets to Pheobe; reworked it into 73 sonnets as Idea (1619).

Caelica (1603)- Fulk Greville- 109 sonnets.

Sonnets (1609)- Shakespeare- 126 (fair and Youth) + 28 (dark lady) =154

4. Elegy: In Greek/Roman literatures “elegy” denotes any poem written elegiac meter (Alternative Hexameter and Pentameter lines). Now elegy is limited to mourning, laments on the death of a person.  Three stages in elegy are: Great grief or sorrow for the dead, praise/admiration for the dead and acceptance of the loss/consolation. Ex: In old English Wanderer, Seafarer poems; 

1. Personal Elegy: formal lament, ending in consolation.

Ex.  Tennyson’s In Memoriam (1850) -on death of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam; 

W.H.Auden’s In memory of W.B.Yeats(1940)- on the death of W.B.Yeats

Fulk Greville’s The Phoenix Nest- on the death of Philip Sydney.

Dryden’s Thernodia Augustalis- on the death of Charles-II

Arnold’s Rugby Chapel -on the death of his father.; 

Gray’s Elegy written in a country Churchyard- on the death of Richard West; 

2. Pastoral Elegy: The pastoral elegy is a poem about both death and idyllic rural life. Often with Shepherds. pastor=Shepard in Latin.; originated by Sicilian Greek poet- Theocritus in his “Idylls and Epigrams”, perfected by Roman Virgil in hic “Eclogues and Georgics”.

Ex: Spencer’s Astrophel (1595) -on the death of Sydney;

Milton’s Lycidas (1638) -on the death of Edward King.;

P.B. Shelly’s Adonais (1821) -on the death of John Keats.

Arnold’s Thyrsis (1866) -on death of Hugh Clough;

Whitman’s O Captain, My Captain- On the death of Abraham Lincoln;

5. Opera: Musical Drama. Theatrical entertainment with Orchestra music predominating. 

6. Parody: form of burlesque which imitates another author’s work in style, subject etc. to ridicule it.

7. Pastoral: Borrowed from the Greek, the pastoral – poem, play or romance- presents shepherds or simple rustic life in an idealized manner. Famous Pastorals: Shepherd’s Calendar, As You Like It, Lycidas and Thyrsis.

8. Monody: Poem mourning some one’s death spoken by a single person, Ex. Milton’s Lycidas, Arnold’s Thyrsis.

9. Threnody: A threnody is a wailing ode, song, hymn or poem of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person.

Note: Dirge, Threnody, monody, Eclogues are often used as synonyms for the elegy/pastoral.

10. Idyll: Idyllion (Greek term) = A little picture. It is a short poem of no set form. Short verse or prose piece depicting pastoral or romantic sense. Ex. Theocritus’s” Idylls and Epigrams”. Tennyson’s Idylls of the King. Milton’s L’Alegro.

11. Epic or Heroic Poem: A long narrative poem celebrating the achievements of a national hero or heroes in a dignified style. Epic was ranked “second only to tragedy’ by Aristotle. 

Epic Conventions:

1. Theme of the epic (Proposition) is stated in first few lines of the accompanied by a prayer to muse(invocation).

2. Setting of the poem is worldwide or even bigger. Hero is a national or cosmic figure.

3. Uses certain conventional poetic devices such as Homeric Simile (to compare), and Homeric Epithet (to describe (adjective))

4. Narrative begins by a question (Epic Question).

5. Narrative begins in Medias res (in the middle of the events / or a critical point of action). Flashbacks are often used to describe the past events.  Ex: Paradise Lost(epic), Hamlet(drama).

6. Action in the epic uses supernatural agents/gods/ war, battles, duels etc.

7. Generally Epic is divided into 12 books. Iliad and Odyssey (24books each); paradise lost (12); Faire Queen (planned to write 12, but only 6 completed)

Ex. The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, Beowulf by unknown author, the classic examples of European Literature are Homer’s the Iliad and The Odyssey, Virgil’s The Aeneid.; Milton’s Paradise Lost.; Spencer’s Faire Queen.; Byron’s Don Juan.; Keats’ Hyperion.; Wordsworth’s The Prelude. Eliot’s The Waste Land.

12. Mock Epic: short narrative poem with epic conventions. Satirical work that produces humor by using low characters in Epic style.  Ex: Iliad’s Battle of Frogs and Mice; Swift’s ‘Battle of Books’, Pope’s ‘Rape of the Lock’

13. Ballad: short story in verse. Etymologically “A Dancing Song”. It is a simple song transmitted orally, which tells a short story. Its subjects are deeds rather than thoughts. It is a quatrain stanza. 

Ex: Chevychase- Oldest, about a border fight; The wife of Usher’s Well- Threes sons of a widow returns after drowning in sea; Wynkin De Worde’s Robin Hood ballads (1495); Coleridge’s – The Rime of Ancient Mariner and Christabel; Keats’ – La Belle Dame Sans Merci.; Sir Pratrick Spens, Nut Brown Maid, Scott’s Lady of The last Minstel; Wordsworth’s We are seven; Kipling’s Barrack Room Ballads;

Broadside Ballad: A ballad printed on one side of a single sheet. 

Mock Ballad: It has a comic theme. Ex: Cowper’s John Gilpin; William Maginn’s- The Rime of ancient Waggoner. (parody of Mariner)

14. Satire: found both in verse and prose. It has no set form. Composition which lashes vice or folly with ridicule. It is an attack on a person or on a social evil or folly.

Famous English examples in poetry: Dryden’s Absalom and Ahithophel, Mac Flecknoe; Pope’s Dunciad, Rape of the Lock; Samul Butler’s Hudibras; Byron’s Don Juan, The vision of the Judgment;

Famous English examples In prose: Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Cervantes’s Don Quixote; Swift, Addison, Johnson’s Essays; G.B. Shaw’s Plays

15. Epithalamion: (Nuptial song or marriage song) in praise of a bride and bridegroom. Ex: Edmund Spenser's Epithalamion is an ode written to his bride, Elizabeth Boyle, on their wedding day in 1594.

Terms related to poetry:

Syllable: The number of times that you hear the sound of a vowel (A, E, I, O, U) when pronouncing the letters, A, E, I, O, U, or Y is the number of syllables in a word. 

Monosyllabic: Words having only one syllable. Ex: act; cat; book.

Disyllabic: Words having only two syllables. Ex: wo-men; cri-tic; be-side;

Trisyllabic: Words having only three syllables. Ex: beau-ti-ful; to-mor-row; po-pu-lar

Polysyllabic: Words having four or more syllables. Ex: in-tel-li-gent; per-so-ni-fi-ca-tion; 

How to count syllables?

1. Count the number of vowels (A, E, I, O, U) in the word. 

2. Add 1 every time the letter 'y' makes the sound of a vowel (A, E, I, O, U). Ex:  fry, try, cry, & dry.

3. Subtract 1 for each silent vowel (like the silent 'e' at the end of a word). 

4. Subtract 1 for each Diphthong: when 2 vowels make only 1 sound (au, oy, oo) or Triphthong: when 3 vowels make only 1 sound (iou) in the word.

5. The number you get is the number of syllables in your word.

Stress: In poetry, the term stress refers to the emphasis placed on certain syllables in words. For instance, in the word “happily” the emphasis is on the first syllable (“hap”), so “hap” is the first “stressed” syllable and the other two syllables (“pi” and “ly”) are “unstressed.

Rhyme: correspondence of sound between words. Ex: birth-earth. It gives pleasure, creates mood, tone, structure and highlights words. It is repetition of sounds, not words. Ex: Repetition of words: food – flood (pronunciation is different), repetition of sounds: said -head (pronounced in the same way).

1. End rhyme: rhyme occurring on stressed syllables at the ends of verse lines. 

2. Internal rhyme: rhyme occurring within a single verse line

3. Masculine Rhyme (single rhyme): rhyme in which stress in on final syllable. (Note: Last syllable is stressed). It is most common type. Ex: rhyme-sublime; Still- hill, tear-fear.

4. Feminine Rhyme (double rhyme): rhyme with two or more syllables with a stress on penultimate (second from last) syllable. (Note: Last syllable is unstressed). Ex: ending- bending, treasure-measure; brother-mother.

5. Perfect Rhyme/ true/full rhyme: identical sounds.

6. Imperfect Rhyme/ half / partial/ approximate/ para rhyme: similar words, but not identical sounds

7. Eye / visual/sight rhyme: word endings spelt alike, but have diff pronunciations, because of shift in pronunciation. i.e., when spellings match but in pronunciation there is no rhyme, e.g. want/pant, five/give.

Meter: refers to the basic rhythmic structure of lines of verse. Study of meters and forms is known as “Prosody”. The majority of English verse since Chaucer is accentual-syllabic, which consists of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables within a fixed total number of syllables in each line. Groups of syllables are known as metrical feet.

Note:

1) Syllabic is common in French and Roman, 

No of syllables in a line, without regarding the fall of stress. 

2)Accentual is common in Old German and Old French, 

No of stressed syllables without regarding unstressed syllables. 

3) English is Accentual and Syllabic.

Four kinds of Foot: Unit of meter consisting of syllables accented and unaccented. The commonest metrical foot in English is the iambic. (Note: U-unstressed; ‘-stressed)

1. Iamb (da-DUM): × √ -contains 2 syllables. unstressed syllable followed by stressed syllable. Ex:  Ua ‘bout; be long; pre dict; a way; ex ist;

2. Trochee (DUM-da): √ × -Reverse of Iamb. contains 2 syllables.  stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable. Ex:  ‘Fir-ue; ‘Doub ule;la-dies; Speak-ing; Gar-land, ti-ger

3. Anapest (da-da-DUM): × × √  -contains 3 syllables, consists of two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable Ex:  Uon Uthe iroad; we saw men; and the sound; to the sea;

4. Dactyl (DUM-da-da) (=finger): √ x x -contains 3 syllables, Reverse of Anapest, one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. Ex: ‘Bi-Ucy-Ucle; Hap-pi-ness: Saturday, take her up; this is the, un-der-stand

Note:   Rising Meter: strong stress at the end (Iamb- Anapest)

Falling Meter: Strong stress at the beginning (Trochee- Dactyl)

(Remember the key word: ITAD: About- Fire- on the road- bicycle)  

Other kinds of feet are:

Spondee: (DUM-DUM) foot made up of two stressed syllables. 

Pyrrhic: (da-da) opposite of Spondee, foot made up of two unstressed syllables.

Line of poem: Each line of a poem contains a certain number of feet i.e., iambs, trochees, anapests, dactyls etc. each line of verse is made up of a set number of feet. Length of a line is measured by meters. Thus:  Monometer: one foot per line; Dimeter: two feet per line; Trimeter: three; Tetrameter: four; Pentameter: five; Hexameter: six; Heptameter: seven; Octameter: eight feet per line.

1. If a pentameter line contains iambs, that is Iambic Pentameter (5 iambs) = 10 syllables.

da     DUM da     DUM         da     DUM        da     DUM da     DUM

2. If a tetrameter line contains trochees, that is Trochaic Tetrameter (4 Trochees) = 8 syllables.

3. If a trimeter line contains anapests, that is Anapestic Trimeter (3 anapests) = 9 syllables.

Caesura: (Latin for "cutting") is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase begins. It may be expressed by a comma (,), a tick (✓), or two lines, either slashed (//) or upright (||). It often occurs in the middle of a line, or sometimes at the beginning and the end.

Ex: I’m nobody! || Who are you? Are you nobody, too? (Emily Dickinson’s Poem)

      “Where are the songs of Spring? || Ay, where are they?” (To Autumn-by Keats)

      “To err is human, || to forgive is divine” (An Essay on Criticism- by Pope)

Enjambment: It is contrast to Caesura. It is a literary device in which a line of poetry carries its idea or thought over to the next line without a grammatical pause. With enjambment, the end of a poetic phrase extends past the end of the poetic line. This means that the thought or idea “steps over” the end of a line in a poem and into the beginning of the next line.  Ex: T.S. Eliot utilizes enjambment as a literary device in his poem “The Waste Land”:

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Note: A caesura refers to a pause added into a line of poetry, whilst enjambment removes a pause from the end of a line to allow two or more lines to be read together.

Blank verse, Free verse and Prose:

Blank Verse: (It has rhythm, meter but no rhyming). Unrhymed iambic pentameter decasyllabic verse. Introduced by Surrey in English.  It is the normal of tragic drama. Outside drama, Milton was the first poet to use it in his greatest epic poem, Paradise Lost. Other Examples: Marlowe’s Dr.Faustus, Wordsworth’s Prelude, Eliot’s The Wasteland. 

Iambic pentameter is common in English poetry and language. “About 3/4th of English poetry is in Blank Verse”- Paul Fussell.

Verse Libre/ Free Verse: (It has no rhythm, no meter, but there may be rhyming.) Free verse does not proceed by a strict set of rules; however, it is not considered to be completely free. It is verse without regular meter. T. S. Eliot is a great exponent of free verse and much of ‘modernist’ poetry. Robert Frost said, ‘’Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.”

Prose: ordinary speech, without any metrical structure of poetry.

Stanza: Stanza= stooping place in Italian. When a poem is divided into sections, each section is known as a stanza. Stanzas usually share the same structure as the other stanzas within the poem. Ex: Tercet: stanza of three verse lines; Quatrain: four; Quintain: five; Sestet: six lines

Note: Canto, is a Italian word used similar to stanza, it is division in a long poem (especially in epic). Ex: Divine Comedy is divided into 99 cantos.

Couplet: Open and Close: If a couplet has a sentence that begins in the first line and continues into the second line, this is called an open couplet or a run-on couplet. (Enjambment is common). If the first line is a complete sentence, followed by a complete sentence in the second line, (they are end stopped, each line is independent) this is called a closed couplet or a formal couplet. (Caesura is frequent). 

Heroic Couplet: Iambic Pentameter lines commonly used in epic and narrative poetry which rhyme aa, bb and so on. Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Legend of Good Women and the Canterbury Tales, and generally considered to have been perfected by John Dryden and Alexander Pope in the Restoration Age and early 18th century respectively.  

Ex: Chaucer’s The Legend of the Good Women, Pope’s Rape of the Lock. (no enjambment).

Quatrain: Made of four lines.  Ex: Ballad

Alexandrine: A line of six iambic feet used by Spenser to close his stanza (Spenserian stanza)

Elegiac couplets: alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and dactylic pentameter. The Roman poet Ennius introduced the elegiac couplet to Latin poetry.

Rhyme Royal or Chaucerian Stanza: 7 lines- Introduced by Chaucer. Seven iambic pentameter line decasyllabic stanza with the rhyme scheme ababbcc. (so called from its use by James I of Scotland in The King’s Quair.).  Best Example is ‘Troilus and Cressida’.

Ottava Rima: 8 lines-Introduced by Wyatt. Stanza of eight iambic pentameter lines rhyming ababab cc. used by Byron in Don Juan, The Vision of Judgement.

Spenserian Stanza:  Nine lines – Spencer used it in Faire Queen. eight are iambic pentameter lines, the ninth is an Alexandrine (12 syllable line). The rhyme scheme is abab-bcbc-c. Used in Spenser’s Fairy Queen, Byron’s Childe Harold, Shelley’s Adonis, Keats’ Eve of St. Agnes, Tennyson’s The Lotos Eaters.

The Eve of St Agnes- By Keats

St. Agnes’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was! A

      The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold; B

        The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass, A

        And silent was the flock in woolly fold: B

        Numb were the Beadsman’s fingers, while he told B

        His rosary, and while his frosted breath, C

        Like pious incense from a censer old, B

        Seem’d taking flight for heaven, without a death, C

Past the sweet Virgin’s picture, while his prayer he saith. C

Terza Rima: Introduced by Wyatt (adopted from Dant’s Divine Comedy)- Group of three-line stanza (triplets), the first line rhyming with the third, the middle rhyming with the first and third of the next stanza and so on. aba- bcb-cdc- and so on. Ex: Shelly’s Ode to the West Wind.

Ode to the West Wind – by P B Shelly

O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, A

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead B

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, A

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, B

Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, C

Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed B

The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, C

Each like a corpse within its grave, until D

Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow C

Curtall Sonnet: G. M. Hopkins used it. 10 and ½ lines- i.e., 3/4th of Petrarchan Sonnet. Octave becomes sestet (6), Sestet becomes quatrain (4), and followed by a tail (half line)

Sprung Rhythm: Rhythm that depends on number of stresses and not on number of syllables. Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables. The British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins derived this from Anglo Saxon.

Vilanelle: nineteen-line dual-refrain poem, The form started as a simple ballad-like song with no fixed form; this fixed quality would only come much later, from Jean Passerat's poem "Villanelle”. The term derives from the Italian villanella, referring to a rustic song or dance. Ex: Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas, written about the death of Dylan Thomas’s father and was finished just before the author died himself.: Tears, Idle Tears, by Lord Alfred Tennyson; 

Limerick (5 lines): Father of Lmerick is Edward Lear, used in joke poems, anapestic trimeter with rhyme scheme AABBA. It has 9+9+6+6+9=39 syllables.

 

Haiku (3 lines): Japanese variety, 5+7+5= 17 syllables poem.

acrostic poem: the first letter of each line spells a word. The word is the subject of the poem. Ex: On His Blindness Poem by John Milton.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

B)DRAMA

Play set forth a problem or a conflict. It has plot, dialogue, characters and delivers its whole message within few hours. “When a novel is written, it is finished, but when a play has been written the worst difficulties still lie ahead.” (Drama is intended for performance in public, novel is for reading in private)

Dramatist has to work with a number of collaborations: the audience, the actors, the producer, the scene painter, the dress maker, the musician and many others. The novelist can address the readers directly, but the dramatist doesn’t speak through his characters.

Origin of Drama:

Developed by Greeks in 5th century B.C, during festivals, to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility. Greek verb “Dran” which means ‘to act’ or ‘to perform’. Famous Greek dramatists: Sophocles and Euripides. Chorus was common in Greek drama.

Elements of drama:

1. Literary elements: Plot, theme, dialogue etc.,

2. Technical elements: Scenery (set), Props (object that appears on stage), Lights, Sound(music), Makeup (costumes, wigs, and body paint)

3. Performance elements: Facial expressions, Gestures (body language), Vocal expression

Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the first to write about the essential elements of drama more than 2,000 years ago, which are still influence us today. Aristotle says, “Plot is the most important element.”

1. Plot: Plot refers to basic storyline of the play.

2. Theme: Theme is the main idea or lesson of the play. 

3. Characters: Characters are the people in the play. 

4. Dialogue: the words spoken by the characters

5. Music/Rhythm: rhythm of the actors' voices.

6. Spectacle: everything that the audience sees the play: sets, costumes, special effects, etc.

Remember: PCTDMS 

Structure of the play: generally, a play has 5 acts.

 

1. Exposition: (=To explain something)

In first act. It introduces a situation.

2. Complication (Rising Action):  in 2nd and 3rd acts, the problem grows and continues.

3. Climax (=crisis):  in first part of 3rd act, it takes a turn: good in comedy or worse in tragedy.

4. Denouement (=falling Action): in last part of 3rd act or 4th act, Unravels the complication.

5. Solution (in Comedy) or Catastrophe (in Tragedy): In 5th act, decides the fate of the characters.

1)Tragedy:

Taken from the Greek word “tragus”, which means ‘goat song’. A serious play with unhappy ending and emotional appeal. Tragedy in its literary sense shows the downfall including death of a great man through some fault in his character. Ex. Hamlet’s indecision and Othello’s jealousy.   

In Greek Drama, it deals with fate of characters of high birth. In ancient Greek drama, the tragic actor put on a thick soled and high heeled boot called as Buskin or Cothurnus to make him appear tall and majestic.

Verse is used to be the medium for both Tragedy and Comedy. There are prose passages when a clown, a rustic or a madman is speaking. Ex: In ‘As you Like it’, main characters have long conversations in prose.

Three Unities: (classical or Aristotelian unities): Any piece of work must have to follow three unities of time, place and action. Aristotle mentioned only two, as the unity of Place is being implied in the first

1. Unity of Time: The time taken to the event and its representation should be same. The action in a tragedy should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours. If events extending over years were shown in a few hours on the stage, they would have no semblance of reality for the logical Greek mind. 

2. Unity of Action: The action must be confined to one single plot and must be logically connected. There is no subplot or episodes unconnected with the main theme.

3. Unity of Place:  The play must be confined to one place (a single physical location). The scene couldn’t have been Athens in the first act, and Alexandria in the next.

The role of Chorus in Greek Tragedy:

Chorus is constituted by a body of actors, whose business was to report what happended off the stage and to make such moral comments from time to time. Chorus in Greek theatre was pivotal in bridging the gap between the audience and the characters on stage, ensuring that the audience could follow and comprehend the unfolding events and themes of the play 

The following terms of Greek Tragedy, are defined by Aristotle.

1. Antagonist- Protagonist: The antagonist was the character against whom the protagonist struggled. Today the antagonist is usually the villain and the protagonist, the hero.

2. Hamartia (To err):  It is an error of judgement leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine.

3. Peripeteia: Peripeteia is a sudden reversal, often in fortune of the protagonist. Peripeteia is, therefore, the turning point in Greek tragedy.

4. Anagnorisis: Anagnorisis is the moment of recognition. The protagonist (see below, but, basically, main character) of a tragedy recognizes that his trouble is his own fault. In drama, the discovery or recognition that leads to the Peripetia or Reversal.

5. Catharsis: the purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity and fear) primarily through art.

6. Catastrophe: Catastrophe is a final action that completes the unraveling of the plot in a play, (usually in a tragedy). It is a turning point in a story in which something terrible happens to the main character/s. Catastrophe is a synonym of denouement. In a tragedy, it could be the death of a protagonist or other characters.

Note: Comic relief is a Humorous speech or scene in a serious tragedy for alleviating tension. Ex: drunken Porter scene in Macbeth, Grave diggers scene in Hamlet, Fool in King Lear.

Types of Tragedy:

• Classical Tragedy: Based on Greek conventions such as 3 unities and Chorus. Chorus report to the audience about the happenings of the stage and makes moral statements. Ex: Ben Jonson and Restoration playwrights.

• Romantic Tragedy: It is not circumscribed (=to restrict) by the 3 unities and it doesn’t employ chorus. There may be aplot ranging over long stretches of time, a mixure of tragic and comic or a subplot. Ex: Shakespeare and University wits.

• Horror Tragedy: by Webster and Ford: with scenes of cruelty and violence.

• Heroic Drama (Tragedy): 17th century- developed during restoration age, term coined by Dryden in The Conquest of Granada (1660). The subject matter of this tragedies is mainly chivalrous - honour, love and war. The conflict between love and honour/duty is tried to be depicted in a romantic setting presenting grand heroic personalities with a superhuman ability. George Villiers, 2nd duke of Buckingham, satirized the heroic play in The Rehearsal (1671), its particular target being Dryden. Ex: Dryden’s The Indian Emperor, The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards, Aurangzeb and All for Love; Thomas Otway’s Venice Preserved; Roger Boyle’s Black Prince etc. 

• She- Tragedy: by Rowe: Women as central character.

• Domestic Tragedy: 18th century- Portrayal of middle-class life, uses prose, not poetry.

• Revenge Tragedy: Based on revenge, blood shed modelled on Seneca, Popular in 16th and 17th centuries during late Romantic and Jacobean periods Ex: Thomas Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, Webster’s Duches of Malfi, Shakepeare’s Hamlet etc.,

2)Comedy: 

Taken from the Greek word “Komedia (Komedia=Revel song in Greek).”, which means "laughter-provoking". A play designed to cause laughter, representing characters and incidents of everyday life. 

Types of Comedy:

• Comedy of humors: Ben Johnson made it popular. The four fluids of human body: Blood, Phlegm, Choler (Yellow Bile); and Melancholy (Black Bile) are to be in a balanced proportion. But this excess of any one of these fluids makes him abnormal. Ex: Every man in his humor,

• Comedy of Manners (Restoration Comedy): 17th century- Dryden: situations of infidelity in love and marriage, satirical portrayal of behavior in a particular social group. Restoration comedy known for the relations of ladies and gentlemen in high society (known as High comedy). During closure of theatres people starved for enjoyment, demanded more in restoration, hence restoration comedy has sexual openness. Introduced the first professional actress on stage. Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare can be considered the first comedy of manners in England. The masterpieces of the genre were the plays of William Wycherley (The Country Wife, 1675) and William Congreve (The Way of the World, 1700). Note: Jeremy Collier, in his anti-theatre pamphlet ‘A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1698)’, attacks a number of playwrights: William Wycherley, John Dryden, William Congreve, John Vanbrugh, and Thomas D'Urfey of profanity, blasphemy, indecency, and undermining public morality through the sympathetic depiction of vice.

• Comedy of Menace: (Menace=danger/fear). Coined by David Compton. Fear of the characters become the source of the comedy.

• Genteel Comedy: Colly Cibber: ridiculing the affectations (wigs, shoes, ribbons, toilets) of 18th century

• Sentimental Comedy: late 18th century. presenting tears in place of laughter. Unlike Restoration comedy, it has middle class protagonists. Presenting tears in place of laughter. Melodramatic and distressing situations in place of intrigue. Pathetic heroines, serious lovers, honesty servants in place of rogues and gallants. Ex: Steele’s Conscious lovers

Comedy of Dialogue vs Comedy of Incident:

Comedy of Dialogue	Comedy of Incident:
Plot unfolds itself mainly through dialogue or narration. Action plays a secondary part. Ex: T W Robertson’s Caste(1860)- first play to use more natural speech and subjects.	Plot unfolds itself mainly thorugh action. Dialogue plays a secondary part

3)Tragic Comedy or Dramatic Romance: 

It is half tragedy and half comedy, unknown to Greeks; we find it in English. It is a tale of Weal and Woe (happy and Sad). It is complete tragedy upto a certain part and a complete comedy there after. The Complication set fourth the tragedy (or Rising Action is tragedy), The Denoument turns into comedy (or Falling Action is comedy), and The Climax seperates these two. It is a play which has tragic elements but ends happily. Its general atmosphere is fantasy or supernatural, so it is also called Dramatic Romamce. Ex: Winter’s Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing.

Platus, the Latin comic dramatist attempted it in his ‘Amphituo’ which he called a ‘tragico-comedia’. It aroused in the reign of James-I in England under Italin and Spanish influences. Beamount and Flecher’s ‘A king and No Ling’ finally established it on the English stage. Shakespeare handled it so magnificently. It losted its with closing of theatres in 1642. 

In the late 17th century, Shakespeare was severely criticized for his careless attitude towards the mixing of genres. It was Dryden who elevated Shakespeare to height for his natural genius. Dryden defended tragicomedy of Shakespeare as:  The English have perfected a new way of writing (tragi-comedy) not known to Ancients! "What pleases the Greek, would not satisfy an English audience".

Sydney said,” Neither right tragedies, nor right comedies”.

Tragedy vs Comedy

Tragedy	Comedy
For Greeks tragedy is for “Catharsis”;	Comedy is for “Correcting manners”.
Deals with the dark side of life	Deals with the light side of life
Aims at purgation (invoke pity and awe)	Aims at evoking laughter.
Begins happily and ends unhappily.	Begins unhappily, ends happily.
Atmosphere is sombre and serious	Atmosphere is mirthful and light.
Bad happens to good people.	Good happens to bad people.
Contains comic relief scenes	Contains tragic background

Farce vs Melodrama: 

Farce: exaggerated form of comedy, employs absurd characters and situations to provides hearty laughter.  It employs absurd characters, situations and dialogues. It has strong farcial elements in it. 

Ex: Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merry wives of Windsor. 

It came into existence as a separate form of entertainment by the end of 17th century with ‘The Rehearsal’ by Duke of Buckingham. It declined due to the rise of sentimental comedy in 18th century, but recovered with the antisentimental movement of Goldsmith and Sheridan. 

Ex: The Private Secretary- By Cheles Hawtrey, Charley’s Aunt-by Brandom Thomas – In Victorian Age

Arms and Man, You can never tell, Androcles and the Lion- by G B Shae- In Modern Age

Melodrama: Based on Tragedy (but Farce is based on Comedy). Originally a play with music and song interspersed. It’s a sentimental play, reliying on physical action, theatrical language and behavior and naïve sentiment. Its characters are mere puppets in an extravagant story of crime, revenge or retribution, the evils of drink or gambling, lost wills, missing heirs and in which villainy is foiled and virtue truimphant. 

Came into prominence in 18th century, and popular in 19th. Cheifly notable for their wonderful scenic devices in representation of shipwrecks, fires, floods, earthquakes and other calamities.

Ex: Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, Webster’s Duchess of Malfi.

Masque: It was Italian origin, introduced in early 16th century. Poetic-drama comprising songs, music, dance, elaborate costumes and scenic splendor. The number of characters is restricted to six. The best-known masque is Milton’s Comus. 

antimasque (also spelled antemasque) is a comic or grotesque dance presented before or between the acts of a masque, a type of dramatic composition. This is the concept of Ben Jonson.

Closet Drama: Closet dramas are plays that have been written to be read, but not performed. Ex: John Milton ’s Samson Agonistes (1671), A.C. Swine Burn’s Atlanta in Calydon and Thomas Hardy ’s The Dynasts (three parts, 1903–08).

One act play: History of one act play dates back to the early Mystery and Miracle plays, which were brief. It is a full-length play in miniature, just as short story is not an abbreviated novel. Brevity is the soul of one act play, as artistic difficulties are greater in developing character, situations in a short time. Follows three unities.

Miracle Play:  Based on the lives of the saints. Example: St. Nicholas

Mystery Play: based on the biblical characters. Example: Second Shepherds play, Noah

Morality Play: personified characters to teach morals. Best Example: Everyman

Theatre of Absurd: A term invented by Martin Essilin, who wrote The Theatre of the Absurd (1961). It portrays not a series of connected incidents telling a story but a pattern of images presenting people as be- wildered creatures. It gives ample expressions often leading the observer (audience) baffled with meaningless and repetitious dialogues and incomprehensible behavior. The first true example of the theatre of the absurd was Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano (1950), but the most acclaimed play is Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953). Another name of ‘Waiting for Godot’ is A Tragic Comedy in Two Acts.  Albert Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus” is one central expression of this philosophy. 

Ex:  Arthur Adamov’s Ping-Pong(1955), Edward Albee’s The Zoo story (1959), Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot(1954), End Game(1958), Camus, Jean Genet’s The Maid(1954), Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano(1950), Harold Pinter’The Birthday Party(1957), The Care Taker(1959), Alfred Jarry’s ….,  and Boris Vain’s …..

Problem Play, Thesis Play, and Propaganda Play: Terms applied to the plays of Ibsen, Shaw, and Galsworthy.

Memory play: A memory play is a play in which a lead character narrates the events of the play, which are drawn from the character's memory. The term was coined by playwright Tennessee Williams, describing his work The Glass Menagerie. Ex:  Harold Pinter's plays Old Times, No Man's Land and Betrayal are memory plays, where "memory becomes a weapon"

Epic Theatre: originated from German dramatist Betrolt Brecht. Alienation effect is achieved by separating the audience emotionally from the play (anti aristotlean concept). It is based on Defamiliarization of Russian Formalism. Ex: Mother Courage play by Bretcht. (see criticism notes)

Dramatic Devices: 

Soliloquy: Literally soliloquy means talking to himself aloud when a person is alone or is supposed to be alone. speech of a character who is alone on stage (not supposed to be heard to the other characters). Playwright uses this technique to convey the inner feelings, motives and intentions of the character. Nobody in actual life puts his private thoughts in speech when he is alone. Though it is unreal, audience accepts it as a convention (willing suspension of disbelief). Ex: Shakespeare’s Hamlet delivers his famous soliloquy: ‘To be, or not to be--that is the question’; Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus delivers long soliloquy at eleventh hour.; Othello’s – Put out the light speech.; 

Aside: Character talks to the audience usually revealing something about what’s going on. It is usually a brief comment rather than a speech. It is aspeech in front of other characters, who were not supposed to hear it.  It is most common technique used in Telugu Serials. Ex: Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?" -Romeo and Juliet

Dramatic Monologue: It is a part drama, part poetry. It is a speech in Poetic form uttered to silent listener. Usually the psychology, temperament and character of the speaker revealed. Its main aim is Psycho-analysis or character study. It is drama, poetry and philosophy all rolled into one. Robert Browning is the chief exponent. Ex: Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’ and ‘Andrea Del Sarto’.

Note: Soliloquy: not supposed to be heard to the other characters. It is addressed to audience.

 Dramatic Monologue can be heard. It is addressed to a passive listener.

Irony: It is form of contrast. Irony is a literary device where the chosen words are intentionally used to indicate a meaning other than the literal one.

1. Verbal Irony: speaker says something that's the opposite to what they mean. Ex: If it is a very cold day, a person using verbal irony may say: “Isn’t it warm today!” 

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.”- opening line of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen

The sentence is ironic because its speaker claims to believe that all wealthy single men must be looking for wives, but the book then goes on to describe just the opposite: it's about eligible young women looking to marry wealthy single men.

Understatement, Hyperbole are forms of Verbal Irony. (Ex: I have million doubts!)

2. Dramatic irony: audience has more information than character(s) in a story.  what is being said or done on the stage has one meaning to characters and other or spectators. (Old people at TV, shouts to warn characters about the disguise/something bad going to happen). 

Ex: Othello’s trust of the treacherous Iago in the play Othello)

Ex: If a person were to say “I am glad that I wasn’t in that car accident” only to be involved in a car accident moments later is a dramatic irony.

“A Little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then.” “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” - (Lady Macbeth in Macbeth)

3. Situational irony is when the outcome of a situation is totally different from what people expect. Ex: If a fire station were to burnt down, (this would be situational irony as this is the building which is meant to protect from fire.) 

Ex: A police station that gets robbed

Ex: Banning a book about banned books (this happened with Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451)

Expectation and Surprise: plot construction follows two methods: 

Expectation: All relevant facts disclosed at once and Surprise: A few facts are held back. 

Generally, comedies employ expectation. Tragedies employ surprise. Too much of expectation leads to dullness and too much of surprise leads to melodrama. Shakespeare used both in moderation. Ex: Othello is based on expectation; Macbeth on surprise.

Other terms related to drama:

Act & scene: major division in the action of the play. Acts are further sub divided into scenes. Generally, a play has 5 acts. In modern drama, 3 acts and 1 act play are common.

Prologue and Epilogue: 

Prologue implies an independent preliminary piece of writing, included in the front matter of the book. It is found at the beginning of the literary work. It indicates Introduction or Preview.

Epilogue refers to the brief winding up a section of the book, which acts as the closure to the literary work.  It is found at the end of the literary work. It indicates Conclusion or Afterword.

Stage Directions: Stage directions appear at the beginning of the play, before a scene or attached to a line of dialogue. The place, time of action, design of the set etc. are indicated by stage directions. They help the producer to present the play as exactly as the author intends.

Setting: It is the time and location(scene) or physical location in narrative. Derived from Opsis (Greek) or Décor (French) which means scene or spectacle

Confidant: Minor role in drama, friend of protagonist. (Confidante is fiend of heroine). Hero/heroine confess inner feelings, thoughts/problems by a soliloquy or aside. Ex: Horatio is friend of Hamlet; Charmian is maid to Cleopatra. 

Protagonist: Chief or leading character in a play: hero.; Antagonist is the opposing one, i.e., villain. 

Foil: A person or situation, placed side by side of another, as a constrast.  Ex: Laertes is foil of Hamlet.

Hubris: the excessive pride or inflated self-confidence, of protagonist to disregard a divine warning or violate law as their tragic flaw, or hamartia resulting in their ultimate downfall

 

---------------------------------------------------------

C)FICTION (based on imagination): 

Refers to any narrative derived from the imagination, not on fact or history. Ex: Literature in the form of prose, especially novels; Short stories; fables; comic books; fairy tales; epic and narrative poetry, video games etc.

Short story has 2000-7500 words. Novella has 7500-50000 words; Novel has more than 15000 words.

There are two types of fiction: 

1. Genre Fiction or Popular fiction: Fictional works written with an intention to fit into a genre. based on the plot, it can be classified into subcategories such as horror, romance, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi. etc. Sub categories are:

Crime and detective fiction: With the elements of murder, mystery, thrill, suspense etc.

Fantasy fiction: Speculative in nature. 

Romance: deals with love

Inspirational: Focus on values and good conduct.

Horror fiction: with supernatural elements Ex: gothic fiction

Western: cowboy as hero, set in American West in 1950’s.

Political fiction:

Magic realism: 

2. Literary fiction: Not based on plot, difficult to break into sub categories. It is anything that doesn’t fit into a genre. Focus on in depth character studies. Ex: To kill a mocking bird – by Harper Lee; Life of Pie- by Yann Patel; The Catcher in the Rye- by J.D.Salinger; The Kite Runner- by Khaled Hosseini; The Lord of the Flies- By William Golding; 

Novel:

Originated from Italian Word Novella (=Fresh story or a little new thing). Current German term Novella is often used to an equivalent for Novelette (= a prose fiction of middle length). Novel has no rigid framework. Novel can have its setting or background in any part of the world an any time, past, present, or future. Ian Watt’s “The Rise of the Novel (1957)” suggests that the novel came into being in early 18th century.

Quotes:

“Novel is a pocket theatre” - F.M. Crawford.

“Novel is a summary of actual life” -George Meredith.

“Novel is a comic epic in prose’’ - Henry Fielding

“Anyone can write a novel who has pens, ink and paper at command, and a certain amount of leisure and patience” -W. H. Hudson.

History of Novel: In 1350, Boccaccio wrote Decameron, a world-famous collection of love stories in prose. Several Elizabethan writers wrote prose works of fiction. 

The Oxford Dictionary describes novel as “a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length in which characters and actions are representative of real life and are portrayed in plot of more or less complexity.” 

Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe(1719) is treated as first English Novel.

Samuel Richardson was regarded as “The Father of Modern Novel.”

Some of the early examples are:

-Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress (1678).

-Swift’s- Gulliver Travels (1726).

-Nashe’s – Unfortunate Traveler or Life of Jack Wilton (1594)- first picaresque novel in English.

-Defoe’s – Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders, Captain Singleton

In 18th century, novel acquired its modern form.

-Richardson’s – Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, Clarissa- first epistolary novel in English

-Henry Fielding’s – Joseph Andrew, Jonathan Wild, Tom Jones, Amelia.

-Smolett’s – Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle,

-Sterne’s – Tristram Shandy(1759)- 

-Goldsmith’s – Vicar of the Wakefiled

-Dr. Johnsons’- Ressalas.

In 19th century, process of refinement carried a step ahead.

-Gothic Novels (Walpole’s-Castle of Otranto- first gothic novel, Beckford’s- Vathek, Radcliffe’s- The Mysteries of Udolpho.)

- Jane Austen’s’ – Northanger Abbey, Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility (focus on of country life and characterization).

-Bronte sisters’- terror to heighten human story (Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights)

-Scott’s Historical novel (Waverly, Ivanhoe, Guy Mannering).

-Dickens’ complex plot changed the history. (David copper field, Great Expectations)

- Thackeray’s Vanity fair

-George Eliot’s philosophical dissertations (Adam Bede, Middle March, Mill on the Floss)

-Hardy’s Wessex novels (Tess, Mayer of the Casterbridge)

- Political and social novels- by Benjamin Disareli (Sybil), Mrs.Gaske(North and South)

- Trollope’s Barchester Towers- about clerical life

-Stevenson’s- Treasure Island- about adventures

- Willkie Collins’- Detective novels (The women In White, The Moon Stone)

-Butler’s Erewhon, Lytton’s The coming race, Morris’s News from Nowhere- about future governments.

-Henry James’- Psychological novels, about manners and conventions

In present time, rapid changes caused by two world wars.

-Edwardians- interested in portraying the external world, new discoveries, social changes.

-Georgians- Subconscious mind, stream of thoughts.

- psychological theories, freedom of expression

During last 50 years, the scope of novel has widened and included every subject under the sun

Types of Novels: 

Epistolary Novel: novel in the form of letters by one or more characters in the novel, Ex: Richardson’s Pamela, Alice Walker’s Colour Purple etc.,

Picaresque novel: From Spanish word picaro, a rogue; picaresque novel is one with a rogue as hero, or loosely one dealing with roguish or low life adventures. It is realistic in manner, episodic in structure and satiric in aim. Cervantes was a Spanish writer who wrote a novel called “Don Quixote’ (1605) and with it begins the history of the Picaresque novel. “The Unfortunate Traveler” is the best example of the picaresque novel in English.  In English, Daniel Defoe was the first to write a Picaresque novel. Ex. Defoe’s Captain Singleton and Fielding’s Jonathan Wild.

Sentimental or Epistolary novel: Epistolary came from the word “Epistle” which means letter. This kind of novel is written in form of series of letters. Here the main character corresponds with others through letters. Samuel Richardson, the father of the English novel. His famous novels are “Pamela or Virtue Rewarded”, “Clarissa Harlowe” and “Sir Charles Grandison.” one striking feature of his novels are that all are titled after the name of the protagonist. Ex: The Color Purple (By Alice Walker).; Frankenstein (By Mary Shelley).; Dracula (By Bram Stoker).; 

Domestic novel: In this type of novel, the writer deals with the social life of the people and with the daily lives of the characters. The beginning is made by Fanny Burney but the most popular exponent is Jane Austen. Frances or Fanny Burney is another important figure in the history of domestic novel.

Regional Novel: it depicts the customs, way of life, setting, language of a specific region. Ex: Wessex in Hardy’s Novels, Malgudi in R K Narayan’s works, Yaknapatawpha country in Faulkner’s novels

Gothic novel: Novel of mystery, terror, horror set in ruined castles. The term ‘Gothic’ originally referred to ‘Goths’- a Germanic tribe, then came to signify ‘Germanic’ and then medieval. Towards the end of the eighteenth century grew the Novel of Terror or Gothic Novel better known as Gothic Romances. The English romantic movement which found its supreme expression in poetry, was reflected in a somewhat cruder and more primitive manner in the novel, where it helped to inaugurate a new literary genre- the thriller. Its origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story". Ex: Shelly’s Frankenstein.; Lewis’s Monk.; Beckford’s Vathek., Clara Reeve’s Old English Baron, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights etc.

Sci-fi novel: deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. It has been called the "literature of ideas", and often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations. Ex: H.G. Well’s notable science-fiction works: The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

Stream of consciousness novel: term was first used by May Sinclair in connection with Dorothy Richardson’s novels.  A deep probe is made here into the dark corridor of the human mind.  Focus is on inner world.  Virgina Woolf, James Joyce used this technique.

BILDUNGSROMAN: Novel of development, oftern the growth of hero or heroine from boyhood to youth to maturity. It is also called novel of formation or education. Combination of two german words: building- formation; and roman- novel Ex: Davidcopperfield

Kunstelrroman: Novel that portrays the growth of a an artisit/writer. Ex: James Joyce’s Portrait of an artist as an Youngman

Utopian: (Literally good place) from Thomas More’s Utopia. It presents a ideal state from which all the problems ae real world are eliminated, and life appears to be happy and harmonious. Ex: The Republic (ca. 370-360 BC) by Plato; William Morris’ News from Nowhere; New Atlantis (1627) by Sir Francis Bacon; Erewhon (1872) by Samuel Butler; A Modern Utopia (1905) by H. G. Wells

Distopian: (literally bad place) Opposite to Utopian. Ex: George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 (1953).

Novella/ novelette:

A novella is a short novel, that is, a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than that of most novels, but longer than most short stories. US-based Writers of America defines novella's word count to be between 17,500 and 40,000 words. The English word "novella" derives from the Italian novella, which means "new”. 

Ex: 

Animal Farm by George Orwell, 

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, 

Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Short story:

Short story shares all the elements of fiction such as plot, character and setting, but it is not a shortened novel.  Language of short story must be a model of economy. As early as Chaucer, there were shot stories in verse, but a proper prose medium was lacking. 

Although Chaucer’s Parson’s Tale and Tale of Melibee are in prose, but of poor quality. Bocaccio wrote Decameron, a collection of 100 short stories in 1350 was a great success. In 18th century Addison and Steele evolved the short story with a purpose. Nathanial Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe formulated the modern theory of short story in 1830’s.

A.H. Upham remarks, “Author must see end in the beginning.”

Short stories can be:

Plot based: Take plot and fit characters in it

Character based: take characters and choose incidents to fit it.

Setting based: take an atmosphere and get actions and persons to realize it.

Beast Fable:  short story with moral. Beast Fable involves story of animals and birds. Ex: George Orwell’s Animal farm

D)NON-FICTION (based on fact/history): 

Based on real events and people, draws evidences such as newspaper articles, letters, interviews, etc. The author takes the responsibility for truth and accuracy of the events. Simplicity, clarity and directedness ae some of the most important considerations when producing nonfiction. Nonfiction may be presented either objectively or subjectively. Boundaries between fiction and nonfiction are continuously blurred. 

Ex: 

reference works (almanacs, encyclopedias, atlases, bibliographies, chronicles, dictionaries, thesauri, telephone directories, handbooks, yearbooks, books of quotations, etc), 

life writings (autobiographies, biographies, confessions, diaries, logs, memoirs, epistles, letters, epitaphs, obituaries, etc.), 

literary/art criticism (book reports, movie reviews and book reviews), 

promotional writing (brochures, pamphlets, press releases, advertorials, etc.), 

persuasive writing (apologias and polemics), 

others: essays and essay collections, history books, academic texts (scholarly papers including scientific papers, monographs, scientific journals, treatises, conference proceedings, etc.), news stories, editorials, letters to the editor, and manifestos, notices, documentary films, textbooks, study guides, field guides, travelogues, recipes, owner's manuals and user guides, self-help books, popular science books, blogs, presentations, orations, sayings, etc.,

1)Biography:

Dryden used this term in 1683 for the first time and defined it as “The history of particular men’s lives.” Biography differs from history in being a record of the life of one individual. It deals with two events, birth and death. It is an account of one’s achievements and personality. It should be a faithful picture of its subject, with neither praising his virtues and nor condemning his faults.  

“Its function is to transmit personality to rebuild a living man from dead bones”- Sydney Lee.

“History is an essence of countless biographies”- Carlyle.

Pure Biography Vs Impure Biography

Pure biography gives perfect picture of development of external and inner life. Many factors intervene to make it impure. They are:

1. De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum: A Latin proverb which says “living should speak nothing but good of the dead”. A desire of honor the dead, makes it impure

2. Author’s own views and prejudices: Author must maintain detachment or else this personal interest makes it impure. He must have only a professional interest, such as a doctor has in his patient.

3. Substitution of moral or utilitarian aims for artistic: Biography should not be treated as some theory or with the intention of driving home some particular lesson.

“A well written life is almost as rare as a well spent one”- Carlyle. 

If the biographer is not a contemporary/associate, biography can become a herculean task. It is extremely difficult for a biographer who wasn’t lived constantly with his subject to present an accurate image of him. 

From writing biographies with real names attached to them it was but a short step to writing biographies with fictitious names.’ Who is the author referred to? (Kerala SET)

a)Colley Cibber b)Daniel Defoe c)George Barkeley d)Richard Steele

Ex:

Biography- Name of the biographer
The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)- by Boswell (friend of Johnson)- most famous	Thomas Gray- by Mason
Queen Victoria- by Lytton Strachey (writer of Eminent Victorians)	Nelson- By Southey
The life of Walter Scott- by J. G. Lockhart (son-in-law of Scott)	Pepy- by Arthur Byrant
The Life of Charles Dickens (1874)- by John Forster (close friend of Dickens)	The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857)- by Gaskell
Marlborough- by Churchill.	Cowper (The Stricken Deer)- by Lord David Cecil
Macaulay- by Trevelyan	Byron- by Peter Quennel
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt (2004).

2)Auto-Biography:

Its main aim is to present personality with best examples. It can never be complete. It must always come to an end before the death of the writer. Longfellow said “Autobiography is a product of first-hand experience; Biography is of secondhand knowledge. It progresses from the “outward to the inner” and from the “objective to the subjective”. It is almost impossible for anyone to be entirely objective. “It is a hard and nice subject for a man to write on himself”- Abraham Cowley.

Ex: 

Famous Autobiographies
Confessions (5th century)- St. Augustine.	Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (1994)
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1947)	My experiments with truth(1929)- M.K. Gandhi
Left hand! Right hand! - Osbert Sitwell	I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai (2013)
Confession of an opium eater- De Quincy.	Wings of Fire by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and Arun Tiwari, 1999
An Autobiography by Agatha Christie (1997)	Mein Kampf (My Struggle) by Adolf Hitler, 1925
Speak, Memory -by Vladimir Nabokov.	Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949 (1994) -by  Doris Lessing
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (1955)- C S Lewis	A Little Learning: The First Volume of an Autobiography (1964) -by  Evelyn Waugh

2)Memoirs: is a literary form in which the author relates and reflects on experiences from their own life. Memoirs and autobiographies share many similarities, as both are types of self-written biographies. The term memoir comes from the early 15th century Anglo-French word memorie, meaning “written record” or “something written to be kept in mind.” 

Ex: 

Earliest memoirs:  Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, also known as Commentaries on the Gallic Wars & Commentarii de Bello Civili (or Commentaries on the Civil War). 

Walden in 1854 - Henry David Thoreau’s experiences living simply in the New England woods.

A Moveable Feast (1964) - Ernest Hemingway’s account of his years as an American expatriate in Paris in the 1920s.

Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rashdie (title is based on two writers: Joseph Conrad and Anton Checkov)

4) Guides / Manuals / Handbooks / Technical books:

5)Travelogues: Travelogue - A truthful account given by a traveller of their experiences on a journey. 

Ex:

Herodotus (Greek) is widely viewd as the first travel writer. His book, Histories (450BC-420BC) was a record of his travels across Greece, North Africa and East Asia, it is widely regarded as one of the first travelogues.

Mandevelle’s Voyage and Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1356) – the tales are selections from narratives of genuine travelers,

Bill Bryson has written multiple books about his travels. One of particular note is Notes from a Small Island (1995).

6)Self-help books: For thousands of years, people have been writing down their wisdom and advice that have led them to greater health, happiness, and harmony. With the perfect self-help book at hand, you can become your own life coach and the master of your own growth. 

Ex:  

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

7) Historical nonfiction: consists of true accounts of historical eras and events.