Text Analysis-I Week 1

TEXT ANALYSIS I:
INTRODUCTION TO
LITERARY TERMS
WHAT IS LITERATURE?
• Literature is every piece of written text that

has ever been created.
• Literature can also be defined as being all the
writing belonging to one language or
culture, as in English literature, or writing that
deals with a particular subject, such as the
literature of plants.
WHAT IS LITERATURE?
• However, literature is most commonly thought of as being

more creative in nature.
• The top dictionary definition of literature is: "Writings in
which expression and form, in connection with ideas of
permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or
essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography
and essays.«
• Literature is a reflection of life in its all aspects.
• Literature is about life, about people, about the places and

environments in which people live, work and interact with
one another, about the feelings/ emotions/ actions of
people, about the motives behind those actions.
LITERATURE
• Literature comes from the idea of storytelling.

This is a tradition almost as old as humanity
itself. As long as humans have lived, we’ve had
the need to tell stories to make sense of our
lives and the world around us, and to pass down
traditions and moral themes throughout the
generations.
Earliest forms of literature
 Cave paintings provide us with the earliest

evidence of the storytelling tradition.
 Cave paintings in France that date back 30,000
years, showing pictures of animals and telling
stories of survival.
 Humans had no written language then, so pictures
were their only means of visually communicating
their stories and representing what was happening
to them, to inform and educate others.
 In many ways, these cave paintings can be
considered the earliest form of literature.
Earliest forms of literature
 Pictures evolved into a more sophisticated form of

language in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
 These symbols were being used about 5,000 years
ago, and they represent sounds as well as symbolic
representations of the real world.
 Hieroglyphs contained messages for future
generations, and many had a religious or moral
theme.
Earliest form of literature
 By the time of the ancient Greek civilisation,

written language had developed to a point
where these stories could be written down.
 Homer’s ‘Iliad’ is thought to be the earliest
example of this.
 Written in poem form, it tells the story of Achilles
and the Trojan War, demonstrating people’s need
to be told stories about myths, legends and heroes.
 Over the centuries since, the prevalence and
popularity of literature have grown due to social and
industrial developments.
 The invention of the printing press enabled literature
to become more widely available, and improved access
to education has meant that most of the population can
read and write. This has caused literature to play a
much bigger role in human lives.
 Today we have a much greater choice of reading
material, but we still use literature for the same
purposes. The need for stories is still the same as it was
for the earliest humans, many thousands of years ago.
FUNCTIONS/ROLES
OF LITERATURE IN
THE SOCIETY
Functions/Roles of Literature in the Society
 To educate people: Literature teaches people on existing social, political and economic
systems.
 To express people’s culture: Literature like language is an element of culture. It expresses
people’s life and culture they have from one generation to another.
 To entertain people: Literature as an art form gives those entertainments that appeal to
human lives and evoke pleasure to the readers.
 To influence people in the society: Literature is also designed to influence people by
instilling in them the revolutionary ideas and different ways of thinking especially those
positive and sustainable ideas.
Functions/Roles of Literature in the Society
 To develop language: Literature uses language. Therefore, in so doing, literature develops and
improves a particular language through all four language skills, namely, listening, speaking,
reading, and writing to the readers. It also improves vocabulary and grammar.
 To liberate people: Literature also liberates people or awakens them from unfavorable
conditions of life or bad treatments in the society.
 To criticize the society: Literature as a tool for awareness criticizes the society by pointing out
the evils and other injustices in the society. When criticized, the people in the particular society
take necessary actions.
FORMS OF LITERATURE
Oral And Written Literature
Oral Literature Written Literature
 Oral literature is literature that was or is  Written literature is quite simply literature
expressed by word of mouth. that is written down.
 Oral literature sometimes referred to as folk  Written literature can be in the form of short
literature is literature that is spoken or sung stories, novels and prose.
as opposed to that which is written.
 Poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and prose
 Oral literature can be described as poems and are the five main genres of written literature.
bards.
Genre and Subgenre
What is Genre?
 Genre is the classification of a literary work by its form, content, and style
into categories such as poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction. From there,
literature can be further classified into subgenres. Each genre varies in its features
and functions and understanding what major genre category a work of literature
falls into will help to bring deeper understanding to that work.
Types of Literary Genre
 Poetry – this genre consists of writing that follows meter and rhythm for every line written.
Subgenres of poetry include epic poem, narrative, romantic, dramatic, and lyric.
- Paradise Lost by John Milton is an epic poem
 Drama – this is a type of literature that is meant to be performed in front of an audience.
Subgenres of drama include comedy, tragedy, and tragicomedy.
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare is a drama. Specifically, it is a tragedy.
 Prose – the prose genre of literature consists of complete sentences organized into paragraphs.
Prose writing is focused around telling a story consisting of characters and a plot. Prose subgenres
include fiction and non-fiction.
- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion is an example of prose. Being a memoir, it
would be considered non-fiction prose.
Types of Literary Genre
 Fiction –literature in the form of prose that describes imaginary events and people; literature created
from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation. Types of
literature in the fiction genre include the novel, short story, and novella.
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a fictional novel with a narrative plot structure.
 Nonfiction – prose writing that is informative or factual rather than fictional. It is writing that is about
real events and facts, rather than stories that have been invented. The nonfiction category is a genre in
which writing ranges from academic papers to creative works. Non-fiction is a literary genre in which the
information given is factual. It is a recount of real-life events. An example of non-fiction is a list of data
or a collection of facts. Examples of non-fiction texts are textbooks for school, an author’s biography,
and a non-fiction historical novel.
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Franke is nonfiction, given that it is nothing more than a
historical figure’s preserved diary.
What is Canon?
 A canon refers to works that are considered to be representative of a

certain genre, location, or period in history. Even though there is
some debate regarding how different authors and their works are
categorized, like many literary elements, canons solidify over time.
Examples of Canon
Some canonical works of literature, a few examples

include:
 The Odyssey by Homer is largely considered to be a
canonical work of classical literature.
 The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is widely
considered to be a classic work of medieval
literature.
 Macbeth by William Shakespeare is typically
grouped with other Renaissance literature.
 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is usually
included with Romanticism.

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TEXT ANALYSIS I:

• Literature is every piece of written text that

• However, literature is most commonly thought of as being

• Literature is a reflection of life in its all aspects.

• Literature is about life, about people, about the places and

• Literature comes from the idea of storytelling.

 Cave paintings provide us with the earliest

 Pictures evolved into a more sophisticated form of

 By the time of the ancient Greek civilisation,

 A canon refers to works that are considered to be representative of a

Some canonical works of literature, a few examples

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