Ingles Literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written work, although some scholars believe that literature can also be oral. It is said to have started around 2000 BC with the Epic of Gilgamesh. An epic poem, which narrates the story of, evidently, Gilgamesh. This is the earliest recorded text of literature. However it is possible that there was an even earlier form of literature, since writing was invented in 3200Bc. This leaves a gargantuan gap in which many works were surly written but lost. Literature has been revolutionized throughout the years it has come a long way from texts written in parchment, or even stone, to books that are massively printed and distributed all around the world. However one thing stays constant in literature, no matter the author, the language, the composition; it always transmits a message. That is what makes literature so brilliant.

As literature has undertaken the process of evolution it has divided itself into many genres such as: fiction, drama, nonfiction and poetry. These four “branches” will be thoroughly explained and analyzed here.


Fiction

The oeuvres that fall into this category are works that deal with imaginary events. These compositions vary in length and complexity making different branches within the genre of fiction. Inside fiction there can be tall tales, legends, myths, folk tales, short stories, novels and novellas.

Myths are stories, which are often sacred, that often tell of how something was created. They explained the world before there was science. 
 Legends are very similar to myths, but not quite. Legends also tell of impossible events, but they con be localized both in time and place.

Tall tales: They are true stories exaggerated to the point of fiction. They are most of the times humorous. 
Folk tales are oral, traditional and posses multigenerational transmission. 
Short stories are brief writings which usually only have one conflict.

Novels, on the other hand, are long writings which have many conflicts interwoven inside of them. 
Novellas are the intermediate between novels and short stories; lengthwise they are neither long as a novel nor as succinct as short stories. They also involve more conflicts than a short story but fewer than a novel. 
Some popular fiction writers are; Shakespeare, J.R.R Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, etc.

All the previously mentioned writers normally use a format to write the plot of the story. The plot of the story are all the events that compose a story and, according to Freytag, it is normally organized like so: E
xposition: Presentation of characters, setting, and in some cases back-stories. Rising action: Here, a series of events occur that add both suspense and tension to the story, it gives you a few small clues about how the story might end. Climax: It is the point of absolute suspense in a work of art. It is also a turning point in the story.

Falling action: This leads to the resolution, the conflict starts to unravel. Resolution: The conflict is solved
 hat is a basic outline on the structure of a story. There are, of course, variants in the previous format. Some writers omit the resolution to leave an open ending. Other writers exclude not only the resolution, but also the falling action. This leaves a reader at the edge of their seat which is basically why the use this alternative structure. It creates a different mood. Other factors that mold the novel, novella or short story are characters, settings, themes, flashbacks, points of view, and, clearly, the conflict. Each fictional work of art has its very own factors, or so one would hope. This makes the composition unique as it paints characters that we fall in love with, settings that unsettle us, themes that are new, flashbacks that are artfully painted, a narrators point of view that can a work up close and personal and conflicts that cunningly twist our insides. But, what are all of those things? 
A character: it is a person, animal or even an object that appears in the story and guide the audience through the plot. It can be an antagonist character, a mayor character, a minor character or a main character. An antagonist character is the one who fights the main character and antagonizes him/her. A mayor character has the story’s plot spiral around him. Characters can be divided into two types; mayor and minor. Minor characters tend to have a small roll in the story therefor having little effect on the story’s development. Mayor characters are quite the opposite. They have a vast effect on the story and how it develops. A setting: It’s where the story occurs. 
A theme: NOT to be confused with topic, a theme is central part of what the story is about. It can be summed up in one word. (i.e. luck, danger, death)
Theme may sometimes be hard to identify since a story can talk about many, many things. Important things that might clue you in are; title, plot, character, setting and symbolism. All of the previous are self explanatory, except for

Symbolism. Symbolism is when there is, pardon the redundancy, a symbol. A symbol is something that suggest more than what it means. So symbolism is when writers implement a symbol in their composing. Writers opt for its use because it’s a subtle way to convey their beliefs without blatantly saying them.

A flashback: It’s an interruption in the time line of a story to go back to the past. It usually provides the lectors with backstories. 
The point of view: It is the position that a narrator (the person who tells the story) occupies in the story. It can be a first person point of view, a third person point of view, and an omniscient narrator and, rarely used, in second person point of view. The first person point of view is when the narrator is a character in
the story. Said narrator uses the pronoun I. If employing first person point of view, the narrator will reveal all of its thoughts. Choosing to write in first point of view gives your audience a hindrance since it only allows them to see what your character sees so its not completely reliable information. This does not happen with an omniscient narrator who has often been compered to a God. He sees all he knows all. It uses the pronouns he and she.

The third person point of view uses he and she as well but this form of narrating is a bit more limiting than an omniscient narrator. This narrator tends to stick to the thoughts of only one person. 
The conflict: The conflict is the problem with which the protagonist grapples. It can either be internal or external. An internal conflict is a conflict, which occurs within the character himself. An external conflict is a force with which the character must fight. It can happen for many reasons. Mostly it is to convert a dull novel into a fetching one. A conflict is resolved in the falling action, normally. It

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