LITERARY CRITICISM

• Literature Derived from the latin "litera" which means letter
• Literature Body of written works of a particular time, country especially those valued for excellence of form and expression
• Literature Creative and universal means of communication
• literature is a product of particular culture that concretizes man's array of values, emotions, actions, and ideas.
• Literature is therefore a creation of human experiences that tells about people and their world.
• DIVISIONS OF LITERATURE

  Fiction

  • Is a form of any narrative or informative work that deals with information/events that are imaginary- Made out of nothing, symbolic, artificial. 
  • E.g. novels, short stories, films (etc.) 

  Non-fiction

  • Form of any narrative, account or other communicative work based on facts.- Comes out of something, straightforward, natural
  • E.g. bibliographies, histories
• PROSE

  • consists of those written within the common flow of conversation in sentences and paragraphs
• 1. NOVELS

  • A long narrative divided into chapters and events are taken from true-to-life stories.
• 1. SHORT STORY

  • This is a narrative involving one or more characters, one plot and one single impression. \
• 1. PLAYS

  • This is presented on a stage, is divided into acts and each act has many scenes.
• 1. LEGENDS

  • These are fictitious narratives, usually about origins.
• 1.  FABLES

  • These are also fictitious and they deal with animals and inanimate things who speak and act like people and their purpose is to enlighten the minds of children to events that can mold their ways and attitudes
• 1. ANECDOTES

  • These are merely products of the writer's imagination and the main aim is to bring out the lessons to the reader.
• 1. ESSAY

  • This expresses the viewpoint or opinion of the writer about a particular problem or event.
• 1. BIOGRAPHY

  • This deals with the life of a person which may be about himself, his autobiography or that of others.
• 1. NEWS

  • This is a report of everyday events in society, government, science and industry, accidents, happing nationally and locally.
• 1. ORATION

  • This is a formal treatment of a subject and is intended to be spoken in public.
• POETRY

  refers to those expressions in verse, with measure and rhyme, line and stanza and has a more melodious tone.
• NARRATIVE POETRY

  • describes important events in life either real or imaginary. 
• • EPIC extended narrative about heroic exploits often under supernatural control.
• • METRICAL TALE - a narrative which is written in verse can be classified either as a ballad or a metrical romance.
• • BALLAD -It tells a simple structure and tells of a single incident. The shortest and simplest of the narrative poems
• LYRIC POETRY

  • The kind of poetry that is meant to be sung with a lyre. Now, this applies to any type of poetry that expresses emotions and feelings of a poet.
• • FOLKSONGS these are short poems that are intended to be sung with the common them of love, despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope, and sorrow.
• • SONNETS a lyric poem of 14 lines dealing with an emotion, a feeling, or an idea.
• •  ELEGY a lyric poem which expresses feelings of grief and melancholy, and whose theme is death.
• • ODE a poem of a noble feeling, expressed with dignity, with no definite number of syllables or definite number of lines in a stanza.
• • PSALMS (DALIT) - This is a song praising God or the Virgin Mary and containing a philosophy of life.
• • SONG (AWIT) These have measures of 12 syllables (dodecasyllabic) and slowly sung to the accompaniment of a guitar or banduria.
• • CORRIDOS These have measures of 8 syllables (octosyllabic) and recited to a martial beat.
• DRAMATIC POETRY

  • Dramatic poetry is written to be spoken or acted in public, in front of an audience.
• • COMEDY The word comes from the Greek term "komos" meaning festivity or revelry. This is written to amuse, and usually has a happy ending.
• • MELODRAMA This is usually used in musical plays with the opera. It arouses immediate and intense emotion and is usually sad but there is a happy ending for the principal character.
• • TRAGEDY This involves the hero struggling mightily against dynamic forces, meets death or ruin without success being obtained.
• • FARCE This is characterized with exaggerated comedy where it is characterized of laughable lines and situations that are too ridiculous to be true.
• • SOCIAL POEMS -This form is either purely comic or tragic and pictures the life of today, aiming to bring about changes in the social condition.
• • A short story is a type of creative text in which writers share insights and observations about life through characters and theme. Short stories draw upon personal experiences and/or imaginative thinking.
• SETTING

  • The setting of a short story is the time and place in which it happens. You could use descriptions of landscape, scenery, buildings, seasons or weather to provide a strong sense of setting.
• Aspects of setting:

  1. Time: A story is usually set in a time period. This includes the historical time of the story, its specific time frame, and even the time of the day when the events take place.
  2. Place: Place is the geographical landscape, real or imaginary, where a particular story unfolds.
  3. Environment: The environment of a story can  include anything from weather conditions to the social, cultural, and political backdrop to a given story.
• CHARACTERS

  • A character is a person, or sometimes even an animal, who takes part in the action of a short story or other literary work.