Analysis of Literary Texts and Lyrical Expression

The Nature of Literary Texts

The reading of literary texts is an act of communication in which each of the components involved possesses specific characteristics. The issuer is the author, the receiver is the reader, the message is the work itself, the channel is the book, the context of the reader and author are different, and finally, the code is the language, modified for aesthetic and expressive purposes: it is literary language.

Key Characteristics of Literary Language

Although based on common language, the writer manipulates and modifies the idiom, resulting in a different, creative, and innovative language. Literary language has its own properties:

• Literary language is connotative and possesses lexical richness.
• The presence of connotation brings value to the messages.
• The poetic function and expressive connotations predominate.
• It is usually organized according to structures and recurring literary genres. The three major forms of literary expression are lyrical, narrative, and dramatic.

The Lyrical Text

The lyric is an expression of the subjectivity of the author, their feelings, and their inner world. In lyrical texts, along with the poetic function, the expressive or emotive function of language dominates. It focuses on the poet himself and the expression of the "I".

• The text has hardly any action. Lyrical themes are universal and related to the human soul and its concerns: love, death, and society.
• Lyrical texts generally take verse as a form of expression.
• A characteristic of the lyric genre is the repetition of lexical or grammatical structures with the intention of insisting on the theme and enhancing musicality or memorizing verses.
• While they may vary, poetry can contain a great concentration and abundance of rhetorical figures.

Linguistic Characteristics of Lyrical Texts

• The prevalence of a subjective vision, often in the first person, and sometimes the second person.
• Subjectivity is also reflected in linguistic traits such as exclamations and the presence of rhetorical questions.
• The lack of action and the predominance of the expression of feeling lead to nominal constructions rather than verbal ones.
• Preferably, the adjectives are subjective or explicative, with frequent use of epithets.
• Coherence is sometimes determined by the structure.

Major Poetic Genres in Modern Poetry

• Oda (Ode): A lyric poem that expresses an intense feeling from the poet, characterized by a tone of exultation.
• Elegy: A poetic composition in which the author expresses regrets about a painful event, usually the loss of a loved one.
• Satire: A poem whose aim is to criticize or ridicule social or human behaviors.