Essential Characteristics of Lyric and Narrative Literary Genres

The Lyric Genre: Expression of Moods

The lyric genre focuses on imitating moods and expressing intense personal feelings.

Key Characteristics of Lyrical Texts

• Provides highly subjective speech, resulting from internalization, where the poetic voice plays the predominant role.
• Does not develop a story; its content is the expression of feelings, emotions, and ideas through a fictional poetic voice, which should not be identified with the author.
• Usually focuses on a single aspect and is generally short, allowing for the accumulation of expressive resources.
• Typically presented in verse, though works of lyrical prose, known as prose poetry, also exist.

The Poetic Self and Recipient ('You')

The poetic self may be expressed through explicit personal pronouns (I, me), possessive adjectives (my, mine), or verbs (e.g., love, felt).

The recipient (the poetic you) may appear using the same explicit resources (you, your, yours) and can even be mentioned explicitly through a vocative.

Even when the explicit 'you' is absent, it is always possible to identify an implied poetic self, which enables the expression directed toward the recipient.

The Narrative Genre: Storytelling and Structure

The narrative genre includes texts that recount stories through a narrator.

Key Characteristics of Narrative Texts

• Develops a story—a sequence of actions—where the referential function dominates, focusing on external events rather than internal feelings.
• The story is told by a narrator who, like the events described, belongs to the world of fiction.
• The predominant mode of speech is prose, but verse has also been used occasionally for storytelling (in the epic genre, for example).

Analyzing Narrative Texts: History and Discourse

The analysis of narrative texts must consider two fundamental levels:

1. History: What is told (the chronological sequence of events).
2. Discourse: The manner in which it is told (the presentation and structure).

Level 1: History (What is Told)

History consists of a sequence of actions that follow a logical and chronological order (story time), performed by characters within a specific time and space.

Level 2: Discourse (How it is Told)

Discourse is how the story is presented, and it may not respect the chronological order of the history. For example, a detective story might begin with a murder and then use flashbacks to explain the causes.

Elements of History Analysis

The analysis of the History level includes the characterization of four key elements: action, characters, time, and space.

• Characters: Classified as protagonists or secondary based on their role. Characters perform actions to achieve objectives. Other characters involved operate as allies (if they help) or adversaries (if they hinder the achievement of these objectives).
• Space: Space (which can be unique or varied, open or closed, rural or urban, realistic or fantastic) often determines the characters' actions.
• Time: Time can range from a few hours or minutes (in a short story) to many years (covering the life of a character or several generations).