Meetings 3 - Topic Literary Genres

LITERARY GENRES

A Literary Genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be

determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even as in the case of

fiction and length. As the examples: based on the age category , there is the

story for adult, young- adult or children’s whether from the format category,

we have graphic novel or picture book and etc. In this chapter, the categories

used are based on : the first is written and oral literature and the second is

fiction and non- fiction.

Written Literature

As it has been discussed above that literature can be in the form of written or oral

literature. Teeuw in his Sastera dan Ilmu Sastera explains clearly that there are seven

characteristics of written language, those are :

1. Using written language causes both the author and the readers lose the essence

of communicative means such as the intonation and gesture that support the

way of expressing the message.

2. There is no physical touch between the author and the readers or audiences. The

readers or audiences cannot see the author’s movement and give the important

direct respond to the author.

3. Sometimes , the authors do not appear in written literature as in anonymous

story, so there is no detail information about the author.

 4. The written text enables the readers to have different view from the author. It

happens because both the author and the reader have different situation and

environment.

5. The written text enables the readers to reread several times if it is needed. So the

readers have large opportunities to think over in order to get the deeper

understanding.

6. The written text enables to be reproduced in various forms

7. The written text enables to create historical relation to the next generation and

long- distance relation with people around the world.

Commonly, written literature is divided into three different genres namely : Prose,

Drama, and Poetry. Physically, at a glance, those genres can be differed easily. In prose, the

author expresses his idea in narratives way, in the form of long sentences arranged in

paragraphs to build chapter. Whether drama, it is usually written with characters, implied

action, and dialogue. Poetry is written in condensed language, stylized syntax, and figures of

speech not found in ordinary communication, there is usually a strong sense of rhythm or

meter.

The Oral Literature

Oral literature is also known as the oral tradition. It refers to stories that are or have

been transmitted in spoken form such as public recitation, rather than through writing or

printing. Or, it refers to the transmission of cultural material through vocal utterance, and was

long held to be a key descriptor of folklore, the material is held in common by a group of

people over several generations. Furthermore, Ruth Finnegan in his Oral Poetry : Its Nature,

Significance and Social Context says that “oral poetry essentially circulates by oral rather

than written, means; in contrast to written poetry, its distribution, composition or

performance are by word of mouth and not through reliance on the written or printed word. In

this sense it is a form of oral literature.

Most pre-literate societies have had a tradition of oral literature including short folk

tales, legend, myths, proverb, and riddles as well as longer narrative works; and most of the

ancient epic such as the Greek Odyssey and the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh- seem to have

been composed and added to over many centuries before they were committed to writing.

Some ancient stories from oral tradition were not written down as literary works until the 19 th

century such as the Finnish Kalevala ( 1835-49) many fairy tales , such as those collected in

Germany by the Grimm brothers also come into this category. Much of this sort of folk

literature may have been consciously embellished and altered , as happened in 19 th century

Europe for nationalistic purposes.

Oral literatures have continued to influence the development of national written

literature in the 20th century, particularly in Africa, central Asia and Australia. Russian

investigations and studies of oral literature in the Balkans, originally undertaken to illuminate

the oral basis of Homeric narrative have prompted collections and scientific studies in many

other parts of the world. There is a great amount of oral poetry ( literature) already recorded

and still being performed, in addition to the instances documented from the past, and interest

in these forms seems to be increasing.

The term of oral literature is sometimes used interchangeably with folklore but it

usually has a broader focus. The expression is self- contradictory; strictly speaking, is that

which is written down; but the term is used here to emphasizes the imaginative creativity and

conventional structures that mark oral discourse too. Oral literature shares with written

literature the use of heightened language in various genres ( narrative, lyric, and epic) but it is

set apart by being actualized only in performance and by the fact that the performer can

improvise so that oral text constitutes an event. Oral literature may be composed in
performance ; transmitted orally over generations , like many Scottish and Irish ballads that

have been brought to Canada ; it is written down specifically for oral performance.

Furthermore, Finnegan emphasis that the nature of oral poetry is such that its study

falls squarely within the field of literature; it can throw light on literature “proper’

( understood as written literature) and is also part of literature as it is most generally

understood. What is more, there is no clear-cut line between ‘oral’ and ‘ written’ literature,

and when one tries to differentiate between them , it becomes clear that there are constant

overlaps. Contrary to earlier assumptions which classed forms like those quoted as items of

‘oral tradition’, ‘folklore’ or ‘traditional formulae’, there proves to be no definitive and

unitary body of poetry which , being ‘oral’ can be clearly differentiated from written and, as

it were,’normal’poetry (1976: 2). Oral literary forms are presumed to be natural, communal

and unconsidered, and relatively free from the constraints of social differentiation, of

prescribed roles or socially recognized conventions. This is the example of oral literature :

What is man’s body? It is a spark from the fire

It meets water and it is put out.

What is man’s body? It is a bit of straw

It meets fire and it is burnt.

What is man’s body? It is a bubble of water

Broken by the wind.

(Gond song from Central India, recorded in the 1930s when the Gond

could be described as ‘one of the poorest peoples on earth’. Elvin and

Hivale,1944, p. 255) .

Many days of sorrow, many nights of woe,

Many days of sorrow, many nights of woe,

 And a ball and chain, everywhere I go.

Chains on my feet, padlocks on my hands,

Chains on my feet and padlocks on my hands,

It’s all on account of stealing a woman’s man.

It was early this mornin’ that I had my trial,

It was early this mornin’ that I had my trial,

Ninety days on the county road, and the judge didn’t even smile.

(Negro poem “Chain gang blues’, published in Hollo,1964, p. 11)

A wonderful occupation

Making song!

But all too often they

Are failures…

(From Piuvkaq’s poem ‘The joy of a singer’, translated from the

Eskimo in Rasmussen, 1932, p. 511)

Fiction

Narrative literature that creates an imaginary reality in the form of a story written in

sentences and paragraphs with no strongly rhythmic base. The fictional literature can be in

the forms of :

1. Drama:

a. Tragedy
 A DRAMA, in prose or verse, which recounts an important and causally

related series of events in the life of a person of significance, such events

culminating in an unhappy catastrophe, the whole treated with great dignity and

seriousness. According to Aristotle, whose definition in the Poetics in an inductive

description of the Greek tragedies, the purpose of a tragedy is to arouse the

emotions of pity and fear ant thus to produce in the audience a catharsis of these

emotions. Such a definition as this is broad enough to admit almost any DRAMA

that is serious and that ends with an unhappy CATASTROPHE, although its

various formulations have been interpreted from time to time in terms of the

attitudes and conventions of the age in which the formulations have been made.

The question of the nature of the significance of the tragic HERO is answered in

each age by the concept of significance that is held by that age. In a period of

monarchy, Shakespeare’s PROTATONISTS were kings and rulers; in other ages

they have been and will be other kinds of man. In a democratic nation, founded on

an egalitarian concept of man, a tragic HERO can be the archetypal common a man

—a shoe salesman, ap policeman, a gangster, a New England farmer, Negro

servant. From time to time the basis of UNITY has been debated. With the

classical writers of the RENAISSANCE and in the NEO-CLASSIC PERIOND, the

Unities were observed with rigor. Yet ages which find UNITY In other aspects of

drama than its technique, may wed the serious and the comic, may take liberties

with time and place, may use multiple PLOTS, and still achieve a unified effect as

the non-classic RENAISSANCE writers did. What constitutes dignity and

seriousness in presentation is also subject to the interpretation of the age in which

the play is produced. In its own way Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman is

fully as serious and as dignified for our world as Hamlet was for Elizabethan
 England, although it is a lesser play. Classical Tragedy and Romantic Tragedy both

emphasize the significance of a choice made by the Protagonist but dictated by

his”flaw,” his HARAMARTIA; yet to insist that tragedy be confined to this

particular view of man and life is to limit it in indefensible ways. Clearly tragedy

defies specific definition, each age producing works that speak in the conventions

and beliefs of that age the enduring sense that man seems to have of the tragic

nature of his existence and of the grandeur of the human spirit in facing it.

b. Comedy

As compared with RRAGEDY, comedy is a lighter form of drama which aims

primarily to amuse and which ends happily. It differs from farce and burlesque by

having a more sustained plot, more weighty and subtle dialogue, more natural

characters, and less boisterous behavior. The border-line, however, between

comedy and other dramatic forms cannot be sharply defined, as there is much

overlapping of technique, and different “kinds” are frequently combined. Even the

difference between comedy and tragedy tends to disappear in their more idealistic

forms. High comedy and low comedy may be further apart form each other in

nature than are tragedy and some serious comedy. Psychologists have shown the

close relation between laughter and tears; and comedy and tragedy alike sprang,

both in ancient Greece and in medieval Europe, from diverging treatments of

ceremonial performances.

c. Melodrama

A play based on a romantic plot and developed sensationally, with little regard

for convincing motivation and with an excessive appeal to the emotions of the

audience. The object is to keep the audience thrilled by the awakening, no matter

how, of strong feelings of pity or horror or joy. Poetic justice is superficially

 secured, the characters (who are either very good or very bad) being rewarded or

punished according to their deeds. Though typically a melodrama has a happy

ending, tragedies which use much of the same technique are sometimes referred to

as melodramatic. Likewise by a further extension of the term stories are sometimes

said to be melodramatic in character.

d. Tragic Comedy

A play which employs a plot suitable to tragedy but which ends happily like a

comedy. The action, serious in theme and subject matter and sometimes in tone

also, seems to be leading to a tragic catastrophe until an unexpected turn in events,

often in the form of a dues ex machine, brings about the happy denouement. In this

sense Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice is a tragic-comedy, though it is also a

romantic comedy.

2. Prose :

a. Philosophy

b. Fantasy Writing

Though sometimes used as an equivalent of fancy an even of imagination,

fantasy is usually employed to designate a conscious breaking free from reality.

c. Children’s literature

3. Myth

Anonymous stories having their roots in the primitive folk-beliefs of races or

nations and presenting supernatural episodes as a means of interpreting natural

events in an effort to make concrete and particular a special perception of man or a

cosmic view. Myths differ from legends in that they have less of historical

background an d more of the supernatural; they differ from the fable in that they

are less concerned with moral didacticism and are the product of a racial group
 rather than the creation of an individual. Every country and literature has its

mythology; the best known to English readers being the Greek, Roman, and Norse.

But the mythology of all groups takes shape around certain common themes; they

all attempt to explain the creation, divinity, and religion, to guess at the meaning of

existence and death, to account for natural phenomena, and to chronicle the

adventures of racial heroes.

4. Short Story

A brief short story, usually between 500 and 2000 words in length, with a

“twist” or surprise ending. Its best-known practitioner was O. Henry.

Stories, in one form or another, have existed throughout all history. Egyptian

papyri, dating from 3000 to 4000 B.C., reveal how the sons of Cheops regaled their

father with narrative. Some there hundred years before the birth of Christ, we had

such Old Testament stories as those of Jonah and of Ruth. Christ spoke in parables.

The Greeks and Romans left us episodes and incidents in their early classics. In the

Middle Ages the impulse to story-telling manifested itself in fables and epics about

beasts, and in the medieval romance.

5. Novel

a. Allegory. The symbolic story revolves around two meanings, what the writer says

directly is totally different than the conveyed meaning at the end.

b. Comedy

c. Epistolary.

A novel in which the narrative is carried forward by letters written by one or

more of the characters. It has the merit of giving the author an opportunity to

present the feelings and reactions of characters without himself intruding into the

action of the novel; it further gives a sense of immediacy to the action, since the
 letters are usually written in the thick of the action. The epistolary novel also

enables the author to present multiple points of view on the same event through the

use of several correspondents’ epistolary records of the occurrence. It is also a

device for creating verisimilitude, the author merely serving as “editor” for the

correspondence of “actual” persons. Obvious disadvantages are the fact that the

correspondents in an epistolary novel become incredible and indefatigable

scribblers under the most surprising circumstances and the fact that the enforced

objectivity of the “editor” shuts the author off from comment on the actions of his

characters.

d. Feminist

e. Gothic. Gothic fiction is the combination of both horror and romance.

f. Irony

A broad term referring to the recognition of a reality different from the

masking appearance. Verbal irony is a figure of speech in which the actual intent is

expressed in words which carry the opposite meaning. Irony is likely to be

confused with sarcasm but it differs from sarcasm in that it is usually lighter, less

harsh in its wording though in effect probably more cutting because of its

indirectness. It bears, too, a close relationship to innuendo the ability to recognize

irony is one of the surest test of intelligence and sophistication. Its presence is

marked by a sort of grim humor, and “unemotional detachment” on the part of the

writer, a coolness in expression at a time when the writer’s emotions are really

heated. Characteristically it speaks words of praise to imply blame and words of

blame to imply praise, though its inherent critical quality makes the first type much

more common than the second.

g. Realism

Realism is, in the broadest sense, simply fidelity to actuality in its representation in

literature; a term loosely synonymous with Verisimilitude; and in this sense it has

been a significant element in almost every school of writing in human history. In

order to give it more precise definition, however, one needs to limit it to the

movement which arose in the nineteenth century, at least partially in reaction

against romanticism, which was centered in the novel, and which was dominant in

France, England, and America from roughly mid-century to the closing decade,

when it was replaced by naturalism. In this latter sense, realism defines a literary

method, a philosophical and political attitude, and a particular kind of subject

matter.

h. Romance. Love and relationship topics are handled optimistically in the romantic

novels. It originated in Western countries, basically the story revolves around love

affairs of main characters.

i. Narration. In narrative style , writer becomes the third person who narrates the

whole story around the characters.

j. Naturalism

A term sometimes applied to writing that demonstrates a deep interest in

nature, such as Wordsworth and other Romantic writers had; and sometimes used

to describe any form of extreme realism, although this usage is a very loose one. It

should properly be reserved to designate a movement in the novel in the late

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in France, America, and England.

k. Picaresque. It is opposite to romance novels as it involves ideals, themes, and

principles that refuse the so-called prejudices of the society.

l. Psychological. It is the psychological prospective of mind with a resolution.

m. Satire. Satirical novel criticize the contemporary society.

A literary manner which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit to the

end that human institutions or humanity may be improved.

n. Stream of Consciousness. It is all about the thought coming up in the minds of the

readers.

6. Folk tales.

The following is the example of folk tale : Adam Puckett : God’s Angry

Man. The locale of this folk tale is the heavily wooded and often beautiful hill

country of Lawrence County, one of the southeastern Ohio counties that border the

Ohio River.

About a dozen tears ago, my stepmother, a native of the

region, told me these “Adam Puckett stories” as she had heard them

during her childhood. As we traveled the winding highway through

the hills she pointed out to me the half dug-away little (in comparison

with the surrounding mountains) hill of the “rabbit story”. Visible also

from the road is the graveyard with its iron fence where Adam Puckett

lies buried. She and her friends were among the children who visited

the grave as related in the final episode.

The tales of Adam Puckett are as true, I suppose, as are most

folk tales. Undoubtedly there was a real man of that name who

possessed many of the characteristics attributed to him . This man

was a farmer, as were his neighbors, striving to cultivate what little

leached and eroded earth remained on the steep slopes. But more than

other men he had a dogged, determined quality that might be called

stubbornness, orneriness, or sheer cussedness. Two generations later

when the people of the countryside, many of them descendants of the

man himself, gathered to talk, they told of this man with a wry

chuckle and more than a little grudging respect. For Adam Puckett

swore that no man, living or dead, or God Almighty himself would

ever get ahead of him. And it was almost true … to Adam there was

no such thing as an unavoidable act to God. And anything that God

Almighty could do, Adam believed he could do one better. It was a

personal feud.

One fine summer’s day, Adam was haying in a little field high

on a hill above his house. Far in the west clouds gathered along the

horizon, threatening a summer thundershower. Adam’s haying was far

from finish, but he was not bothered. He merely worked harder until

sweat drenched his blue shirt and soaked his heavy beard. The clouds

mounted in the sky until the hot sun turned mustrard yellow and then

disappeared behind the thunderheads. Adams face only became a little

redder and he redoubled his efforts.

Then the first wide-spaced drops fell. He straightened from his

work, glaring at the hay which still stood unprotected in the field.

Shaking his pitchfork at the darkening sky where tongues of lightning

already were flickering ominously, he boomed with great fury, “God

Almighty , you may be able to get some of my hay wet, but I swear

you won’t get all of it!’.

He turned , rammed his pronged pitchfork into a large bundle of

hay and started down the hill for the house and shelter. Down the hill

he ran in long, loping strides, hitting the little footbridge at the bottom
at a dead run. The speed and his great weight were too much for the

single plank. Adam Puckett, hay and all, fell in the creek. I would say

God won that round.

But it was not always so. Adam raised pigs on his little hill farm.

One day the same creek rose in a flash flood, so common in that

section of the country. The high water surged into the pig pen,

drowning all but three of a new litter of pigs. Adam , infuriated by

God’s personal injury to him, grabbed up the three remaining little

pigs. With the squealing little animals in his great long arms he

strodes to the edge of the swollen stream. “God Almighty, if you can

drown some of my pigs, I’ll show you I can drown the rest!” he

roared, hurling the three pigs into the swirling muddy water.

Adam Puckett liked to hunt, as did all his neighbors. There was

always a pack of hound dogs, rough-coated and with every rib

showing , barking around his heels. But one time his hunting exploits

took an unusual turn. A small bunny rabbit, soft and brown, had been

sneaking into his vegetables garden at night, nibbling at the newly

sprouted spring lettuce and carrots. Adam saw glimpses of it often, but

he was unable to catch it. Finally, after deciding that no rabbit created

by God Almighty could get the better of him, he called his favorite

hound, loaded his gun, and started after it.

Through the woods and over the hills they went – the rabbit, the

hound, and Adam. At last the hound cornered the rabbit in a hole at

the top of a good-sized little knoll. And although the dog barked and

dug excitedly, he couldn’t unearth the rabbit. Adam was not one to
give up easily. He was determined to get that rabbit and no other, if it

took him until Doomsday to do it. Leaving the dog there, he went

home for shovel and pickaxe. He began to dig. He dug on and on with

dogged determination. Days passed, but he kept on working, stopping

only for short periods to eat or rest. He dug until over half the top of

the hill was gone, as the story goes, he got the rabbit. And even today,

as you drive along away. A native can tell you that is the place “where

Adam Puckett dug out the rabbit.

Adam’s neighbors were alternately awed and umused by his

efforts to defeat the Almgihty God. When the fierce old man finally

died, giving the Lord the final victory, I suppose, they all wondered

what would happen to him.

He was laid to rest in the family cemetery, high on a hill. It is a

peaceful little cemetery with weathered tombstones, next to a gently

sloping woods, and with one great oak spreading shading branches

over the whole plot. Around the edge is lacy iron fence, broken only

by an iron gate with an arch over it. Here lie all the deceased Pucketts

and their many relatives, all less domineering than Adam.

But still, people wondered if he would be content to lie there,

while his soul ascended peacefully to Heaven. Somehow the idea of

Adam in Heaven didn’t seem possible. Would Adam be happy in a

place where God Almighty would always have the last word, granting

of course that God would even let him yhrough the pearly gates?

There was a good deal od doubt about this too.

 So the story grew that even in the deepest winter, snow does not

lie on old Adam Pucketts’s grave, but melts as soon as it hits, no

matter how deep it may lie elsewhere.

This is the tale whispered around the hill country schoolrooms,

and the children’s eyes, round and gullible, widen in fright and

wonder. Then they pull on their rough coats and their home-knit

mittens to trudge up the hill – dark, bent little figures against the

whiteteness – more than a little afraid, to see for themselves if there is

snow on Adam Pucketts’s grave.

7. Poetry

A term applied to the many forms in which man has given a

rhythmic expression to his most imaginative and intense

perceptions of his world, himself, and the interrelationship of the

two only through an examination of its origins and certain aspects

of its nature can anything significant be said about poetry.

Non- Fiction

It is opposite to fiction as it is informative and comprises the interesting facts with

analysis and illustrations. Or in other words, non-fiction refers to works of fact or theory.

Main types of non-fiction literature are :

1. Autobiography and Biography

Autobiography the story of a person’s life written by himself. Although a common

loose use of the term includes under autobiographical writings memoirs, diaries,

journals, and letters, distinctions among these forms need to be made. Diaries,

journals, and letters are not extended, organized narratives prepared for the public eye;

autobiographies and memoirs are. But whereas memoirs deal at least in part with
 public events and noted personages other than the author himself, an autobiography is

a connected narrative of the author’s life, with some stress laid upon introspection.

Biography a written account of a person’s life, a life history. Biography derives its

impetus from the commemorative instinct, the didactic or moralizing instinct, and,

perhaps most important of all, the instinct of curiosity. Letters, memoirs, diaries,

journals, and autobiography, though they spring from these same desires of men, must

be distinguished from biography proper.

2. Essay. It is generally the author’s point of view about any particular topic in a detailed

way. It has simple way of narrating the main subject, therefore they are descriptive,

lengthy, subject oriented, and comparative.

a. Personal Essay

Nineteenth Century.-A revival of interest in the writing of both formal and informal

essays accompanied the romantic movement. The informal type responded to the

romantic impulses of the time.

b. Expository Essay

c. Response Essay

d. Process Essay

e. Persuasive Essay

f. Argumentative Essay

g. Critical Essay

h. Interview Essay

i. Reflective Essay

j. Evaluation Essay

k. Observation Essay

l. Application Essay
m. Compare and Contrast Essay

n. Narrative Essay

An informal essay in narrative form-anecdote, incident, or allegory. It differs from a

short story not only in its simpler structure, but especially in its essay like intent, the

story being a means of developing an idea rather than being an end in itself.

3. Outdoor Literature. It is the literature of adventure that gives whole exploration of an

event , exciting moments of life such as horse riding, fishing, traveling ,etc. e.g Mark

Twain’s The Adventure of Tom Sawyer.

4. Frame Narrative

5. Magazine

A term applied to any of several kinds of periodical miscellanies containing various

kinds of material by several authors.

6. Newspaper.

7. Journal. It is one of types of diaries that records infinite information:

a. Personal . it is for personal analysis. In this journal one can write his goal, daily

thought, events, and situation.

b. Academic

Associations of literary, artistic, or scientific men brought together for the

advancement of culture and learning within their special fields of interests. The term

is derived from “the olive grove of Academe” where Plato taught at Athens.

c. Creative. It is imagination writing of a story, poem or narrative.

d. Trade. Trade journals are used by industrial purposes where they dictate practical

information.
 e. Dialectical. It is used by students to write in double column notebook . they can write

facts, experiments and observation on the left side and right side can be a series of

thought and response with an end.

8. Diary. It is the incidents recorded by the author with any means of publishing them. It

is the rough work of one’s daily routine, happening, memorable days or events in their

life.

2.5 Answer the Following questions!

1. What is meant by literary genres?

2. What do you know about fictional literature?

3. What is non-fiction literature?

4. What do you think of oral tradition?

5. Give the examples of oral tradition!

REFERENCES :

1. Finnegan, Ruth.1976. Oral Poetry : Its Nature, Significance and Social Context. New
York : Cambridge University Press.
2. Teeuw, A. 2003. Sastera dan Ilmu Sastera. Jakarta: PT. Kiblat Buku Utama