Literary Genres and Devices: A Comprehensive Breakdown

Literary Genres: Lyrics, Epic, and Drama

Lyrics

Lyrics deal with a subjective vision. They offer an intimate perspective, revealing the mood and experiences of the speaker. The description of real elements and the narrative of events always serve to evoke the spiritual and emotional state of the poet.

Subgenres:

• Ode: The poet expresses thoughts and feelings in a restrained and rational manner.
• Hymn: A solemn composition for song.
• Elegy: A funeral chant.
• Song: Expresses emotions of the amorous type.
• Epistle: In the form of a letter, it addresses philosophical or moral issues.
• Eclogue: An exhibition of feelings of love and excitement for nature put into the mouths of shepherds.
• Sonnet, Madrigal, Lyrical Romance

Epic

The Epic genre presents an external perspective. The author/narrator is a viewer, and the reader perceives the world indirectly through the eyes of the narrator. It is fictional, and the rightful form of discourse is narration.

In Verse:

• Epic Poem: A long narrative in verse.
• Grandiose Epic Poem: A long poem that tells of a hero's deeds. Those created in the Middle Ages are known as "Chansons de Geste."

In Prose:

• Novel: A large and complex narrative telling a story in which a central character faces reality.
• Story: A short narrative characterized by a surprise ending.

Minor Subgenres:

• Romance: An octosyllabic verse narrative.
• Apologue: A short story with a didactic moral purpose.
• Fable: A fable with animal protagonists.

Drama

Drama creates the illusion for the reader of attending the events that supposedly occur in their presence at the time of reading or representation. It utilizes dialogue.

Subgenres:

• Tragedy: It has an action defined as a conflict.
• Comedy: A conflict or behavior of everyday life from the perspective of humor. It has a happy resolution.
• Drama: A serious action leading to an unhappy end and conflict.

Literary Devices

• Alliteration: Repetition of similar sounds.
• Paronomasia: Putting words together that are similar in sound but different in meaning (paronyms).
• Antanaclasis: Placing words with the same sound but different meanings close to each other.
• Pun: The syllables of one or more words are grouped differently to have another meaning.
• Pun (2): Two groups that contradict each other contain words that are the same but in a different order and function.
• Ellipsis: Omission of one or more items that are pretty obvious.
• Asyndeton: Suppression of conjunctions between two or more elements that should carry them.
• Polysyndeton: Repetition of conjunctions.
• Epanalepsis: Repetition of one or several elements at the beginning of a verse.
• Epiphora: Repetition of one or more elements at the end of a verse.
• Anaphora: Repetition of one or more items at the beginning of several verses.
• Anadiplosis: Repetition of one or several elements at the end of a verse and the beginning of the next.
• Epanadiplosis: Repetition of the same element at the beginning and end of a verse.
• Polyptoton: Repetition of the same lexeme with different inflections.
• Derivation: Repetition of the same lexeme with different derivational morphemes.
• Enumeration: A sequence of interrelated elements.
• Gradation: An enumeration order that follows a certain pattern.
• Parallelism: Similar constructions in two or more verses.
• Chiasmus: Symmetrical arrangement of two groups of words.
• Hyperbaton: Disruption of the normal word order.
• Apostrophe: An exclamatory interpellation to a being that is not addressed in the discourse.
• Rhetorical Question: A question for which no answer is expected.
• Dilogy: Use of a word with two different meanings.
• Antithesis: Opposition of meaningfully related words.
• Oxymoron: Opposition between two words together of opposite meaning.
• Paradox: Union of two seemingly incompatible ideas.
• Litotes: Negation of the opposite of what you want to say.
• Irony: Presentation of an idea through an expression that means the opposite.
• Simile: Presentation of a comparative element with another.
• Hyperbole: Exaggeration.
• Pleonasm: Use of redundant words.
• Preterition: Pretending to ignore what is actually being said.
• Epanorthosis: Interruption of discourse for correction.
• Personification: Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects.
• Metaphor: Substitution of an element with one that keeps a relation of similarity.