People sometimes differentiate between "literature" and some popular forms

of written work. The terms "literary fiction" and "literary merit" serve to distinguish
between individual works. Critics may exclude works from the classification
"literature," for example, on the grounds of bad grammar or syntax, unbelievable or
disjointed story, or inconsistent characterization. Sometimes, a work may be
excluded based on its prevailing subject or theme: genre fiction such
as romances, crime fiction, science fiction, horror orfantasy have all been excluded
at one time or another from the literary pantheon, and depending on the dominant
mode, may or may not come back into vogue.

TYPES OF LITERATURE

Literature falls into two major types that are written and oral literature. Oral
literature includes ballads, myth, jokes, folktales and fables; whereas written source
has drama, novel, poetry and nonfictional literature.

The major types of literature across the world are English, Greek, Latin, Roman,
African, Indian, American, French, Irish, Spain, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Persian,
Sanskrit, Nepali, Russian and Canadian literature. Literature is a well-considered
form of a language that influences the minds of readers of all age. Italian
Renaissance is the age of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, whereas Greece
Literature mostly comprises the literature of Greek Gods and Goddesses.

Romanticism of Wordsworth is the literature which is oriented towards nature and

can be considered to be reverse of classicism. Today’s era of Modernism and Post
modernism uses artificial language based on ambiguity, satire and parody. Some
authors choose long composition methods to link more than one story. Moreover,
literature being a part of scientific language is also used to analyze grammar,
usage, lexis and semantics.

Kinds of Literature

Fictional Literature:

Drama: Drama is the theatrical dialogue performed on stage, it consists of 5 acts.

Tragedy, comedy and melodrama are the sub types of drama. e.g William
Shakespeare, an Elizabethan dramatist composed the plays Hamlet, Romeo and
Juliet, King Lear that are famous because of its combination of tragedy and comedy.
Problem play, farce, fantasy, monologue and comedy of manners are some kinds of
drama.

Tragedy: It is a story of the major character who faces bad luck. Tragedy, elements
of horrors and struggle usually concludes with the death of a person. The Illiad and
The Odyssey by Homer are the two famous Greek tragedies.

Comedy: The lead character overcomes the conflicts and overall look of the comedy
is full of laughter and the issues are handled very lightly.

The elements used in the comedy are romanticism, exaggeration, surprises and a
comic view of life.

Melodrama: Melodrama is a blend of two nouns - ‘melody’ and ‘drama’. It is a

musical play most popular by 1840. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is one of the most popular
plays describing cruelty of labor life. It has happy ending like comedy.

Tragicomedy: The play that begins with serious mode but has a happy ending is
tragicomedy.

Prose Literature:

History, journalism, philosophy, fiction and fantasy writings, scientific

writings, children's literature authors and writers are included in Prose Literature.

Myth:

Myths are the fairy tales with lots of adventure, magic and it lacks scientific proof.
Nursery rhymes, songs and lullabies are forms of myths that strike the interest of
children. Creative and nature myth are stories of the stars and moon. Magic tales
are wonderful tales of quests and fantasy. Hero myths are ideal heroes of
adventure.

Short story:

The small commercial fiction, true or imaginary, smaller than a novel is known as
short story. Short stories are well grouped into easy beginning, concrete theme,
some dialogs and ends with resolution. They are oral and short-lived which have
gossip, joke, fable, myth, parable, hearsay and legend.

Novel:

Novel can be based on comic, crime, detective, adventurous, romantic or political

story divided into many parts.

The major kinds of novels are:

Allegory: The symbolical story revolves around two meanings. What the writer
says directly is totally different than the conveyed meanings at the end. Political
and Historical allegory are two forms of Allegory.

Comedy: Satire is very common form in comedy novels and tries to focus on the
facts of the society and their desires.

Epistolary: The collection of letters or mails is the epistolary novels. Samuel

Richardson’s Pamela and Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrew are the few examples of
Epistolary novels.

Feminist: These types of novels are written by women writers around the world to
describe the place of women in a male dominated society. E.g Virginia Woolf’s "A
Room of one’s Own",
Gothic: Gothic fiction is the combination of both horror and romance. Melodrama
and parody were grouped in the Gothic literature in its early stages.

Ironic: Ironical novels are known for excessive use of narrative technique. It is
satire on the contemporary society about cultural, social and political issues.

Realism: The realistic novels are based on the truths of ordinary society and their
problems. It focuses on the plot, structure and the characters of the novel.

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. Some popular sub categories of romantic novels are
paranormal, erotic, suspense, multicultural and inspirational romance.

Narration: In narrative style, writer becomes the third person who narrates whole
story around the characters.

Naturalism: Naturalism is based on the theory of Darwin.

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

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

Psychological: It’s the psychological prospective of mind with a resolution.

Satire: Satirical novels criticise the contemporary society. The most famous novels
are Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954),
George Orwell's Animal Farm and Randell

Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution (1954).

Stream of Consciousness: James Joyce's stream of consciousness is all about the

thought coming up in the minds of the readers.

A novel also constitutes categories on social and political aspects like proletarian,
psychological, protest novel, government, didactic, materialist novel, allegorical
novel, novel of engagement, naturalistic novel, Marxist novel, radical novel,
revolutionary novel, anti-war novel, utopian novel, futuristic novel, anarchist novel,
problem novel, social philosophy novel, novel of ideas, problem play and
speculative novel.

Folk Tale:

Folk Tales are traditional stories that have been creating interest since ancient
times. The children and old persons like religious story, magic and superstition as
well. Fable, tall tales, cumulative, trickster and proverbs are the sub categories of
folk tales. Mythology or legend is the ancient religious stories of origin and human
civilization such as story of Robin Hood.

Types of poetry:
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings recollected in the
tranquility. Greek poetry is found in free verse and we have rhymes in the Persian
poem. Are you wondering how to write a poem, here are the followings forms of
poem?

Sonnet: Sonnet is the short poem of 14 lines grouped into Shakespearean and
Italian sonnets.

Ballad: The poems that are on the subject matter of love and sung by the poet or
group of singers as telling readers a story.

Elegy: This type of poem is the lamenting of the death of a person or his near one.
Elegy Written in Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray is one of the famous poems
marked as sad poems of the ages.

Ode: Ode is the formal and long poem serious in nature.

Allegory: Allegory is the famous form of poetry and is loved by the readers
because of its two symbolical meanings. One is the literal meaning and another is
the deep meaning.

Epic and Mock epic: Epics are the narrative poems that convey moral and culture
of that period. The Odyssey and Iliad are one of the largest philosophical epics
written by Samuel Butler. Rape of the Lock is the great mock epic focusing on the
minor incident of cutting of a curl.

Lyric: It has Greek origin that gives a melody of imagery. It is the direct appeal of a
poet to the readers about any incident or historical events. Lyrics are most of the
times similar to ode or sonnets in the form.

Nonfiction Literature:

Nonfiction Literature is opposite to fiction as it is informative and comprises the

interesting facts with analysis and illustrations.

Main types of Non- fiction literature:

Autobiography and Biography:

An autobiography is the story of the author’s own life. 'Family Life at the White
House' by Bill Clinton is focused on his life and achievements. ‘Wings of fire’ by
Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, Mein kampf of Adolph Hitler are the autobiography books on
real life.

Essay:

Generally the authors’ point of view about any particular topic in a detailed way is
an essay. Essay has simple way of narrating the main subject; therefore they
are descriptive, lengthy, subject oriented and comparative.

Different types of essay: Personal essay, expository essay type, response essay,
process essay, persuasive essay, argumentative essay, critical essay type, interview
essay, reflective essay type, evaluation, observation essay, comparison type of
essay, application essay, compare and contrast essay and narrative essay type.

Literary criticism:

It is the critical study of a piece of literature. Here critics apply different theories,
evaluation, discussion and explanation to the text or an essay to give total
judgments. Plato, Aristotle, T.S.Eliot, Saussure and Frye are some of the famous
critics.

Travel literature:

It is the narration of any tour or foreign journey with the description of the events,
dates, places, sights and author’s views. Francis Bacon’s natural philosophies is one
famous example of such kind from the middle of Seventeenth century.

Diary:

Diaries are the incidents recorded by the author without any means of publishing
them. It is the rough work of one's daily routine, happenings, memorable days or
events in their life. E.g. Anne Frank’s 'Diary of a Young Girl' was published by her
father in 1940’s; it's a story of a girl trapped during German invade Amsterdam.

Diaries consists of business letters, newsletters, weather listing. In today’s world of

Internet, writers write in blogs, forums, polls and social networking sites to convey
their thoughts. This also is a form of diary writing. Some profound forms of diaries
are online diary, travel, sleep, tagebuch, fictional, dream and death diaries.

Journal:

Journal is one of types of diaries that records infinite information. They are of
following types:

Personal: It is for personal analysis. In this journal one can write his goal, daily
thoughts, events and situations.

Academic: It is for students who do research or dissertation on particular

subjects.

Creative: Creative journals are the imaginative writing of a story, poem or

narrative.

Trade: Trade journals are used by industrial purposes where they dictate practical
information.
Dialectical: This journal is use by students to write on double column notebook.
They can write facts, experiments, and observation on the left side and right side
can be a series of thoughts and response with an end.

Newspaper:

It is a collection of daily or weekly news of politics, sports, leisure, fashion, movies

and business.

Magazine:

Magazines can be the current affairs or opinions well collected covering various
content.

Frame Narrative:

The psychoanalysis of human mind is present in a frame narrative. Here we find

another story within the main story. Some of the popular narratives are Pegasus,
Wuthering Heights, The Flying Horse, The Three Pigs, A Time to keep and the Tasha
Tudor Book of Holidays.

Outdoor literature:

Outdoor literature is the literature of adventure that gives whole exploration of an

event. Exciting moments of life such as horse riding, fishing, trekking can be a part
of literature. Some outdoor books are ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ by Mark
Twain, ‘Treasure Island’ by Robert Louis, ‘Voyages’ by Richard Hakluyt and ‘A Short
Walk in the Hindu Kush’ by Eric Newby.

Narrative form of Literature:

Today we find movies, audio and video CD’s and Cassettes that present current
literature in use. Digital poetry is an upcoming trend too. Comic
books, cartoons, ebook and Internet games are the learning methods for children.

THE NATURE OF LITERATURE

One of the most common moves made in ENGL 1102 is for students to attempt to
define what constitutes the literariness of a work, addressing those traits which
make the work literature in one form or another. In culture, we often mistakenly
refer to pamphlets or brochures as “literature”—but this is wrong. Just because a
work has been printed does not mean it is literature or literary.

Literature has, essentially, five distinguishing characteristics.

1. Literature as the foregrounding of language

 • Literature is language that foregrounds language itself, which is to say it
places a special emphasis on the words, phrases, and meanings themselves.
In most cases, this means using language to make the world strange and new
to us—especially when it is plain or common language that is used in
innovative and moving ways.

• Literature is language that could be said to “defamiliarize” the world to us

o Note: just because you do not understand something in a work or the work as a
whole, do not discount that thing. Use the Trivium (grammar-logic-rhetoric) to
comprehend the piece. First, attempt to understand the work at its most basic
linguistic level (grammar). Next, attempt to understand the patterns of meaning
(logic) in the work. Finally, attempt to understand the significance of the language
and its patterns (rhetoric).

o It is unacceptable to say any variant of the following statement: “I just don’t

understand/get it” or “This is hard.” When you say the preceding, I hear this: “I’m
lazy. I don’t care about this work and I refuse to try in this class. My academic
success is of no concern to me, thus it ought not to be any concern of yours. Please
help a student who cares.”

2. Literature as the integration of language

• Literature is language that comes together in meaningful ways with regard to

grammar, logic, and rhetoric

• Literature occurs when attention is given to the meaningful relationships

between sound and syntax, form and function
o “Nothing is innocent” is a phrase that two of my professors used frequently in
class. They believe that anything in a work (novel, story, poem, play, song, or film)
is there for a reason—even if the author has no idea what that reason might be.
They suggest that all works come together to form a kind of “organic” thing, a thing
that takes on a life of its own. The basic patterns and meanings that emerge are
important and worthy of our study.

3. Literature as fiction (not necessarily in terms of the genre)

• Literature is language that creates a fictive world with characters, conflicts,

and an implied audience
• Literature’s fictive nature makes it inherently interpretive, requiring the
audience to see beyond the surface level language and make meaning out of
the linguistic relationships that develop in the text

o “Truth”—that is the grand, sweeping notion of a universal, capital-T “TRUTH”—

does not exist. Instead, we rely on smaller “truths” or pieces and ways of
experiencing and understanding the world around us. Virtually everything has some
degree of fictiveness to it, so don’t be put off by a work that isn’t “True”—because it
might just be able communication truth in a smaller, more meaningful and complex
way than you expect. The fictional quality of work refers to its imaginative quality or
attributes, whether that quality is the expression of imagination by the author or the
invocation of imagination by the reader.

4. Literature as aesthetic object

• Literature is language that makes some kind of gesture toward an aesthetic,

that is a valuation of what is “beautiful” or perhaps “artful” in the sense that
it speaks to an audience on a level that is not simply personal but communal

• Literature can only be literature if folks come together (either in the Academy
or in the community) to deem it such

o One of the common things heard in a composition or introduction to literature

classroom is often something to the effect of “I don’t like this story/poem/play” or
“This isn’t very good.” Another bad habit students have is brown-nosing by praising
the works a professor has selected. An example of this could be in the vein of this
statement: “Flannery O’Connor’s brilliant short story, one of the best ever written,
deals with the angst a young woman feels at the society who has no place for her.”
This statement assumes you’ve read enough to make such an evaluative claim—
and you have not. Please refrain from making such asinine comments. Here’s why:
if literature is an aesthetic object, the works we read have been selected as
literature by someone (probably the professor). You are first-year college students.
Forgive me if this seems rude, but you simply haven’t read enough to know what
you like yet, much less to know what “good” literature is. After this course, when
you’ve internalized the components of literature and you’ve read a broad array of
different works, you may begin to discover your own aesthetic values. Until then,
please avoid making evaluative comments—even if those comments are praising
the works.

5. Literature as intertextual or self-reflexive construct

• Literature is language that shares some kind of intertextual relationship to

another text or one that attempts to assert (or reassert) itself as a
representative work with aesthetic and ideological value

• Literature exists insofar as it has some meaningful relationship to world of its

readers. If that relationship does not exist, then the work cannot (and will
never be) literature

o Literature, like life, does not occur in a vacuum. When a writer sits down to pen a
work, he or she is automatically going to be influenced by everything that he/she
has read, learned, and experienced. In ENGL 1101, we call this the “perceptual
world”—which is a nice way of referring to the way we process new data via
experiences. Writers will be influenced in ways that they can never imagine, and
sometimes you’ll notice these influences. Other times, you will not notice—but you
should always be looking for the ways in which a work is connected to some other
work (implicitly or explicitly) and how that work is saying something about its
cultural context(s). My philosophy is that it is nice if you can read a story/poem and
tell me about the structural elements at work. However, this is—for me—a pointless
exercise because it occurs in a kind of academic vacuum. If you know what the
parts of a story are, but you have no clue what those parts and their relations mean
in a larger context, then who cares? Honestly: who cares? Your job as a critic is to
understand how a work of literature is connected to the rest of the world in a
meaningful way. All other exercises are simply parlor tricks designed to make your
teachers feel good.

Final thoughts:
Literature is tough to define, but keeping these five points about the nature(s) of
literature will enable you to begin to theorize what makes something valuable.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE

The study of literature allows people to develop new ideas and ethical
standpoints, and can help individuals to present themselves as
educated members of society. Studying literature can be an
enriching, eye-opening experience.

Philosophical Movements

English literature allows us to understand the philosophical movements and ideas

that permeated a particular culture at a particular time. For example, Mary Shelley's
"Frankenstein" shows us the ambivalence the British felt toward empiricism.

Different Viewpoints

English literature gives us a new way of thinking about the world. Mary
Wollstonecraft, for instance, presents the idea that women should not be
subservient to men, giving birth to modern feminist theory.

Aesthetic Validation

Literature is a form of art; it is capable of bringing about differing emotions and a

general sense of "spiritual" well-being. Poets William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley
write about this power of poetry in "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads" and "A Defense
of Poetry," respectively.

Understanding Modern Culture

By following the histories presented throughout English literature, it is possible to

understand how contemporary Western culture has developed into what it is today.

Vocabulary
 Reading new words and new phrases can increase anyone's lexicon. Literature is
also crucial to learning stylistic and artistic conventions for communication and
writing.

Becoming "Cultured"

There is a certain satisfaction in understanding literature and being able to pinpoint

references to it in contemporary culture. While it's not highly important, it is always
fun to shock to others by making a clean sweep of the "English Authors" category in
"Jeopardy."