Genres
In this article terms related to literary forms are presented according to the broad categories of English literature — POETRY, DRAMA, FICTION AND NON-FICTION.
POETRY
Poetry:
Metrical composition that conveys certain truths. Some famous definitions of poetry are given below:
Poetry is "a speaking picture—with this end, to teach and delight."
(Sir Philip Sidney: An Apology for Poetry)
"Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth."
(Dr. Samuel Johnson: The Study of Poetry)
Poetry is "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity."
(William Wordsworth: Preface to Lyrical Ballads)
"Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds."
(P. B. Shelley: A Defence of Poetry)
Poetry. is "a criticism of life."
(Matthew Arnold: The Study of Poetry)
"Poetry is emotion put into measure".
(Thomas Hardy: The Poet)
"Poetry is a vehicle for morality, truth, and beauty."
(Northrop Frye: Anatomy of Criticism)
"Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another".
(Robert Frost: Education by Poetry)
Poetry is "a kind of ingenious nonsense".
(Isaac Newton: Bent's Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men)
Poetry is also called verse. It is uncountable; its singular is poem. In the Middle Ages, the word poetry meant literature. Poetry has many varieties.
Difference between Prose and Poetry:
a) Poetry is composed of metres and rhymes but prose is written with rhetorical devices.
b) Poetry suggests but prose states.
c) The basic unit of poetry is the verse-line but the basic unit of prose is the sentence.
d) Each line of poetry is limited by metres but sentences in prose have no limit of length.
e) Prose does not provide pleasure the way poetry provides it.
Lyric:
A short poem expressing personal or subjective thoughts and intense feelings of a single speaker. It is identical to a song sung with a lyre. Its main features are:
1) It does not tell a story.
2) It makes a momentary flash of emotion.
3) It expresses personal thoughts and feelings.
4) It is shorter than narrative poems—ballad, epic, mock-epic and metrical romance.
5) It usually possesses the qualities of a song.
6) A single speaker speaks in it.
7) Its diction is lucid and soft-sounding.
The sonnet, ode, elegy, dramatic monologue, hymn, epithalamion, etc. are the different forms of the lyric. Shakespeare's sonnets, Keats' odes, Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", Donne's love poems, Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" and "Ode: Intimations of Immortality," Arnold's "Dover Beach" and Browning's dramatic monologues are a few examples of the famous English lyric poems.
Sonnet:
A lyric poem of fourteen iambic pentameter lines. It is of three types: Petrarchan (also known as Italian), Shakespearean (also known as English) and Spenserian. The first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet are called octave and the last six lines of it are called sestet. The rhyme scheme of the octave of a Petrarchan sonnet is abba abba and that of sestet is cd cd cd or cde cde. Milton, Wordsworth, Wyatt, Rossetti and a few other English poets have used Petrarchan form in their sonnets. Here is an example:
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours, And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. —Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
(Wordsworth : "The World Is Too Much with Us")
One more example for the variation in the sestet:
When I consider how my light is spent a
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Marker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
"Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?".
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent a
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Sestet
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."
(John Milton)
A Shakespearean sonnet is divided into three quatrains followed by a couplet. Its rhyme scheme is a/th cdcd efif gg. The concluding couplet is often used as a comment on the preceding lines. For 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:
Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes 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.
(Shakespeare : "Sonnet XVIII")
The Spenserian sonnet is named after Edmund Spenser who developed a different rhyme scheme for his sonnets. Like a Shakespearean sonnet, it consists of three quatrains followed by a couplet but its rhyme scheme differs from that of Shakespearean. Its rhyme scheme is abab bcbc cdcd ee.
For example:
Lyke as a huntsman after weary chace,
Seeing the game from him escapt away,
Sits downe to rest him in some shady place,
With panting hounds beguiled of their pray:
So after long pursuit and vaine assay,
When I all weary had the chace forsooke,
The gentle deare return'd the selfe-same way,
Thinking to quench her thirst at the next brooke,
There she beholding me with mylder looke,
Sought not to fly, but fearelesse still did bide:
Till I in hand her yet halfe trembling tooke,
And with her owne goodwill hir fyrmely tyde.
Strange thing me seem'd to see a beast so wyld,
So goodly wonne with her owne will beguyl'd.
(Spenser : Amoretti, Sonnet LXVII)
Ode:
An exalted lyric poem that begins with an address to someone, instil anguish in the middle part and ends with consolation. Its main features are:
a) It is a kind of lyric poem.
b) It opens with an address to someone or something.
c) Its middle part develops a sense of grief,
d) It ends with some sort of consolation.
e) It is written in lofty style.
f) Its subject is serious.
g) Its tone is grave.
Odes are of three types:
i) The Pindaric ode or Regular ode
ii) The Horatian ode and
iii) The Irregular ode
i) The Pindaric ode or Regular ode is written on the model of the ode of Pindar, a Greek poet. It is divided into sections each of which has three parts: a strophe (the turn), an antistrophe (the counter turn) and an epode (the stand). This type of ode is written on public occasions, for instance, celebration of a national victory, birthdays; state events, etc. For this reason, this kind of ode is also called Public ode. Thomas Gray's "The Progress of Poesy" and Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" are examples of the Pindaric ode.
ii) The Horatian ode is named after Horace, a Latin poet. It consists of a number of two-line or four-line stanzas. It is written on private or personal experiences. For this reason, it is also called Private ode. The English poets adopted the regular stanza pattern but they discarded Horace's two-line or four-line stanzas. Wordsworth's "Ode to Duty", Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" and Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" are examples of the Horatian ode.
iii) The odes which neither follow the three-part structure of Pindaric ode nor the regular two-line or four-line stanza pattern of Horatian ode are called Irregular ode. Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" is an example of it. The Irregular ode may be both public and private.
Ballad:
A narrative poem that tells a story through dialogue and action. Its general features are:
1. It is narrative in form, and so, it tells a story.
2. Its narrator is generally impersonal third person.
3. It opens dramatically at the middle of the story.
4. Its story is told in dialogue and action.
5. It is usually narrated in ballad stanzas [see Ballad Stanza]
6. Refrain (repetition of a line or a stanza) is common in it.
7. Traditionally it deals with rural labourers or love or legends or supernatural elements or tragic events.
The ballad is mainly of two types:
(1) The Folk or Popular ballad; and
(2) The Literary ballad.
(1) The anonymous ballads composed in the early period when written literature was not developed are called Folk or Popular ballad. "The Twa Corbies", "The Demon Lover" and "The Cruel Mother" are examples of the Folk or Popular ballad.
(2) The ballad written on the model of the Popular balled is known as Literary ballad. The poets of this type of ballad imitated the form, language and style of the popular ballad. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" composed by S.T. Coleridge is a famous Literary ballad. Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel" are also examples of the literary ballad.
Note: Though four-line ballad stanzas are usually used in ballads, there may be exceptions as in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner". In it there are several stanzas consisting of five or more lines. Similarly, though third-person narrator is traditionally used in ballads, first-person narrator may also be used as in Wordsworth's "We are Seven".
Elegy:
A lyric poem mourning for the death of an individual or lamenting over a tragic event.
The main characteristics of the elegy are:
1) It opens with lamentation for the death of the speaker's dear friend.
2) In its middle part the speaker idealizes and admires the dead.
3) The society is criticized for doing injustice to the dead and for not allowing the dead person to do what he could havb
done.
4) The speaker feels the presence of the dead friend around him.
5) It raises serious spiritual questions about the nature of life
and death, and about the immortality of the soul.
6) In its closing part the speaker finds consolation and solace.
7) It is about a single dead person. However, Gray's mourning for all the dead villagers in "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is an exception.
8) It is meditative in nature.
9) Its tone is grave.
Some of the famous English elegies are: Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", Tennyson's "In Memoriam", Walt Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" and W. H. Auden's "In Memory of W. B. Yeats".
Pastoral Elegy:
An elegy which begins with an invocation to the Muses and describes a procession of shepherds who mourn for the misfortune of a fellow shepherd in a pastoral atmosphere. In this kind of elegy nature also takes part in the mourning. Its structure, meditative nature and grave tone are similar to those of the elegy. Edmund Spenser's famous poem, "The Shepherd's Calendar", M ilton's "Lycidas", Shelley's "Adonais" and Arnold's "Thyrsis" are famous pastoral elegies.
Epic:
A long narrative poem that tells in grand style the history and aspirations of a national hero. The major elements of an epic are:
I) Invocation to the Muses and proposition of the subject at the
beginning;
2) Lofty language and high style;
3) A central hero of superman quality;
4) A subject of national or collective interest;
5) A long perilous journey, often on water;
6) Long speeches of the heroic leaders;
7) Mighty battles;
8) Feasts and revels;
9) Homeric (long-run) similes;
10) Involvement of supernatural elements (also known as
machinery);
11) An underworld journey;
12) Assembly of the supernatural powers; 13) Glorification of justice and peace;
There are two types of epic:
(1) Primary or Oral epic; and
(2) Secondary or Literary epic;
A Primary epic is a type of epic with which the epic tradition began. The Secondary or Literary epic is the one which imitated the tradition of the primary epic. In a primary epic the episodes taken from the oral tradition are linked with one another to make a longer story. For this reason, looseness in the construction is apparent. In a secondary epic such looseness is not found. A primary epic displays savage and rude heroism but a secondary epic shows a more refined taste. In a primary epic supernatural elements are very significant but in a literary epic they are not so significant.
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey are primary epics. Virgil's Aeneid, Dante's Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost are secondary epics.
Mock-epic:
A narrative poem which aims at mockery and laughter by using almost all the characteristic features of an epic but for a trivial subject. Pope's well-known poem, The Rape of the Lock is a famous mock-epic. It has in it invocation, proposition of the subject, battles, supernatural machinery, journey on water, underworld journey, long speeches, feasts (coffee house), Homeric similes and grand style but all for a simple family dispute instead of a dignified subject. The grand treatment of a low subject produces hilarious laughter and makes the story ridiculous.
Metrical Romance:
A romance in verse. [see Romance]
Doggerel:
A lower kind of poem on a trivial subject having rough and monotonous rhyme.
Nonsense Verse:
A kind of metrical composition that does not follow thematic rules and rules of rhyme. Here is a real nonsense verse:
Ah, ra, chickera,
Roly, poly, pickena, Kinny, minny, festi, Shanti-poo,
Ickerman, chikerman, Chinee-choo.
Dramatic Monologue:
A kind of lyric poem in which a single speaker expresses his thoughts and feelings to a silent listener. Its common features are:
a) A single speaker speaks throughout the poem on some specific issue.
b) The speaker speaks to someone who remains silent throughout the poem. The listener's presence is revealed through the speaker's comment.
c) It concentrates on the speaker and reveals his character and mindset.
d) It begins dramatically and takes several abrupt turns in the course of its progress.
e) It is not a dramatic technique, and therefore, it is not used in the drama. It is a form of lyric poem.
Robert Browning is well-known for his dramatic monologues. His "My Last Duchess," "Andrea del Sarto" and "Fra Lippo Lippi," and Tennyson's "Ulysses" and "Tithonus," are some of the best known dramatic monologues.
Interior Monologue:
A kind of dramatic monologue in which the speaker dramatizes inner conflicts, self-analysis, and talks to his imagined split self. His thoughts wander backward and forward revealing his character. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot is an example.
Note: The term "interior monologue" does not only refer to a type of poem but also refers to a narrative technique, similar to stream of consciousness, which is used in fiction. [see Stream of Consciousness]
Metaphysical Poetry:
"Meta" means beyond and "physical" means about concrete things that one can see and touch. Thus, metaphysical poetry means poems on the subjects which exist beyond the physical world. In other words, it is a type of poetry which deals with abstract or philosophical subjects.
Metaphysical poetry has the following features:
(I) Abstract themes—either love between man and woman devotion to God;
(2) Logical and argumentative presentation of emotion;
(3) Use of conceit and wit in profusion;
(4) Terseness of expression;
(5) Skilful use of colloquial words instead of formal words;
(6) Abrupt beginning.
Donne, Marvell, Herbert, Vaughan, Cowley, Carew and Crasilaw wrote metaphysical poems. They are known as metaphysical poets.
Carpe Diem:
A literary motif used in lyric poems. It is a Latin phrase which means "seize the day" or "enjoy the present moment". The poem that deals with this motif is called a poem of carpe diem tradition. Marvell'; "To His Coy Mistress", and Robert Herrick's "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" are common examples of this type of poems,
Villanelle:
A kind of poem consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quays& The rhyme scheme of each of the three-line stanzas is aba and of tie final four-line stanza is abaa. The first line and the third line of the firs! stanza are repeated alternately at the third line of the following stanza, and at the end of the quatrain both are repeated. Dylan Thomas's 'Pc Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" is an example:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Epithalamion:
A kind of lyric poem written to celebrate a wedding. It is a. Spenser's "Epithalamion" which he wrote to celebrate his own marriage, is the best example of it. John Donne's "Hail Bishop Valentine, whose day this is", composed on the marriage of Lady Elizabeth and Count Palatine, Ben Jonson's "Up Youthes and Virgins, up, and praise" composed on the wedding of John Lord Ramsey and Lady Elizabeth Radcliffe, Robert Herrick's "Bloom'd from the East, or faire Injewel'd May" composed on the wedding of Sir Clipseby Crew and his Lady, W. H. Auden's "Epithalamion" commemorating the marriage of Giuseppe Antonio Borgese and Elisabeth Mann, are the famous epithalamia.
Hymn:
A lyric poem or song in praise of God or a deity or a hero. Usually, it is sung by chorus to express religious emotion. Spenser's "Fowre Hymnes", Martin Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God", Shelley's "Hymn of Apollo" and Keats' "Hymn to Apollo" are some of the well-known hymns in English.
Requiem:
A musical composition for the mass (a kind of funeral prayer) of a dead person. It has religious fervour. Mozart was a famous composer of requiems. William Croft, Thomas Morley, Thomas Tomkins, Christopher Wood are some of the many English requiem composers.
Lampoon
A bitter satire in prose or verse that ridicules and attacks a person or a group.
DRAMA
Drama:
A literary form intended to be performed on stage through action and dialogues.
The elements that make a drama are:
1) A story;
2) Enactment on stage through action (physical movements)and dialogues;
3) Collaborative performance of the characters for the production; (However, monodrama is produced by only one character)
4) Meant for a collective reception of an audience;
5) A plot comprising a beginning or exposition, middle or climax and end or denouement; (see Exposition, Climax and Denouement)
6) Conflict of one or the other kind;
7) Prose or verse or a mixture of them is its medium.
It is also called "play". The theatrical performance is called drama; the text (or script) is also called drama.
Basically it is of two types: COMEDY and TRAGEDY
COMEDY
Comedy:
A kind of drama which begins with adversity or discord but ends happiness. Its aim is to correct the follies and frivolities of the individuals of a particular society through laughter and ridicule. Its main features are:
1) Its primary purpose is to amuse the audience.
2) It exposes follies and ridicules vices.
3) Its action moves from disorder to order.
4). Its tone is generally playful.
5) Its plot presents conflict of some kind.
Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and Bernard Shaw are among the best known comedy writers. Comedies are of various types: romantic comedy, comedy of humours, comedy of manners, Restoration comedy, burlesque, farce, black-cOmedy, high comedy, low comedy, comedy of ideas, etc. A few of them are discussed here:
Romantic Comedy:
A form of comedy which deals with love, often love at first sight, as its main theme. It starts with some problems that make the union of the lovers difficult. However, the problems are finally solved and the play ends with the lovers' happy union. Shakespeare's As You Like It is a romantic comedy.
Comedy of Humours:
A comedy in which characters behave according to their respective humours (temperaments) — choleric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmatic. Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour and Every Man out of His Humour are two famous comedies of this type. [see Humours]
Tragi-comedy:
A kind of play in which tragic and comic scenes are mingled. It violates the classical rules of pure tragedy or pure comedy on the logic that human life is neither absolutely sad nor absolutely happy. According to the classical theory of drama, grand themes and upper class characters are appropriate to tragedy; low subjects and low people are fit for comedy. A typical tragedy needs a serious plot which usually results in death. Quite contrary to it, a typical comedy needs a commonplace love story which ends in happiness. But there are plays in which low and high characters act together, common and serious events happen alternately or tragic and comic events are intermingled. Such a play is called tragi-comedy. Often quoted examples of the tragi-comedy are Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, Cymbeline and Tempest.
Heroic Tragedy:
A kind of drama written in grand and lofty style to show a disastrous end of a conflict between love and honour or love and duty. It developed in England during Restoration period. John Dryden is the pioneer of this kind of tragedy.
Its features are:
a) It is composed in heroic couplets.
b) Its subject is aboiit national foundations, mythological events, or grand issues.
c) Its hero is powerful, decisive, and domineering even when he is wrong.
d) It attempts to present epic grandeur in dramatic form.
The Indian Emperor, The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards and All for Love written by Dryden and The Black Prince written by Roger Boyle are good examples of heroic tragedy.
Revenge Tragedy:
Revenge tragedy is a kind of tragedy that presents a quest for vengeance and results in bloodshed and mutilation. It is modelled on the Senecan tragedy. It was popular in England during the late 16th and 17th centuries with the Elizabethans and Jacobeans. The essential elements of this kind of tragedy are:
1) Its plot is about a secret murder, usually of a benevolent ruler. 2) The ghost of the murdered person visits younger kinsman andreveals the truth.
3) The younger kinsman, usually a son, starts a quest for revenge.
4) The story involves disguise, intrigue, insanity, incest, adultery, rape, infanticide, suicide and gruesome murders on the stage.
5) Its typical characters are: a ghost, a cruel tyrant, a faithful male servant, a reliable female, etc.
6) It aims at exploring corruption in court, evil of absolute power and court intrigues.
7) Its highly rhetorical style is marked by the use of epigram, stichomythia (sharp dialogues), hyperboles, etc.
8) Its action is markedly sensational.
9) It uses philosophical soliloquies.
Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, John Webster's Duchess of Malfi and Shakespeare's Hamlet are famous revenge tragedies, Revenge tragedy and Senecan tragedy are famous almost similar only with the difference that revenge tragedy allows murders on the stage while Senecan tragedy reports off-stage murders.
Melodrama:
A kind of drama that provides sensational entertainment. It impersonates disproportionate virtue or extreme evil and presents horror and bloodshed, thrills and violence, witches and vampires on the stage. Examples of this type are Douglas Jerrold's. Black-Ey'd
Susan, Boucicault's Ten Nights in a Bar Room, Augustin Daly's Under the Gaslight, etc. Plays and novels may contain melodramatic elements, even if they are not pure melodrama.
OTHER FORMS OF DRAMA
Monodrama:
A play with a single character. In this kind of play only one character enacts the drama on the stage.
Closet Drama (also called Dramatic Poem):
A kind of play for reading, not for performing on stage. Milton's Samson Agonistes and Thomas Hardy's Dynasts are examples of closet drama.
Interlude:
A short entertaining play of the Middle Ages. It was staged between the Acts of a longer play or between the courses of a feast.
Morality Play:
A medieval dramatic form which allegorically presents an ideal Christian life on stage.
Miracle Play:
A kind of medieval play which deals with the miraculous events of the life of a saint.
Mysterious Play:
A medieval form of play which is based on the Biblical stories.
The Theatre of the Absurd:
A literary movement in Europe between 1940 and 1989. It encouraged a new kind of plays on the theme of the Absurd or meaninglessness of life. These plays reflect Albert Camus' philosophy of the Absurd which he introduced in his essay, "The Myth of Sisyphus" (Le Mythe de Sisyphe, 1942). Camus argues in the essay that man's quest for understanding the meaning of life results in futility. He compares human existence with that of Sisyphus who, in Greek Mythology, was given an eternal punishment of rolling a large stone up a hill only to see it roll down to the bottom. [see The Myth of Sisyphus]
Main Characteristics:
a) It focuses on human conditions according to "existential" philosophy.
b) It has no plot structure in traditional sense; whatever it has as plot is illogical, often arbitrary and lacks Aristotelian wholeness.
c) Its plot is both comic and tragic—two aspects of the same situation.
d) Nothingness, absence and unresolved mysteries are its main themes.
e) Here characters make abortive attempts to search for the meaning of life and death and the existence of God. They range from clowns to realistic figures.
Here time often moves spirally, instead of its usual linear movement.
g) Its dialogues are fragmented, repetitive and often nonsensical.
h) Pauses are frequently used in it to intensify tension.
i) It presents no resolution at the end. It leaves the audience to "draw his own conclusions, make his own errors".
Jean Genet's The Maid (1954), Eugene lonesco's The Bald Soprano (1950), Arthur Adamov's Ping-Pong (1955), Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (1954) and Endgame (1958), Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party (1957), The Caretaker (1959) and Edward Albee's The Zoo Story (1959) are the well-known absurdist plays.
Fiction:
FICTION
Fictitious narratives in prose. It may be based on facts but narrated with the colour of imagination. It is different from factual reports. All novels and short stories fall under this genre. Fables, parables, fairy tales and folklore are not called fiction though there are
fictional elements in each of them.
Novel:
A fictitious prose narrative of a certain length (50,000 and above words). A novel tells an imaginary story about recognizable characters and their actions. In other words, the people and events in traditional novels are imitation of real human society. The common elements found in a conventional novel are:
1) A fictitious story, often a fictitious love story;
2) A plot (arrangement of the incidents according to the logic
of cause and effect);
3) Suspense or curiosity to know what happens next;
4) Credible characters (some common human beings, not
supernatural or superhuman beings);
5) Setting in a place where the incidents of the story take place;
6) Setting in time that changes with the progress of the story;
7) A point of view or the voice of the narrator;
8) Longer than short stories and usually shorter than romances;
9) An illusion of a realistic society;
10) A world vision;
A novel may be tragic or comic. It may be general or regional. It may be psychological or social. A novel may also be a picaresque novel or a gothic novel or an epistolary novel or a non-fiction novel or a novelette and the like.
Picaresque Novel:
A novel that tells the story of a rascal or knave who moves from place to place for adventures and fights his evil antagonists. It is realistic in manner and satiric in aim. Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605) and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones are famous examples.
Bildungsroman:
A kind of novel that focuses on the protagonist's growth from childhood to adulthood, and then to maturity. It traces the protagonist's quest for identity through psychological and moral crises. It is also called formation novel or education novel. The well-known examples of this kind of novel are: Charles Dickens' David Copperfield and Great Expectations; George Eliot's Mill on the Floss.
Kunstlerroman:
A kind of novel that portrays the growth of a novelist or any other kind of artist from a naïve stage to maturity, James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Youngman is an example of this kind of novel,
Gothic Novel:
A form of prose narrative which comprises a medieval setting, wild and horrific incidents and mysterious occurrences, Clara Reeve's Old English Baron is an example. Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Dickens' Great Expectations have gothic elements.
Epistolary Novel:
A novel in the form of letters. The narrative of this type of novel is carried forward by letters written by one or more of the characters of that novel. Richardson's Pamela is an example,
Regional Novel:
A novel that depicts in its plot the customs, dialects and ways of life of a specific rural region. A novelist who writes regional novels chooses a particular fictional region for the settings of all of his novels.
For examples R. K. Narayan's novels are set in "Malgudi", Thomas Hardy's novels are set in "Wessex" and William Faulkner's novels are located in "Yaknapatawpha County".
Non-fiction Novel:
A novel based on real characters and events. It is journalistic in tone and lacks the touches of imagination generally found in other types of novels. Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is an example.
Novelette:
A short novel usually of thirty to forty thousand words. It is shorter than a novel but longer than a short story. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and George Orwell's Animal Farm are best examples of this genre.
Short Story
A short fictional narrative in prose (of about six to ten thousand words) that can be read in one sitting. It starts abruptly, rises to a climax and ends suddenly with a sense of incompleteness. The incident in it is invented instead of being an account of an event that actually happened. Short stories are also called short-fiction.
Elements of a short story:
1. Fictional narrative in prose;
2. Short in length (can be read in one sitting);
3. A single setting;
4. A single plot aiming at a single effect;
5. A central character; there may be a few supporting characters;
6. .A single theme;
7. Covers a short period of time;
8. Begins suddenly;
9. Ends with a powerful suggestion;
Maueham's "Luncheon" and 0' Henry's "Gift of the Magi" exemplify all these features. Among the short story writers, Guy de Maupassant, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Charles Dickens, George Orwell, 0' Henry (William Sydney Porter), James Joyce, Catherine Mansfield, Herman Melville, Saki (H. H. Munro), Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe are well-known.
Anecdote:
A short account of an incident usually used within a narrative to illustrate a point or highlight a truth. It is used as a digression from the main story. An anecdote may be historical or biographical or fictional.
NON-FICTION
Essay:
A short composition in prose which analyses a subject often to make a view point for general people. It differs from a short story because a short story is fictitious while an essay is an analytical presentation of something real. Examples: Orwell's "Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool"; Bertrand Russell's "Future of Mankind", etc.
Pamphlet:
An argumentative writing in prose on a controversial issue of a particular time. It is written to favour a side of the controversy and suggest a solution. Milton's Areopagitica is an example of it,
OTHERS
Fable:
A very short, allegorical story of animal characters which teaches a moral for human beings. Aesop's fables are best examples. Here is one:
The Greedy Dog
A greedy dog went into a butcher's shop and stole a big juicy bone, He ran away so fast that the butcher could not catch him. He ran out into the fields with the bone. He was going to eat it all by himself. He came to a stream. There was a narrow bridge across it. The dog walked on to the bridge, and looked into the water. He could see his own shadow in the water. He thought it was another dog with a big bone in his month.
The greedy dog thought the bone in the water was much bigger than the one he had stolen from the butcher.
The greedy dog dropped the bone from his mouth. It fell into the water and was lost. He jumped into the water to snatch the bigger bone from the other dog.
The greedy dog jumped into the water with a high splash. He looked everywhere but he could not see the other dog. His shadow had gone.
The silly dog went home hungry. He lost the bone and got nothing because he had been greedy.
Parable:
A parable is an allegorical story of human characters which teaches a religious moral. There are several famous parables in the Bible. Here is one:
‘The kingdom of Heaven is like this. There was once a landowner who went out early one morning to hire labourers for his vineyard; and after agreeing to pay them the usual day's wage he sent them of to work. Going out three hours later he saw some more men standing idle in the market-place. "Go and join the other in the vineyard," he said, "and I will pay you a fair wage"; so off they went. At midday he went out again, and at three in the afternoon, and made the same arrangement as before. An hour before sunset he went out and found another group standing there; so he said to them, "Why are you standing about like this all day with nothing to do?" "Because no one has hired us", they replied; so he told them, "Go and join the others in the vineyard". When evening fell, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, "Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with those who came last and ending with the first" Those who had started work an hour before sunset came forward, and were paid the full day's wage. When it was the turn of the men who had but come first, they expected something extra, were paid the same amount as the others. As they took it, they gumbled at their employer: "These late-comers have done only one hour's work, yet you have put them on a level with us, who have sweated the whole day long in the blazing sun!" The owner turned to one of them and said, "My friend, I am not being unfair to you. You agreed on the usual wage for the day, did you not? Take your pay and go home. 1 choose to pay the last man the same as you. Surely I am free to do what I like with my own money. Why be jealous because I am kind?" Thus will the last be first, and the first last.' (Matthew: 20)
This parable teaches God's supremacy and His ways to man.
Romance:
A form of medieval narrative in which a brave and chivalric knight moves from place to place in search of extravagant adventures and finally wins the favour of a courtly lady. It may be in verse or in prose. Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d' Arthur is a famous romance in prose. Sir Gawain and the Greek Knight by an anonymous writer is a romance in verse.
Satire:
A literary attack on the follies-and vices of an individual or a society with a view to correcting them through laughter and ridicule. It may be in prose or in verse. It is of two kinds: formal (direct) and informal (indirect). A formal or direct satire is one which is not mixed with other genres. It may again be of two types: Horatian and Juvenalian. The mild and sophisticated literary attacks are Horatian satire and the severe, indignant attacks are Juvenalian satire.
An indirect or informal satire is presented in the form of another genre. It may be presented in the form of an allegory as Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel which is known as satiric allegory. It may be satiric epic (or mock-epic) as Pope's Rape of the Lock. Thus, it may be satiric comedy as Ben Jonson's Volpone and Alchemist; satiric travelogue as Swift's Gulliver's Travels; satiric novel as Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George -Orwell's Animal Farm; satiric verse as Eliot's Waste Land and satiric essay as Addison's essays.
Allegory:
A literary form in which one story is told in the guise of another story. In other words, an allegory is a story of double meanings. Its author comments upon some persons or events of his age under disguised names. It may be both in prose and in verse. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is a well known allegory in,prose which deals with Christian notion of a soul's salvation. Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel is a political allegory in verse that uses names of Biblical personages and events to mean the political situation of his time.
Legend:
A story about a semi-god human figure. In it the writer focuses on the greatness of a human being though some supernatural beings may be involved in it. Beowulf, King Arthur, Faust and Robin Hood are the great legendary figures.
Myth:
An ancient story about gods and goddesses and their mysterious activities. In myths there may be human characters but the main characters must be supernatural beings.
Mythology:
Myths are collectively called mythology. The Greek mythology, the Roman mythology, the Egyptian mythology and the Indian mythology are well-known.
