CHAPTER ONE

LITERATURE: A GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Literature is a term used to describe any written or spoken material that is considered to have an
artistic value. Broadly speaking, literature as a term is used to describe anything from creative
writing to more technical or scientific works. Basically, all works of creative imagination for
example short stories, novels whether fiction (untrue story) or nonfiction (true story), poetry and
drama, folktales, and myths fall within the realm of literature.

In fact in our day to day living (as we sing our hearts out to express our happiness or sadness, as
we compose poems, write letters, articles, essays and as we embark on artistic drawings and
paintings), we create literature of different kinds. For example, during funerals, many ethnic or
social groups in Ghana and Africa at large sing dirges, which are meant to express the love and
affection for their dead friends and relatives. Again during festivals, marriage ceremonies and
other important social functions such as outdooring ceremonies, puberty rites enstoolments and
enskinment of kings, people sing songs and enchant praise poems and appellations which appeal
to our senses of vision or sight, taste hearing and touch or feeling. To sum up, literature exists in
all cultures.
In short, it is important to note that people usually write literature to express their emotions and
ideas about life and also to tackle issues of social, cultural, political and religious relevance. By
reading literature therefore, we share these emotions and ideas. It is therefore the students’
responsibility to find out the deeper and hidden meanings that are inherent in all works of
creative imagination they may come across.

Types/Division/Genres of Literature

As an academic discipline, literature has various and varied divisions. These are prose, poetry
and drama. Prose refers to all manner of essays, short stories, novels, articles, newsletters
biographies, autobiographies etcetera. It is important for the student to note that all these
examples mentioned above can be told or written from the writers’ imagination, or they can be
deliberately written in a way that may seem to be false or untrue. In this situation the work may
be said to be a work of fiction. Examples of works or writings that are deliberately untrue include
fables, fairytales, allegories, myths and many others. Stories of this nature have great artistic
value and they are very important for us to study because in spite of the fact that they are not
true, they are intentionally written or told in way that may teach us moral lessons such as
respectfulness, obedience, sobriety, temperance, politeness, healthy inter personal relationship
and others.
There are other times when stories are told or written based on fact or a true life experience.
Stories of this nature are not told or written from the writers’ imagination but rather from fact
and other important historical happenings. They present actual and not imagined experiences of
the writer. They are therefore all together called nonfiction. Examples of stories or works that are
nonfiction include; all legendary stories about prominent persons who achieved extraordinary
victories in history. Stories about Yana Asantewaa, a famous Ashanti Queen mother who led the
Ashantis in a war against the British in the year 1900 and 1901, Okomfo Anokye, a popular and
powerful Ashanti traditional priest who is accredited with the great magical power of conjuring
the Golden stool (sika dwa kofi) from the skies and other traditional rulers such as King Tackie I
from Ga, Togbe Wenya of Ewe Land and Naa Gbewa of Northern Ghana are all nonfiction.
Other modern and complex examples include essays, articles, biographies, journals,
documentaries, histories, textbooks, materials in the archives such as old photographs, records of
important meetings and court records and all records that give us factual information. The
significance of nonfiction is that it is usually designed in a way that they may not only give us
factual information which may help us to make important decisions but they are also usually
entertaining.
Poetry on the other hand is a form of artistic writing in which the one who writes the poem (the
poet) consciously and carefully combines imagery, language, sound and rhythm to express his
feeling and emotions about a certain subject. In poetry the poet uses few words compared to
prose. Therefore each of the words in a given poem is important because they all help to enrich
the meaning the poet want to convey to his readers. Many poets are good artists, they
consciously calculate the words they are going to use in their poems and the effect each of the
words will have on the poem. To do this better, they use what we call poetic devices or literary
devices so that they use the exact words to appeal greatly to the senses of their readers without
mincing their words. Literary devices or poetic devices are the devices or tools the poet use to
create images for his reader to visualize. We shall discuss them in great detail in the chapters that
follow.
Finally, drama refers to all categories of plays or stories that are specially designed in a way that
they can be acted out or performed on stage before an audience. In our everyday living and in
our various communities, towns and villages, important social functions like puberty rites,
outdooring ceremonies, marriage ceremonies, festivals and enstoolment or enskinment
ceremonies present opportunities for us to witness drama of different types.
Teachers and students of literature should take note of the fact that this divisions is not meant to
make the subject complex and difficult. They should rather note that this division is meant to
offer writers different opportunities to say what they have to say. It is equally important to note
that this division is rather very basic because there are other more detailed and elaborate
categories that the student of literature may come across in institutions of higher learning.
Because of our level however, we shall stick to the categories mentioned herein.