Topic Areas in Literature Studies-Dinda

TOPIC AREAS IN
LITERATURE STUDIES
BY DINDA NURLAINI
LITERARY HISTORY
Literary history is the narrative of intelligible, significant

connections between literary works, related to their composition.
It includes the generic or thematic conventions or chains of
signs that writers in that language create or borrow from other
mediums of expression, earlier times or other languages.
Literary history gives an account of the role played by these
conventions or sign-chains in the generation of individual
literary works, in the process forming, extending or deviating
from the conventions that comprise the literary tradition in that
language.
POETICS AND GENRE
Literary genres refer specifically to books and writing, as

opposed to other types of media, such as movies. Many
bookstores organize large quantities of books according to
literary genres, such as classics, mysteries, and fantasy. Poetry,
fiction, nonfiction, drama, and prose are the five main genres of
literature.
A LIST OF THE FIVE PRIMARY LITERARY
GENRES AND THEIR SUBGENRES:
1. poetry, A poem is a piece of literature that makes use of
rhythmic qualities of language, such as phonesthetics, sound
symbolism, and meter to convey meaning. Here are a few
subgenres of poetry:
Epic Narrative Lyric

2. Fiction, There are several purposes for fiction, including entertaining,
inspiring, informing, and persuading the audience. Fiction writers create
stories using their imagination. Fiction writers use figurative language to
create stories of completely untrue events, characters, and settings to
stimulate the imaginations of their readers. The following are some subgenres
of fiction:
• Mystery Science fiction
• Historical fiction Dystopian
• Realism Horror
• Magical realism Fable
• Fantasy Mythology
• Romance
3. Nonfiction, Nonfiction writing aims to inform or inspire the audience by
using actual events, people, places, or facts. Students can gain a deeper
understanding of fiction texts through nonfiction texts, such as textbooks and
essays. Before writing a nonfiction piece, nonfiction authors typically
conduct extensive research. Here are a few of the subgenres of nonfiction
literature:
• Autobiography
• Biography
• Essay
4. Drama, Dramas are representations of fiction that involve dialogue and
performance. Dramatic literature includes epic poetry, lyric poetry, and
novels. The performance of a dramatic piece of literature may occur on stage
in front of a live audience or through radio, film, and television.
The following are drama subgenres:
• Tragedy
• Comedy
• Musical
• Melodrama
5. Prose, The prose is a literary genre with no formal metrical
structure. Instead of relying on rhythmic structure, as in
traditional poetry, it relies on a natural flow of speech and
ordinary grammatical structure. It involves clear, concise
paragraphs that may be fiction or nonfiction. When writing
prose, writers divide the text into paragraphs and use regular
grammar that can be serious or humorous.
LITERATURE THEORY
Literary theory is a type of literary analysis that helps readers

evaluate literature. Literary criticism is the viewpoint or lens,
that a literary critic, one who evaluates the quality of literature,
uses to reflect on the works' features. For example, if assigned to
read a story or novel, a literary critic may review the text
through the Gender Studies lens in order to analyze how the
author portrayed the role of women in the text. Sometimes,
literary critics combine lenses to review literature from multiple
perspectives.
A FEW GENERAL STATEMENTS THAT CAN SUMMARIZE
THE ELEMENTS OF LITERARY THEORY.
1. Literary criticism, does not criticize the author or the literary work.
Rather, it seeks to be an investigative review asking how something
functions within the text. Philosophy is a component in literary criticism
as we analyze life and how it is lived in comparison to a text. Life has
reverberating effects, and just like philosophers have studied those
reactions, literature evaluates those attitudes.
2. Traditional literary criticism, Within the traditional literary theory, the
critic evaluates the biographical information of the author in relation to
the text. They also consider patterns within the author's works to identify
style, structure, or tone for example. Once identified, the critic searches
for the author's meaning behind those patterns and the way the author
distinguished themselves from other writers.
3. Formalism and New Criticism, Formalism does the opposite of the

traditional literary theory, as it does not place significance on the author.
Rather, this literary theory focuses solely on the work with the idea that
everything that needs to be known about the text can be found within it.
Literary devices such as metaphor, paradox, or irony are considered when
deriving meaning.
While New Critics did not completely devalue an author's biographical
information, they did say that this information did not define the work. By
giving a text a close reading, the New Critics believed that meaning came
from the reader, and as long as that meaning could be substantiated, then
meaning could be very different from the author's.
4. Structualism and Post-Structualism, is a literary theory that focuses

on examining underlying patterns and their universality throughout
literature. For example, structuralists who examine the traits of a hero
would look at heroic figures through literature and establish these as
norms through which all other heroic characters are compared.
Post-structuralists rejected the idea of rigid patterns. Instead, they
focused on meaning fluidity. These critics were more concerned with
the reader's perceived meaning and not that of the author, regardless
of prior patterns.
In applying these theories to The Odyssey, for example, a reader
could clearly find traits of the hero Odysseus using the structuralist
theory.
CONCLUSION
Literary history is the narrative of intelligible, significant connections between

literary works, related to their composition. It includes the generic or thematic
conventions or chains of signs that writers in that language create or borrow from
other mediums of expression, earlier times or other languages. Literary history gives
an account of the role played by these conventions or sign-chains in the generation of
individual literary works, in the process forming, extending or deviating from the
conventions that comprise the literary tradition in that language.
Literary genres refer specifically to books and writing, as opposed to other types of
media, such as movies. Many bookstores organize large quantities of books according
to literary genres, such as classics, mysteries, and fantasy. Poetry, fiction, nonfiction,
drama, and prose are the five main genres of literature.
Literary theory is a type of literary analysis that helps readers evaluate literature.
there are a few general statements that can summarize the elements of literary theory,
literary critism, Traditional literary critism, formalism and new critism, and
structualism and post-structualism.
THANK YOU

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TOPIC AREAS IN

Literary history is the narrative of intelligible, significant

Literary genres refer specifically to books and writing, as

Epic Narrative Lyric

Literary theory is a type of literary analysis that helps readers

3. Formalism and New Criticism, Formalism does the opposite of the

4. Structualism and Post-Structualism, is a literary theory that focuses

Literary history is the narrative of intelligible, significant connections between

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