INTRODUCTION TO LITERATURE
Literature – is the artistic expression of people‘s ideas which reflect social realities done through the use of language either in written or spoken.
OR
Is a product of human imagination employing language creativity to reflect human realities.
The key terms in defining literature includes;
. Creativeness
. Imagination
. Language
TYPES OF LITERATURE
. Oral literature
. Written literature
ORAL LITERATURE
It is normally handled from one generation to the other through narrations, songs, poems, stories.
TYPES OF ORAL LITERATURE
LEGEND (Stories of historical truth)
-They deal with accounts of personally and events that are considered to be so memorable and deserved to be talked again and again.
MYTHS
-These are viewed as religious stories because they explain the organ of people, customs and tradition example gods, GCD.
FABLES
-These are short stories based on incurable lessons and main characters are animals. E.g.: hares, rat, elephant, bears etc.
RIDDLES
-These puzzling questions, statements or description intended to make the audience use their brain/mind.They require two people or two groups to be operated.
PROVERBS
-These are short well known saying that states a general truth or give advice.They are most widely respected genres of African oral literature.
WRITTEN LITERATURE
Is a type of literature through writings.
Types of written literature
-
Novels
-
Plays and short stories
-
Poetry
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NOVEL
Is a book written under serious imagination of a certain issue reflecting social realities.The writer creates imagination through characters, themes, symbols etc.
PLAY
Is the literary work which is written in form of conversation or dialogue.The play writer uses actors and actress to convey messages.
POETRY
Poetry refers to the imaginative expression of strong feelings about a certain issue/ topic under consideration.eg. The wonderful surgeon.
FUNCTIONS OF LITERATURE
-To educate the society
-To entertain the society
-May improve the language
PARTS OF LITERATURE
FORM
– Character
– Setting
– Plot
– Style/Technique
– Language
– Figures of speech
CONTENT
– Theme
– Message
– Conflicts
– Philosophy
– Relevance
1. FORM
A. FIGURES OF SPEECH
These are devices used in literary works in order to add creativity in the history by using language.
They are meant to entertain, educate and make good presentation of the work of literature.
Figures of speech includes;-
– Similes
– Metaphors
– Hyperbole
– Personification
– Proverbs
– Repetition
SIMILES
Is a device which compares two things using conjunctions like “as” or “like“
E.g. Like father like son, as black as coal, he is like a lion in battle.
METAPHOR
Is a literary device which compares two things without using conjunctions.
E.g. She is a lioness, among her people he has a heart of stone,you are a lazy rat, she looked flower beautiful with a snow white dress.
HYPERBOLE
This is a language device which is used to exaggerate facts beyond their realities.
E.g. He called you a thousand of times, she cried an ocean of tears
PERSONIFICATION
Literary device which gives ability to the inanimate.
E.g. Cats made a plan of taking over the world
REPETITION
Is a language device which uses the repetition of words or sentences for making emphasis on a particular point.
E.g. they attended a harsh meeting I took large gulps of water.
PROVERBS (Refer to types of literature)
B. SETTING
Refers to geographical location of the story time period or daily lifestyle of the characters.
Types of settings
– Geographical
– Historical
– Social
Geographical setting
It can be in a specific country town place
Historical setting
Refers to time when the story was made includes background in a particular time about something the author wants to explain about
e.g. century you etc
Social setting
Includes social activities or customs and traditions e.g. marriage
C. PLOT
-This is the serial arrangement of events or ideas.It is the arrangement of all events in the story.
-Plot must have the beginning middle and end.
-Plot of dramas is divided into “acts” and “scenes”.
D. STYLE AND TECHNIQUE
Includes the following;-
Point of view
This is when a writer tells a story
–
First person pronoun point of view
This indicates that the main character is telling a story.
–Third personal pronoun point of view
This directs that the narrator is telling the story.
E. CHARACTERIZATION
-This is the method of conveying information about characters.
-Character is a person or sometime animals who take part in the story.
Types of characters
-Main character is the person who plays a large part in the story.
-Minor character is the person who helps a main character to develop the story.
. Protagonist is the main character.
. Antagonist is the minor character that opposes the main character.
Foreshadowing
Is a style or technique which explains about what will happen later in the story.
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Flashback
Is a style which explains about what happened before in the story.
2. CONTENT
A. THEME
-A Theme refers to the central topic/topics which are meant to be known and taken as subjects of learning presented by the writer to the audience.
-Themes can reflect life, reality experience and society as a whole.
B. CONFLICTS
These are misunderstandings among characters in the story.
Types of conflicts
. Internal conflicts
. External conflicts
Internal conflicts
This is the conflict within a person (character).
External conflicts
Refers to misunderstanding between or among characters. Misunderstanding between characters can be;
-Between two characters
-Group against group
-Group against person
C. MESSAGES
-These are lessons and teachings we get in the story.
-These lessons are mostly obtained from themes.