Qualities, Types & Features of Literature

Fundamental Features of Literature

Qualities, Types and Features of Literature

Literature has always its aesthetic beauty and it contains human happiness and sufferings as a whole, the overall viewing of life, philosophy and truth.

Qualities of literature

Here, we are dealing with the fundamental features of literature so that we can make it distinct from other things. They are the qualities of literature.

a. Artistry: In essence and by nature, literature is stylish, special, beautified, polished, and decorated with different figures of speech. Thus, it is one of the main qualities of literature. An artist creates an art that is we called literature. In the art of musician, music is the art, in the art of poet; poem is the art and so on. Hence, Literature always has artistry qualities.

b. Suggestiveness: Literature always suggests the common values, emotion and feelings of human. It does not command what to be done but just suggest human heart rather than the mind. Thus, it is more emotional than logical.

c. Universality: Though the literature is merely said the reflection of the social and emotional phenomena, it appeals the universal feeling and emotion of human happiness and suffering such as love, hate, jealousy, faith, sorrow, hesitation, joy etc. Hence, in deep level literature has universal scope and appeal with locality.

d. Creative Imagination: There is high value of imagination rather than facts in the field of literature. The facts are polished by imagination of the literary figure. A literary writer is a creator who is so fertile in imagination to see the possible future events in any part of the world.

e. Eternity: Literature has permanent effects on human study, if we compare the literary products with the journalistic products we find that journalistic writing is just for sometimes which has not eternity and permanency. For example the poetry composed by Homer, John Milton, Drama by Shakespeare and poems by Words wroth has the eternal effect and meaning even today and in future as well. Thus, Eternity is always there in literature.

f. Moral Consciousness: There is the struggle between good and evil in the human civilization even from the creation of the world. So, literature should keep always itself to the side of good and moral. An artist should speak for the truth, good and beauty.

g. Originality of Style: In the field of literature, style should be original and a literary figure should show the newness in his creation. The centre theme of the literature such as love, hate, pity, glory, joy, sorrow, passion and emotion and so on should be presented with new style.

The above mentioned definitions tells us that literature is the special form of language, which is highly artistic, beautiful, pleasant, musical, eternal, universal, suggestive and creative. It expresses human feelings and emotions implicitly using different kinds of figures of speech.

It is difficult to find the complete and accurate definition of literature but on the various definitions by different scholar and literary figures are mentioned as follows. They help you to sketch and form the overall understanding of what literature is or the definition of literature.

T. Eagleton defines literature as it refers to a number of ways in which people relate themselves to writing. Being more specific Grace Paley says that literature, fiction, poetry, makes justice in the world. That is why it is almost always on the side of the underdog. We can say literature is an expression of the fundamental structure of beliefs and interests which reflect the particular culture of section of society into which they were born and in which they grew up. In overall understanding, it is the expression of life in words of truth and beauty: it is written record of man's spirit, of his thoughts, emotions, aspirations it is the history and mainly the only history of the human soul.

Love for Literature

Literature is life and life is expressed in art. In other words, art (literature) is life and life is expressed in art. We find all the possible happiness, success, failure, sorrow, joy, passion, perfection and so on in the field of art. From the very beginning of human civilization, literature has been playing very significant role in the sense that its full of source of satisfaction, achievement, reconciliation, and morality. People love literature because the life would be meaningless and it would be imperfect if they won't have literature. As I mentioned earlier that the fundamental features of literature that will also suggest us how the literature is significant for human life.

 Classification of Literary Texts

Literary text can be classified on the basis of various parameters. As we simply know that poetry, drama, novel and short story etc are the different forms of literature. On the basis of genres of literature they are classified as poetry, prose/essay, drama and fiction (novel, stories and short stories)

Poetry

Poetry is originally derived from the Greek word Poiein which means 'to make'. While defining the poetry the great romantic poet Wordsworth says, "The spontaneous over follow of powerful feeling: it takes its original from emotion recollected in tranquility". In simple words, poetry is defined as a text written in verse, rhyme, rhythm and with allegory but it may not be the case always. Lets discuss some of the definitions mentioned by various scholars:

Poetry is a metrical composition.

Poetry is extraordinary emotional factor.

Poetry is a process of communication.

poetry is something divine it is not like reasoning a power to be exerted according to the   determination of the will.

A poem is that species of composition, which is opposed to works of science, but has the quality of to delight and gratification.

Epic and Its Types

Epic is simply described as a type of poetry which is long, narrative, heroic poem. It has the story of historical events, folk tales, myths , great wars and the socio-political change of history. The epic describes the heroic deeds of both supernatural elements and human. The epic has national significance as well. Epic has both content and style is complicated in comparison of ballad, lyric etc.

There are mainly two types of epics. They are primary or traditional epic they are sometimes also called folk epic as well. and the secondary epic or the epic of art.

The distinction between the primary and secondary epic can be mentioned as follows:

a. The primary epic

In the primary epic, the plot and characters are familiar to the readers because they are taken from the religious or historical events. The primary epic is mainly told orally that is based on oral tradition. The melody is based on folk style. In other words, they were collected versions of what had originally been oral poems about a tribal or national hero during a warlike period.

b. The secondary epic

 In the secondary epic, the plot and characters are unfamiliar and new to the readers. The poet himself imagines the plot, characters and overall settings. Though it is new, it has the classical meters and free verse. The secondary epic has artistic values.

In another classification they are classified as serious epic and comic epic.

Ballad

Ballad is a song that tells a story. It is a simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing. Thus, ballad is any kind of light or simple song, especially one of sentimental or romantic character, having two or more stanzas all sung to the same melody. It is a form of verse adapted for singing which presents a dramatic or exciting episode in simple narrative form. It is the oldest from of poetry originally a kind of folk song in music. In English the best ballad comes from Northern England.

The major types of ballads

a. Traditional ballads/folk ballads: Traditional or folk ballads deal with violence, murder, sex girls seduce and killed. The singer is anonymous and it is simply transferred from one generation to another. Ballads also deal with the subject matter of supernatural things such as ghost, magic, witchcraft, and superstitions of the people.

b. Literary ballads: Those ballads are called literary ballads that are composed by an artist.  In the nineteenth century poets such as ST Coleridge and William Wordsworth etc composed ballads. The famous ballads in romantic age is Lyrical Ballads.

c. Broadside ballads:  Broadside ballads are associated with contemporary issues related to some current events, government decisions and persons. e.g., On the Lord Mayer and the Court of Alderman by Andrew Marvell and A Ballade of the  Scottyshe Kynge by John Skelton.

Elegy

An elegy is one of the types of poetry. It is different from other in the sense that it is sung in the lamentation of someone's death. That is to say an elegy is composed for the dedication or memory as lamenting for the demise of friends, relatives and so on. Lucidas by Milton's I Memorianm by Tennyson's and WH Audenin memory of WB Yeats etc are some of the examples of elegies.

Sonnet is simply known as fourteen lines poem. There are fixed patterns of sonnet but it depends upon the type of sonnets. There are two types of sonnets. Petrachan sonnets/ Italian sonnets, and Spenserian sonnets and Shakespearean sonnets. The term sonnet has been derived from Italian word 'sonnetto' meaning "little song".

Italian poet Petarh started writing sonnets with new way, Pattern and identity. The first part consists of eight lines rhyming is abbaabba and called the ocatave and second part constist of six lines rhyming cdcdcd/cdecde/. The second type of sonnet is called Spencerian sonnet, rhyming pattern is ababbcdccdcdee. And another type is called Shakespearean sonnet/English sonnet rhyming pattern is ababcdcdefefgg.

Lyric

Lyric word is also derived from the Greek word 'lyre'. The tendency of a lyric poet is simply to be musical and s/he also suits to music to a large extent. To be a lyric a poetic form should have some features/ qualities. They are as brevity, emotional, subjective, melody, spontaneity, Free verse or verse libre and so on. In this way lyric is understood as a short poem having the qualities of a song.

Drama

Drama is written to be performed in the theatre. Unlike other genres of literature it is performed by the actors as they play different roles given to them. There are some specific characteristics of drama which play vital role to make it distinct from other genres of literature.

They are as follows

The plot

Characters

Setting

Theme

Conflict

Dialogue

Stage

Regarding the elements of drama we simply deal with the following elements.

Characters: Characters are people who represent particular characteristics in the society. They play various roles in the play. Their action makes the plot of a drama. Characters can be either stock or imaginative.

Setting: Setting refers to the place (where the events happen or occur) and time (when the events happen). The combination of time and place constitutes environment, which has a very important role in a drama. This is the locale or the scenery of the events.

Theme: Theme is the central idea or message of the writer or the text. There is a purpose of writing any text. The writer wants to express an urgent message for specific aims. It runs from the beginning to the ending of the drama.

The Plot: The plot refers to the unique arrangement of events in a sequence that the writer has made.

Parts of the plot

Exposition: The part in which we first meet the characters, know the background and

learn what is happening now.

Foreshadowing: This part gives hints of what is to come next in the play.

Dramatic question: When we sense any problem to be solved in the drama but not sure, it is called the dramatic question.

Rising action: The part of a play including the exposition in which events start moving toward a crisis.

Crisis: A moment of tension when one or another outcome is possible. A play may have more than one crisis or several crises but only one climax. The last and most decisive crisis is the climax.

Climax: This is a moment, usually coming late in a play when tension reaches its greatest height.

Double plot: Some unusually longer plays may have more complicated plot. They may contain a double plot or subplot, which is a secondary arrangement of incidents involving not the protagonist but someone less important.

Suspense: When the sensational anxiety of the audience is made vague and mysterious it is called the suspense.

Denouement/Falling action: The subsequent event after the climax leading to a resolution is called the denouement.

Resolution or conclusion: This is the action of untying the knot of the main problem of the drama devising a solution.

Conflict: Conflict is the tension in a situation between characters or the actual opposition of characters in a drama. Conflict may be either interpersonal or intra-personal. Interpersonal conflict occurs between two or more characters and groups or society. It is physical or external but intra-personal conflict is psychological, internal and abstract or emotional. It is difficult to analyze or evaluate the intra-personal conflict.

Dialogue: Dialogue is a compulsory element of a drama. This is the speech conversation between or among characters who discuss a subject at length. The Greek-philosopher, Socrates was a strong supporter of interaction through dialogue. Plato's Socratic Dialogues are philosophical debates which employ heuristic (teaching: encourages you to learn by discovering things for yourself) and dialectical (logical w of finding the truth) method of question and answer. Dialogues are carefully constructed in a drama because-they should look like natural, real and true to the life and situation. Supra-segment; features such as pitch, tone, stress, voice, etc. and extra-linguistic elements like a gesture appearance, movement of the eyes, lips, head, hands etc. are also meaningful in addition to linguistic units.

Stage business: Any non-verbal action that engages the attention of an audience can be called the stage business.

Three unities of drama: The great philosopher Aristotle has described three unities in drama, they are: (a) Unity of time: The action of a play must take place within 24 hours (b) Unity of place: The events in a play should happen in a single location, (c) Unity of theme: A play should be either totally funny or entirely serious.

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