Popular Narratives and Theater: Origins and Characteristics

Popular Narratives

Popular narratives are stories, often fictional, transmitted orally from generation to generation. They are brief and ingenious tales that often aim to entertain and convey a lesson.

Structure of Popular Narratives

• Narrative framework
• Initial event
• Actions
• Final location

Types of Popular Narratives

• Marvelous Stories: These stories feature fantastic and magical elements. Some of their characters are fairies, ogres, and witches.
• Anecdotes and Legends: These narratives are of an everyday nature.
• Myths: Myths present stories that mix the real and the imaginary. For example, a myth may involve a god and be protagonized by heroes.

Grammatical Elements

Determiners

Determiners are words that accompany nouns, specifying their gender and number. They can be placed before the noun (determinant) or after it (complement). Types of determiners include:

• Possessive: Indicate possession.
• Demonstrative: Indicate distance.
• Indefinite: Indicate quantity or existence in a non-specific way.
• Numeral: Indicate quantity or order precisely.
• Interrogative and Exclamative: Used for questions or exclamations.

Origins of Popular Theater

Popular theater has its roots in medieval religious dramas, particularly those related to Christmas and Easter, known as "mysteries." Carnival celebrations also fostered the development of joyful and festive theatrical forms, such as farces.

Forms of Popular Theater

• Farces: Short, comic representations, sometimes with music. Characters are easily recognizable, often exaggerated, and represent common people.
• Puppet Theater: A form of theater where characters are puppets. Federico García Lorca is a notable author of puppet plays.
• Mime: A theatrical form where the action is conveyed solely through gestures, movements, costumes, and makeup.

Pronouns

Pronouns are words used in a sentence instead of a noun to refer to people, animals, or objects. Personal pronouns are used to name ourselves (first person), the person we are talking to (second person), or other beings (third person).