Understanding Literary Genres: Lyric, Dramatic, and Narrative

Lyric Text

In lyric texts, the expressive function predominates. The poet does not narrate events or describe reality, but is focused on the expression of emotions produced by the world around them. Textual form is based on feedback and suggestions, utilizing the common writer's perspective, typically in the first person.

Lyrical texts lack traditional action; there is no succession of space or time. Topics are related to the nature of human beings: love, death, loneliness, the birth of life, social injustice, and more.

The language is based on stylistic flourishes and reiteration to insist on the subject matter, producing specific rhythmic effects through syllable count, rhyme, pauses, and accents.

Prose and Theatrical Texts

In theatrical texts, actions come to life through characters representing the story to the public. The theatrical text consists of the following:

• Dramatic Action: The structure is usually divided into acts, which are organized into scenes. The internal structure is typically organized into a beginning, middle, and ending.
• Characters: Similar to those in the narrative genre, but they reveal themselves through what they say and do, as there is no narrative voice.
• Dialogues: These serve several functions: developing the plot, completing the characterization, and providing information about space and time.
• Stage Directions (Acotaciones): Indications written by the author for the director to facilitate the staging of the play.

Narrative Texts

Narrative text involves telling a story, real or fictitious, placed in a specific space and time. To adopt a narrative discourse, it is fundamental that the story is credible and believable.

The narrator is one of the most important elements of the narrative and can take different perspectives:

• Omniscient: Knows everything and speaks in the third person.
• Observer: Outside the story, hears and sees what the characters do, but does not know their thoughts.
• Witness: A spectator of events, using the third person.
• Protagonist: Tells their own story in the first person.
• Secondary Character: Accounts for events that happen to the protagonists.
• Second Person: The narrator directs the story to themselves as a split character.

Among the elements that should appear in the narrative are the characters, space, and time. These allow the author to further develop the expressive and aesthetic possibilities of the story.

Forms of Utterance

• Narration: The verbal style prevails. The story consists of actions and events that occur successively, constituting the narrative action.
• Dialogue: Shows talks held between characters. It is inserted into the narrative in different ways: direct, indirect, and free indirect style.
• Description: Represents reality, including people, animals, objects, landscapes, and feelings. The nominal style prevails, characterized by an abundance of nouns, adjectives, and descriptive attributes.