INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE

Definition of Literature
Literature (from the Latin littera meaning 'letters’ and referring to an acquaintance
with the written word) is the written work of a specific culture, sub-culture, religion,
philosophy or the study of such written work which may appear in poetry or in prose.
Literature, in the west, originated in the southern Mesopotamia region of Sumer (c. 3200)
in the city of Uruk and flourished in Egypt, later in Greece (the written word having been
imported there from the Phoenicians) and from there, to Rome. Writing seems to have
originated independently in China from divination practices and also independently in
Mesoamerica and elsewhere. The first author of literature in the world, known by name,
was the high-priestess of Ur, Enheduanna (2285-2250 BCE) who wrote hymns in praise of
the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Much of the early literature from Mesopotamia concerns the
activities of the gods but, in time, humans came to be featured as the main characters in
such poems as Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta and Lugalbanda and Mount Hurrum
(c.2600-2000 BCE). For the purposes of study, literature is divided into the categories of
fiction or non-fiction today but these are often arbitrary decisions as ancient literature, as
understood by those who wrote the tales down, as well as those who heard them spoken or
sung pre-literacy, was not understood in the same way as it is in the modern-day.

Poetry
Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning,
sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. Poetry has
been known to employ meter and rhyme, but this is by no means necessary. Poetry is an
ancient form that has gone through numerous and drastic reinvention over time. The very
nature of poetry as an authentic and individual mode of expression makes it nearly
impossible to define.

Types of Poetry
 An ABC poem has a series of lines that create a mood, picture, or feeling. Lines are made
up of words and phrases. The first word of line 1 begins with an A, the first word of line 2
begins with a B etc.
A lthough things are not perfect
B ecause of trial or pain
C ontinue in thanksgiving
D o not begin to blame
E ven when the times are hard
F ierce winds are bound to blow
(Anonymous)
 An allegory is a narrative having a second meaning beneath the surface one - a story with
two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Examples of allegories are the
Fairie Queen by Edmund Spenser, Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan and Young
Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,
As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,
Am now enforst a far vnfitter taske,
For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,
And sing of Knights and Ladies gentle deeds;
Whose prayses hauing slept in silence long,
Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds
To blazon broad emongst her learned throng:
Fierce warres and faithfull loues shall moralize my song.
(Edmund Spencer, The Faerie Queene <Excerpt>)
 An analogy is a likeness or similarity between things (a subject and an analog) that are
otherwise unlike. Analogy is the comparison of two pairs which have the same
relationship.
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
 But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
(Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay)
 A ballad is a poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a
repeated refrain. A ballad is often about love and often sung. A ballad is a story in poetic
form. A collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants,
were collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century - an example is shown
below.
Oh the ocean waves may roll,
And the stormy winds may blow,
While we poor sailors go skipping aloft
And the land lubbers lay down below, below, below
And the land lubbers lay down below.
(Anonymous, The Mermaid)
 Blank verse is poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is
often unobtrusive and the iambic pentameter form often resembles the rhythms of
ordinary speech. William Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse.
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over-there it is in the water!
(John Berryman, The Ball Poem)
 A burlesque poem consists of a story, play, or essay, that treats a serious subject
ridiculously, or is simply a trivial story. A Parody is a type of high burlesque which
imitates or exaggerates the serious manner and characteristic features of a particular
literary work. Parody is a device of satire.
 A cinquain has five lines. Line 1 is one word (the title). Line 2 is two words that describe
the title. Line 3 is three words that tell the action. Line 4 is four words that express the
feeling. Line 5 is one word that recalls the title.
Tree
Strong, Tall
Swaying, swinging, sighing
Memories of summer
Oak
(Anonymous)
 An elegy is a sad and thoughtful poem lamenting the death of a person. An example of
this type of poem is Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
(Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard <Excerpt>)
 An epic is a long, serious poems that tells the story of a heroic figure. Some of the most
famous epic poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer and the epic poem of The
Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ( 1807 - 1882 ).
By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha <Excerpt>)
 An epigram is a very short, satirical and witty poem usually written as a brief couplet or
quatrain. The term epigram is derived from the Greek word 'epigramma' meaning
inscription. The epigram was cultivated in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
by poets like Ben Jonson and John Donne who wrote twenty-one English epigrams.
I am unable, yonder beggar cries,
To stand, or move; if he say true, he lies.
(John Donne, The Lame Begger)
 An epitaph is a commemorative inscription on a tomb or mortuary monument written in
praise, or reflecting the life, of a deceased person.
I was born
Then I wed
Nagging Wife
Now I'm dead!
(Anonymous)
 The term epithalamium derives from the Greek word 'epi' meaning 'upon' and
'thalamium' meaning 'nuptial chamber'. An Epithalamium (or Epithalamion) is a
wedding poem written in honour of a bride and bridegroom. The best example of
Epithalamium in Greek literature is the 18th Idyll of Theocritus, which is a literary work
that celebrates the marriage of Menelaus and Helen in Ancient Greece. The famous work
"Epithalamium" was written by Edmund Spenser in honor of his marriage in 1594.
Why have such scores of lovely, gifted girls
Married impossible men?
Simple self-sacrifice may be ruled out,
And missionary endeavour, nine times out of ten.
(Robert Graves, A Slice of Wedding Cake <Excerpt>)
 Free verse is a form of Poetry composed of either rhymed or unrhymed lines that have
no set fixed metrical pattern. The early 20th-century poets were the first to write what
they called "free verse" which allowed them to break from the formula and rigidity of
traditional poetry. The poetry of Walt Whitman provides many illustrations of Free Verse
including his poem "Song of Myself".
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loaf and invite my soul,
I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
(Walt Whitman, Song of Myself)
 A haiku is a Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five
syllables. Haiku poetry originated in the sixteenth century and reflects on some aspect of
nature and creates images.
None is travelling
Here along this way but I,
This autumn evening.
The first day of the year:
thoughts come - and there is loneliness;
the autumn dusk is here.
(Basho, None is Travelling)
 A limerick is a short sometimes bawdy, humorous poem consisting of five Anapaestic
lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 of a Limerick have seven to ten syllables and rhyme with one
another. Lines 3 and 4 have five to seven syllables and also rhyme with each other.
Edward Lear is famous for his Book of Nonsense which included the poetry form of
Limericks.
There was an Old Man with a gong,
Who bumped at it all day long;
But they called out, 'O law!
You're a horrid old bore!'
So they smashed that Old Man with a gong.
(Edward Lear, Limerick from the Book of Nonsense)
 A lyric poem consists of a poem, such as a sonnet or an ode, that expresses the thoughts
and feelings of the poet. The term lyric is now commonly referred to as the words to a
song. Lyric poetry does not tell a story which portrays characters and actions. The lyric
poet addresses the reader directly, portraying his or her own feeling, state of mind, and
perceptions.
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.
(Emily Dickinson, Dying)
 An ode is long poem which is serious in nature and written to a set structure. John
Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and "Ode To A Nightingale" are probably the most famous
examples of this type of poem.
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk:
(John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale <Excerpt>)
 A quatrain poem consists of stanzas or a poem of four lines. Lines 2 and 4 must rhyme.
Lines 1 and 3 may or may not rhyme. Rhyming lines should have a similar number of
syllables. A famous example of a Quatrain is detailed below by William Blake.
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
(William Blake, The Tyger <Excerpt>)
 The senryu is a short Japanese poem that is similar to a Haiku poem in structure but
treats human beings rather than nature, often in a humorous or satiric way. A haiku is
usually published with the name of the author and senryu is not.
The robber,
If I catch,
My own son
(Anonymous)
 English (or Shakespearean) sonnets are lyric poems that are 14 lines long falling into
three coordinate quatrains and a concluding couplet. Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnets are
divided into two quatrains and a six-line sestet.
O thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power
Dost hold Time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour;
Who hast by waning grown, and therein show'st
Thy lovers withering as thy sweet self grow'st;
If Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack,
As thou goest onwards, still will pluck thee back,
She keeps thee to this purpose, that her skill
May time disgrace and wretched minutes kill.
Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure;
She may detain, but not still keep, her treasure:
Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be,
And her quietus is to render thee.
(William Shakespeare, Sonnet 126)
 Tanka is a Japanese poetry type of five lines, the first and third composed of five syllables
and the rest of seven. Tanka is the oldest type of poetry in Japan.
To live is to break
One's heart for the sake of love;
A couple of doves,
Beaks touching on their way,
Are stepping out in the sun.
(Ueda Miyogi, To Live is to Break)
 Terza rima is a type of poetry consisting of 10 or 11 syllable lines arranged in three-line
"tercets". The Italian poet Dante is credited with inventing terza rima and it has been
used by many English poets including Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, Percy Bysshe
Shelley and Auden.
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind <Excerpt>)

Prose
Prose is a form of language that has no formal metrical structure. It applies a natural
flow of speech, and ordinary grammatical structure rather than rhythmic structure, such as
in the case of traditional poetry.
 Normal every day speech is spoken in prose and most people think and write in
prose form. Prose comprises of full grammatical sentences which consist of paragraphs
and forgoes aesthetic appeal in favor of clear, straightforward language. It can be said to be
the most reflective of conversational speech. Some works of prose do have versification
and a blend of the two formats that is called prose poetry.

Prose Genres
 Adventure fiction is a story in which characters are involved in dangerous and/or
exhilarating exploits.
 Airport novel is a work of fiction, generally genre fiction, so named because of its
availability at stores in international airports in order to provide airline passengers with
a light diversion during a flight.
 Allegory is a story using symbolism to express truths about the human condition.
 Bildungsroman is a story detailing the emotional and moral growth of a character.
 Crime fiction is a story based on the commission and/or investigation of wrongdoing.
 Detective fiction is a story in which the protagonist investigates a crime.
 Epic is originally a long poem celebrating the exploits of a factual or fictitious hero, but
now applied to prose works on the same theme as well.
 Epistolary fiction is a story constructed as a series of letters exchanged between
characters.
 Fantasy fiction is a story involving imaginary beings in the real world or in an alternate
reality and assuming suspension of disbelief about magic and/or supernatural powers.
 Fictional autobiography is a story purporting to be a first-person account of someone’s
life.
 Fictional biography is a story structured to resemble a factual life story.
 Gothic fiction is a story often taking place in an isolated setting and involving strange
and/or perilous happenings.
 Horror fiction is a story incorporating supernatural and/or inexplicable elements and
intended to arouse fear and dread.
 Mystery fiction is a story that detail the solution of a crime or other wrongdoing.
 Pastiche is a story that imitates one or more established works, or consists of episodes of
such works.
 Picaresque is an episodically structured story featuring a rogue or an antihero as the
protagonist.
 Parody is a story mocking the pretensions or weaknesses of a particular author, style, or
genre.
 Romance is a love story; also a tale taking place in a distant time and place and involving
adventure with often supernatural or mysterious elements.
 Romp is a boisterously comical tale.
 Satire is a story that pokes fun at human shortcomings such as arrogance, greed, and
vanity.
 Science fiction is a story focusing on how science and technology affect individuals and
civilizations
 Screwball comedy is a fast-paced story involving improbable situations and antics from
which the humor derives.
 Swashbuckler is an adventure story in which the hero accomplishes great feats to aid a
noble cause.
 Thriller is a dramatic story punctuated with action, adventure, and suspense.
 Travelogue is a story with a plot centering on a significant amount of travel.

Drama
Drama is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance. It is
one of the literary genres, which is an imitation of some action. Drama is also a type of a
play written for theaters, televisions, radios and films.
 In simple words, a drama is a composition in verse or prose presenting a story in
pantomime or dialogue, containing conflict of characters, particularly the ones who
perform in front of audience on the stage. The person who writes drama for stage
directions is known as a dramatist or playwright.

Types of Drama
 Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary writers, and provide a happy conclusion. The
intention of dramatists in comedies is to make their audience laugh. Hence, they use
quaint circumstances, unusual characters and witty remarks.
o Romantic comedy is a composite genre which centres mostly on the vicissitudes
of young lovers, who get happily united in the end. The best examples for this
genre are to be found in Shakespeare’s oeuvre, e.g.: A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, As You Like It.
o Comedy of humours is a form of drama typical at the end of the 16th and the
beginning of the 17th century; based on the medieval and Renaissance belief that
people’s actions are governed by their dominant bodily humour (blood, phlegm,
bile or black bile), its characters are ruled by a particular passion or trait. The first
and most significant playwright of the genre was Ben Jonson, esp. in his Every Man
in His Humour and Every Man Out of His Humour.
o Satirical comedy is a form of comedy whose main purpose is to expose the vices
and shortcomings of society and of people representing that society; it is often
very close to farce or the comedy of manners. The earliest examples are the works
of Aristophanes, esp. his Clouds, Birds, Frogs; in English literature, Ben
Jonson’s Volpone or Sheridan’s School for Scandal must be mentioned. In European
literature, the greatest master of the genre is undoubtedly Molière.
o Comedy of manners is also ‘Restoration comedy’ or ‘artificial comedy’; the
prevailing kind of drama in the second half of the 17th century, before the advent
of the so-called sentimental comedy in the early 18th century. The comedy of
manners depicts a stylish society, mainly the middle and upper classes, its focus is
on elegance, with characters of fashion and rank, but also would-be nobles,
ambitious social climbers, fops, country bumpkins, and so on. Its topics are social
intrigue, mainly marital and sexual, and also adultery and cuckoldry. The most
important playwrights in the Restoration period are William Congreve and
William Wycherley; but some of Shakespeare’s plays (e.g. Love’s Labour’s Lost,
or Much Ado About Nothing) can also be considered examples of this genre, as are
the plays of Molière, Sheridan, and Oscar Wilde.
o Sentimental comedy is also ‘drama of sensibility’; the dominant comic genre after
Restoration comedy, popular entertainment for the middle classes in the
18thcentury. It appeared as a reaction against the immoral and licentious comedy
of manners, which emphasised vices and faults of people; sentimental comedy
focused on the virtues of private life, with simple and honourable characters. Some
typical examples can be found in the work of Oliver Goldsmith and Robert Steele;
however, on the whole, the genre did not prove to be as enduring as its
predecessors, and it is not often performed any more.
o Farce is a form of low comedy, whose intention is to provoke simple mirth in the
form of roars of laughter (and not smiles); it uses exaggerated physical action,
character and absurd situation, with improbable events, a complex plot, with
events rapidly succeeding one another, pushing character and dialogue into the
background. The origins of the genre are not clear, but farcical elements can be
found already in the plays of Aristophanes and Plautus; in English literature, even
parts of Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, or The Taming of the Shrew, together with
the Falstaff plays (1-2 Henry IV, The Merry Wives of Windsor) can be classified as
farce.
o Black comedy is (translated from the French comédie noire) a form of drama
which displays cynicism and disillusionment, human beings without hope or
convictions, their lives controlled by fate or unknown and incomprehensible
 powers; a genre popular in the second half of the 20th century, when the absurd
predicament of mankind is increasingly in the focus of literature.
 Tragic dramas use darker themes such as disaster, pain and death. Protagonists often
have a tragic flaw—a characteristic that leads them to their downfall.
o In revenge tragedy (tragedy of blood), the plot is centred on the tragic hero’s
attempts at taking revenge on the murderer of a close relative; in these plays the
hero tries to ‘right a wrong’. The genre can be traced back to Antiquity, e.g. to
the Oresteia of Aeschylus, and the tragedies of Seneca. During theRenaissance,
there were two distinct types of revenge tragedy in Europe; the Spanish-French
tradition (Lope de Vega, Calderón, Corneille) focusing on honour and the conflict
between love and duty; and the English revenge tragedy following the Senecan
traditions of sensational, melodramatic action and savage, often exaggerated
bloodshed in the centre. Elizabethan revenge tragedies usually feature a ghost,
some delay, feigned or real madness of the hero, and often a play-within-the-play;
cf.: Kyd: The Spanish Tragedy; Shakespeare: Hamlet; Webster: The Duchess of Malfi.
o Domestic tragedy is a play typically about middle-class or lower middle-class life,
concerned with the domestic sphere, the private, personal, intimate matters
within the family, between husband and wife (as opposed to the national – matters
of a nation/country, or universal – the whole of mankind). There are plenty of
examples in Tudor and Jacobean drama, e.g. Shakespeare: Othello; Heywood: A
Woman Killed with Kindness, but also some in the 18th century, like Lillo: The
London Merchant, and the term may even be applied to the work of later
dramatists as well.
o Mostly popular during the English Restoration, heroic tagedy or tragicomedy
usually used bombastic language and exotic settings to depict a noble heroic
protagonist and their torment in choosing between love and patriotic duties. A
typical example would be John Dryden’s The Conquest of Granada.
 Tragicomedy is a term not easy to define and distinguish from the problem play or black
comedy, among others. The term was first used by Plautus, but the concept is even older,
and has always been used to refer to tragedies with a happy ending (also called ‘mixed
tragedies’). Later it was also used for tragedies with comic subplots, and by the end of the
16th century, the two kinds became intermingled. Dramatists increasingly tended to use
comic relief in their tragedies and tragic aggravation in comedies, to enhance the desired
effect.
 Problem play is a group of Shakespearean plays (Measure for Measure, Troilus and
Cressida, All’s Well that Ends Well), all of which have a formal comic ending, and could
therefore be classified as comedies, had not their serious tone and content defy such an
approach. They present complex moral, ethical, or social problems, which are not
completely resolved by the end of the play, as various interpretations and approaches
remain possible and troubling for the audience. It is also ‘thesis play’, or ‘propaganda
play’, a dramatic form which originated in France in the 19th century. The plays belonging
to this genre deal with a specific problem and usually offer a solution, as in Ibsen’s A
Doll’s House, or G.B. Shaw’s Mrs Warren’s Profession, or Major Barbara. From the 1960s
onwards, some playwrights used this form to approach broad political and social issues,
often writing about ‘the state of Britain’ as such. Outstanding authors are John McGrath,
David Hare, Edward Bond, etc.
 Masque is an elaborate form of courtly entertainment, combining poetic drama, song,
dance and music. It was popular in England during the reign of Elizabeth I, James I and
Charles I, but also in 16th century Italy and France. The plot of masques was usually
simple, predominantly allegorical, with mythological elements, often used for glorifying
the monarch. The performers were often not only professional actors, but also members
of the aristocracy and the noble court. (Shakespeare: Henry VIII, Ben Jonson, etc)
 History play is also ‘chronicle play’, a play based on recorded history rather than myth or
legend; in the centre there is often not an individual hero but rather the fate and the
future of the nation. Early examples include The Persians by Aeschylus; the first English
drama considered a history play is John Bale’s King John (c. 1534). In the Renaissance, the
 genre became increasingly popular, with the contributions of Marlowe (Edward II) and
Shakespeare (covering English history with a succession of plays from Richard II to Henry
VIII, and also a play on King John). There have been notable history plays even in the
20th century, e.g. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons.

References
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Nichol, M. (2014). 35 genres and varieties of fiction. Retrieved from
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/35-genres-and-other-varieties-of-fiction/
Drama. Retrieved from http://literarydevices.net/drama/
Drama. Retrieved from https://btk.ppke.hu/uploads/articles/135505/file/introduction
/drama/drama.html
Prose. Retrieved from https://literarydevices.net/prose/
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